cusses his or her work and is particularly interested in the ambiguity and complexities that an artist’s work evokes. “This is the kind of inquiry that art, literature and music excel at.” “Artists are very informed and educated and have given their work a great deal of thought,” she says. “Part of my job is to research what interests artists and how they articulate it. I do this for myself and to share it with the community.” “Each artist has serious interests – animal, human, memory, drama, small incidents that happen. They are people who investigate things.”
“ Look, read, discuss — I think that is the way people learn.”
—Terri Hopkins
A tradition of excellence The Art Gym has received generous grants from leading foundations, including the Ford Family Foundation, the Collins Foundation and the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation, among many others. It has also garnered support from the Regional Arts and Cultural Council, the Oregon Arts Commission and Oregon Cultural Trust. The Friends of The Art Gym, individuals who admire what The Art Gym offers, provide crucial ongoing support. Thanks to Terri’s keen sense of the merit of an artist’s body of work, The Art Gym has won widespread acclaim, including the Governor’s Award in 2005. She collaborates with artists, writers, guest curators, and other Northwest arts organizations. Exhibitions have toured to other museums such as the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, the Schneider Museum of Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon and the Museum of Northwest Art in Bellingham, Washington. The $1 million challenge grant issued by the Eichholz Foundation is yet another demonstration of the esteem in which Terri’s long career is held. When she closes the door to The Art Gym this December, she will do it knowing that what she has so carefully built over more than three decades will continue to thrive under a new director/curator. MU
Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation Issues $1 million Challenge Grant to Endow Director/Curator Position The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation, established in 2011 by Mercedes Eichholz on behalf of herself and her late husband to support the arts, has issued a $1 million challenge grant to endow the position of director/curator of The Art Gym and Belluschi Pavilion. The challenge grant, which must be completed by 2018, is accompanied by a $250,000 outright grant to support the position. The Eichholz family has long supported the arts. The late Mercedes Eichholz was a trustee of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 1985 and board president from 2001 to 2003. When she resided in Portland decades ago, she made the acquaintance of Pietro Belluschi, architect of the Lake Oswego home that is now the Belluschi Pavilion at Marylhurst University. Her son, Michael Davidson, a Portland-based tax consultant who serves on the Eichholz Foundation board of trustees, has taught classes on business to aspiring artists at Marylhurst for years. He became acquainted with Terri Hopkins and The Art Gym during this time. “The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation is excited to provide the challenge to fund in perpetuity the director/curator position for The Art Gym/Belluschi Pavilion,” says Davidson. “It is our hope that this grant will honor Terri Hopkins’ life’s work and will allow The Art Gym to continue to be a powerful force in the arts of Portland and the entire Pacific Northwest.” Terri Hopkins is delighted about the challenge grant. “I am beyond grateful to Michael Davidson and all the trustees of the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation for allowing the work I have done championing artists of our region to continue.” For more information about the challenge grant or to make a contribution, please call Sandy Pittenger in the Office of University Advancement at 503.699.6251.
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