Jordan Schnitzer, The Oregon Collector Who Loves To Share Art

In Portland, Oregon, culture often takes the form of live music performances, public protests, rich LGBTQIA+ nightlife, or the rising silhouette of Mount Hood against the horizon. However, beneath the city’s material skyline is a quieter scaffolding: the art and philanthropy of Jordan Schnitzer, a West Coast businessman whose real estate portfolio is valued in the billions.

Jordan Schnitzer’s story isn’t just about collecting, it’s also one of sharing. Over the years, he’s helped mount more than 180 exhibitions across 130 museums, supported institutions with tens of millions in gifts, and now brings a new landmark show to the Portland Art Museum. And yet, Schnitzer himself insists that art is not about ownership or legacy, but “chance encounters.” With a portfolio of cultural programs that range from Portland to Virginia Beach, The Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, established in 1997, seeks to be a generator of access, and a source of cultural education for as many people as possible. “The joy of sharing,” he tells me, as we sat down for an exclusive interview at the still under construction Mark Rothko’s pavilion of the Portland Art Museum (PAM), “is an even stronger emotion than the thrill of collecting.”

“Global Icons, Local Spotlight: Contemporary Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer” at PAM is a sprawling new exhibition of 65 works featuring some of the most influential artists of the 20th century, like Jasper Johns, Helen Frankenthaler, Ellsworth Kelly, and Robert Rauschenberg, presented alongside a large number of contemporary artists such as Nick Cave, Jenny Holzer, Mickalene Thomas, and Hank Willis Thomas. Many will be exhibited for the first time in Portland.

The Foundation helps to manifest Schnitzer’s dream of “art as a public good,” with one of the most active art-lending programs in the United States. It manages 22,000 works by over 1,500 artists, and these numbers made him one of the ArtNews Top 200 collectors in the world. The Foundation’s exhibition ‘lending program’ is a model of culture sharing that many collectors seek to emulate: by bringing prints and multiples, which are typically more affordable kinds of artworks to acquire and transport, to institutions that lack blockbuster collections of their own – Schnitzer has tapped into an opportunity: by circulating his growing collection of prints and other series of artworks, he lowers barriers to access to influential artists, while elevating the visibility of emerging artists whose works resonate in regional museums that rarely see such pieces.

Schnitzer’s philanthropy defies the stereotype of the aloof collector. He refuses to own art, although technically he does, and thinks of himself more like a facilitator of encounters: be it between art and audience, museum and community, past and present. In Schnitzer’s world, legacy is not measured in the quantity of artworks owned, but in their exposure: how many students, how many families, how many communities encountered art that might otherwise have remained in crates. His foundation has provided millions for busing k-12 programs, docents, and community outreach programs, all in the service of making “art for everyone.” Today, the foundation operates the state’s largest private, nonprofit art program, including employing nearly 20 art professionals.

Schnitzer’s philanthropy also extends far beyond art. This spring, he and the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation endowed the University of Oregon’s College of Arts and Sciences with an unprecedented $25 million gift—its largest single donation to date, to establish the Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages. The move underwrites expanded faculty, student fellowships, global programming, and the Center for Global Futures. Earlier, he pledged $10 million to Portland State University’s School of Art and Design: half to build a new home for the renamed Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design, and the rest to fortify the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU and enhance campus identity through sculpture and lighting.

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At Portland State University, the impact of Schnitzer’s philanthropy is already taking shape as its latest exhibition at Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU spotlights Portland-based Seneca artist Marie Watt, whose work weaves together Native oral traditions, personal memory, and pop culture. Originally debuting in 2022, the exhibition now includes new works created over the past three years, such as Forest Shifts Light (2025), a newly commissioned “jingle cloud” conceived for PSU’s showcase. The exhibition carries special resonance locally, not only because it underscores Schnitzer’s investment in one of Portland’s downtown institutions in hopes to revitalize the neighborhood, but also because it celebrates Watt’s deep roots in the Pacific Northwest, where she has lived and created for nearly three decades.

Below is the rest of our conversation, as Schnitzer shares what drives his desire to collect art, how Portland can overcome its crises, and what is the most pressing question on his mind right now.

You started collecting art at 14. What was it about that first piece that hooked you emotionally?

Jordan Schnitzer: The man who made it, Louis Bunce, was charismatic, a real raconteur in tweed. I paid $60 with a family discount. My room was next to my parents’; I knew if I missed a payment, my mother would come for the print. That piece is still with me.

You’ve built an immense private collection, yet choose to share it widely. What does generosity through art mean to you?

JS: After law school, I joined the University of Oregon Museum of Art Council, a statewide board. It was only the second board I’d ever been asked to join, and it taught me so much about civic responsibility. A few years later, I’d started collecting prints and multiples. The museum’s director at the time, David Robertson, asked if we could do an exhibition. I said sure—most of the pieces were in storage anyway.

When I saw 56 of them on the museum walls, I was blown away. But the real magic happened when visitors walked in. They smiled, frowned, puzzled, and reacted. That’s when I realized: as much joy as collecting gives me, the joy of sharing art is even greater.

Growing up in the Northwest, we see beauty every day—Mount Hood, the Willamette, endless trees. But for many people, museums feel like they’re “for someone else.” I thought: if I can build a significant collection of prints and multiples and lend them to regional and university museums, maybe one visit at a time people will realize: “This isn’t for someone else. This is for me, too.”

First piece of art you’d grab in a fire?

JS: The ceramic pieces my kids made when they were little.

You’ve curated over 180 exhibitions. Have you seen one truly shift a community?

JS: Absolutely. We had an exhibition of Kara Walker, one of the preeminent Black artists of our time. It traveled the country, and when it reached the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art—just three miles from the 1619 landing site where the first enslaved Africans arrived—it became transformative.

The museum reached out about building community programs. I said, “Call the NAACP, call Black legislators, form an advisory group.” They did. At the opening, 500 people came, half of them people of color. Later, the curator wrote to me: “Jordan, this exhibition did more to integrate our museum than anything in our 80-year history.” That’s stayed with me.

Your foundation emphasizes arts education for K-12. What do kids understand about art that adults often forget?

JS: Children come with fewer “mosaic pieces” of life experience. They approach art wide-eyed, curious, uninhibited. I’ve watched them at Warhol shows, sketching animals on the floor during his Endangered Species series. They engage with total openness.

If I had a magic wand, I’d wave away hunger and suffering first. But then I’d wave so that every child felt hope, inspiration, and permission to dream through art. That’s why we fund buses, outreach, and education. I know these exhibitions leave kids forever changed.

You’ve purposefully included Native communities in exhibitions. Why does representation matter so deeply?

JS: We brought Native students to see Warhol alongside works by Rick Bartow and Joe Feddersen. Seeing their own artists on the wall tells kids, and communities, that they belong. That changes everything.

You juggle roles as father, collector, developer, and philanthropist. Which requires the most vulnerability?

JS: Being a father. My greatest legacy isn’t the art, the buildings, or even the philanthropy. It’s my four children. I hope I’ve passed on what my parents instilled in me—the importance of giving back—and that my kids will do even more to make the world better.

Three artists, living or dead, at your dinner table?

JS: [Takes a long pause] Andy Warhol, Picasso, Ellsworth Kelly. And maybe Roy Lichtenstein for dessert.

If you weren’t in art or real estate, what would you build?

JS: [Laughs] I love business. No one wakes up saying, “I want to have a lousy day.” Work, when done with purpose, is actually self-indulgent, it makes you feel good. Collaborating with others, accomplishing something, gives meaning. That’s why I’d always be building. Work that engages you with others, that sense of accomplishment, shared purpose, is deeply satisfying. It’s the most indulgent thing you can do.

Closing a big real estate deal or finding a rare Warhol print, what’s more thrilling?

JS: Closing the real estate deal.

You’ve shaped Portland’s cultural landscape. What does City Hall misunderstand about urban development and the arts?

JS: Take away the art museums, the symphony, the ballet—what’s left? Just houses, shops, offices. The arts are the soul of a city. Too often, leaders see them as extras, when in fact they’re essential.

Portland seems caught between progressive ideals and bureaucratic stagnation. What’s the bold action the city needs, but no one takes?

JS: Embracing business. This city has become one of the most unfriendly places for business in the seven states where we operate. If businesses leave, jobs vanish, and the community suffers. We need leaders who say: “We want businesses here,” not the opposite.

If you had the mayor’s pen for one day, what legislation would you sign first?

JS: First, I’d create real residential facilities to address homelessness. Shelters that shuffle people in and out overnight don’t solve anything. I’ve proven—with Helping Hands and Bybee Lakes—that we can get people off the streets with dignity and an 84% success rate.

Second, I’d reframe Portland as a pro-business city, launch a marketing campaign, and remind the world why this is a wonderful place to live, work, and create.

What is the most pressing question on your mind right now?

JS: How did this country get so divided? I’m scared for my children and their children when our politicians think it’s more important to win than to compromise and do what’s right in the best interests of the country.

What Jordan Schnitzer offers Portland is more than art, more than philanthropy, it is a belief that Portland often dismissed for its divisions can still be united together by its creative potential, a belief that cultural institutions are real lifelines to deserted neighborhoods, and a belief that when art is shared generously, it enlarges not just exhibitions, but city’s culture-at-large.

Countering President Trump’s words about Portland – “it is like living in hell!”, in Schnitzer’s vision it is not a city in decline, but “a canvas still wet with possibilities.” It is a city where the bold actions of philanthropy, pro-business policies, and creative community can converge to create something excitingly new and, potentially, lasting. If people of Portland choose to see what Schnitzer sees, then perhaps their city’s greatest moment is still ahead.