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Let the City Serve KnowledgeInstitutional critique + participatory poster projectJordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU, Portland, Oregon2023
On a pedestrian bridge over Southwest Broadway, a gold-lettered sign announces the Portland State University motto: Let Knowledge Serve the City. In use since 1991, the motto suggests that the university benefits the city. But in my place-based learning and socially engaged art practice and projects, I experienced a different version of the motto, one in which the city served knowledge to me.

In the project Let the City Serve Knowledge, an alternative to the PSU motto was offered in the form of a poster available for free at the campus art museum. The image on the poster depicts a new sign on the other side of the bridge, switching the motto to “Let the City Serve Knowledge.” The possibility of this imagined revision posted in public and private spaces on campus and beyond, encouraged viewers to ask: what does the city teach me?

For example, the city served knowledge to me in my project with Portland Public School teacher, Ms. Melodie Adams. Her knowledge of Black history and culture resulted in school-wide participation in Black History Month art exhibits at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School. I photographed each artwork, interviewed Ms. Adams, students, teachers, and staff, and published a book about this project in collaboration with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Museum of Contemporary Art. Copies of I Want Everyone to Know: The Black History Month Doors at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School were distributed to every classroom, the library, and main office. Other projects in which the city served knowledge to me are documented in independently published books and zines distributed locally and available to buy online.

Text printed under the image on the poster instructed viewers to “please take a photo of this poster hanging up and send it to” me via email or Instagram direct message. Since then I’ve received photos of the poster displayed on and off campus. After the exhibit, unclaimed posters were recycled into thick blank notebooks and donated to KSMoCA  for students and teachers to use. 



©2025Laura Glazer@helloprettycity
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