I'm Tracci Dial with Northwest Public Broadcasting's Weekly News Now.

And once again we have a community spotlight.

This time we are in Pullman, Washington at the mothership, WSU.

We have Ryan Hardesty here.

He is with the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.

So, Ryan, you're the executive director there.

Tell us a little bit about the museum.

Hi, Tracci.

Pleasure to be with you.

Right, Im the executive director at the Jordan Schitzer Museum of Art here on campus.

we have a 50 year history on this campus, established back in the fall of 1974 by President Glenn Terrell.

Originally, the museum was in the Fine Arts Center building.

Stayed there for about 44 years.

You know, kind of an amazing record of exhibitions and programs, beautiful visiting artist program.

It kind of grew over the decades.

In 2018, we inaugurated the brand new facility that everyone uses today.

Its centrally located.

And, that brings us up to present tense.

So, right, if you do your math, this fall of 2024 is our 50th anniversary.

We've got some great programs lined up to celebrate the big moment.

Tell us about some of those.

What's this big birthday party?

Okay.

Yeah, so mark your calendars for September 26th from 4 to 6 p.m.. That's the celebration.

It's a party.

We're going to have music from Darryl Singleton and the Crimson Ties.

There will be great food from chef Matt of the hospitality program.

We're also releasing a publication that we have done with WSU press, and that's been a real labor of love.

So, you'll be able to get your book on September 26th as well.

That's fantastic.

Ryan.

What are some of the exhibits that are in the works right now?

Well, thank you for asking.

Yeah, that's certainly a part of how we're going to celebrate this big anniversary year.

The first one to talk about is called Your Collection: Celebrating 50 Years.

So, as it sounds, it's looking at our permanent collection.

These are the artworks that we hold in the public's trust at the museum.

And we're going to put on view, you know, a selection of around 4,000 objects that we keep, a much smaller selection, to talk about how that collection was formed and how it grew over the years, the big milestones.

So that's exhibition number one.

Exhibition number two is called The Art of Food from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation.

And it is a look at 20th and 21st century artists that are looking at food as subject matter.

It feels appropriate, given WSUs research in agriculture and food sciences, land grant heritage and so forth.

Wonderful.

All right, Ryan, thank you so much for your time.

You're so Welcome.

And congratulations.

Thank you.

We appreciate that.