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For Sadé DuBoise BFA‘24, opportunity knocks

by Marketing and Communications,

Collective Mourn

The work of Sadé DuBoise BFA‘24 seems to be popping up everywhere.  

Sade DuBoise
Sadé DuBoise ’24

OPB’s Oregon Art Beat featured DuBoise for painting “The Collective Mourn,” (highlighted above), a piece she created for the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art as a Black Lives Matter Artist grantee. The Portland Art Museum recently acquired that painting and it will be exhibited in June. 

The Pacific Northwest College of Art student was also among three artists selected to design an original bottle label for Argyle Winery’s annual three-bottle Art of Sparkling set. The designs will be introduced to the public at a First Thursday event Nov. 3.

Internships at OPB, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and PNCA — the latter of which, the Art of Sparkling internship, led to another internship at CCL Label, a Portland labeling company — opened doors to many opportunities. 

DuBoise recently discussed her work with PNCA’s Office of Career Design for a Q&A in their newsletter, part of which is excerpted here:

Q: How are these experiences helping your career?

You make art as a student, but then how do you get it out into the professional world? How do you sell your work? How do you market yourself? My internships allowed me to take that step.

Being able to do my Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art exhibition led to talking with Nike and Brennan Scarlett, who is a linebacker for the Miami Dolphins. It’s just crazy, the amount of networking that these internships have allowed me to do. Being a PNCA student, you’re able to do First Thursdays and different opportunities, too.

I think all of those experiences have led to the achievement of my work being acquired by the Portland Art Museum. 

Q: The Art of Sparkling internship, which featured your work along with Moss Mata ’23 and Madz Thomson ’23, ends soon. How do you feel about it? 

I’m not only proud of the energy I put into this opportunity and the wine label that resulted, but of my entire cohort, for creating one of the most visually exciting bottling labels from our individually unique experiences with Argyle. I look forward to leveraging my personal experience of experimentation from this opportunity into others, such as an artist residency in the summer of 2023. 

Q: What advice would you give to other students who want to be professional studio artists?

I suggest that students get into different internship opportunities or projects. Reach out to different professors and staff. They want us to be successful.

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