Sarah’s Office
117L Cramer Hall
Hours: 9-5 Monday through Friday
Established as a teaching gallery in February 2016, Sarah’s Office’s mission is to bring people together for creative and open-ended conversations inspired by experiences with original works of art and other primary sources.
Objectives:
- encourage learning and experimentation
- explore how creativity and playfulness serve as tools for understanding
- work directly with artists in the community
- encourage diverse forms of expression
- challenge perceptions
- celebrate community engagement with PSU learning communities
- connect diverse people through creative work related the University Studies Learning Goals
Exhibitions:
Diana Marcela Cuartas: La Amistad – Open Studio
Artist in Residence – Creativity in Action with Michelle Swinehart and Sarah Newlands
February 9 -June 11, 2025
This open studio presents a selection of Diana Marcela Cuartas’ projects, including photography, publishing, and installation-based work. Often guided by a collaborative spirit that prioritizes amistad (friendship), connection, and the ideas that emerge through shared time with others, Diana’s projects create spaces where people can slow down, think together, ask questions, and have fun as a way to weave community and a sense of belonging.
Also on view is Still Life with Reynolds, part of an installation that revisits the history of the Reynolds Aluminum Plant and its impact on the region. Once the primary employer in Fairview, Gresham, and Troutdale, the plant operated from 1941 until the early 2000s at the confluence of the Sandy and Columbia Rivers—where an Amazon warehouse now stands. Its fluoride emissions led to the designation of a Superfund site, now the Sandy River Delta Park. Developed in collaboration with mothers whose children attend the Reynolds School District, this project involved informal gatherings and potlucks, where participants wrapped household objects in aluminum foil while discussing local history. The result is a metaphorical reflection on how corporations can shape landscapes, histories, and communities.
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Diana Marcela Cuartas is a Colombian artist, educator, and cultural worker transplanted to Portland in 2019. Her practice blends visual research, popular culture analysis, and participatory learning, taking shape through publications, workshops, gatherings, and curatorial projects as a framework to explore the relationships between a place and those who inhabit it.
Before moving to the U.S., Diana was Head of Public Programs at Espacio Odeón, an interdisciplinary arts organization in Bogotá, Colombia. She was also part of the team at lugar a dudas, an art space in Cali focused on contemporary global practices. As an independent researcher, she has participated in artist residencies at La Usurpadora (Colombia), Bisagra (Perú), Tlatelolco Central (México), and Beta-Local (Puerto Rico), exploring various popular culture phenomena.
In 2021, she co-founded El Conocimiento Migrante, an initiative created with immigrant families and local artists in Portland. This project fosters artistic experimentation and cultural exchange within migrant communities, serving as a space for joy, knowledge-sharing, and creative collaboration. Diana holds an MFA in Art and Social Practice from Portland State University (2023).
Laura Glazer: Repeat Admirer
Every week since 1996 there has been a new arrangement of flowers at Portland’s Central Library, and Laura Glazer has been photographing them since 2018. The arrangements are designed by Kim Foren of Geranium Lake and are a permanent gift from the Herbert Templeton Foundation in memory of Ruth Roberts Templeton. Photographs from this series are exhibited in this office exhibition. Laura has served as the artist-in-residence for three Freshman Inquiry Work of Art classes during the 2023-24 academic year.
February 1 -June 10, 2024
Past Exhibitions:
Heather Watkins: Throughlines
Throughlines includes Heather Watkins: Soundings, a braille display for blind and low vision visitors. This project was supported with grants from PSU’s Center for Engaged Research (CERA), and Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.
October 18, 2022 – May 26, 2023
Dao Strom’s we breathe & breathing is an a|synchronous music, every body needs the air
March 31 – June 10, 2022
This project was part of a PSU Campus Art Collection Education & Accessibility Initiative which was partially funded by a Ford Family Foundation Exhibition and Documentation Support Grant.
Jessica Jackson Hutchins: Tools for Refusal
January 11 – March 20, 2022
This project was part of a PSU Campus Art Collection Education & Accessibility Initiative which was partially funded by a Ford Family Foundation Exhibition and Documentation Support Grant.
Mapping a Dream: Work by Ruth Van Order
January 6, 2020 – November 5, 2021
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mapping a Dream remained on display until PSU and University Studies re-opened for in-person learning through Fall 2021!
Cynthia Lahti: The Me That I Can’t See
October 3 – December 12, 2019
YELL AT AT GLASS OF WATER!
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School Fifth Graders and PSU Freshmen
April 19- July 31, 2019
MENACE
Richard Ross and Deb Arthur
January 23 through April 12, 2019
Roz Crews: Imagine There’s a Snake in Every Painting
September- December 2017
Larry Supnet Seven Paintings and a Lightbox
January-August 2017
matter(s)
February 2016-February 2017
Culled together to describe a decisive, mutually bold and restrained threshold
Beyond the spaces of prescribed perception, confronted in the margins, frames of reference transpose, and change when crossed.
Without the ism
Line, texture, and color pit raw viscerality against cool formal integrity.
Untethered
Curated by Chandra Glaeseman and Sarah Wolf Newlands and supported in part by Project Grow
Project Grow
Project Grow is a non-profit fine art studio, gallery, and urban farm located in Northeast that provides opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities.
Project Grow Mission
To provide an inclusive culture and space where people with and without disabilities can experience choice, respect, the pursuit of passions, and a connection with their food source, land, and community
Albertina Kerr
Albertina Kerr strengthens Oregon families and communities by helping children and adults with developmental disabilities and mental health challenges, empowering them to live richer lives.