Lis Charman loves the smell of art school. She loves walking past the open doors of active, vibrant classrooms filled with students. She loves working with people collaborating on design and art making and sharing ideas… fortunately, Lis has fulfilled her lifelong dream of never leaving art school.

Lis is a professor at Portland State University in the Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design. Her work has received recognition from the Art Directors Club, the AIGA, HOW and Metropolis magazines. Lis is a recipient of Sappi’s Ideas That Matter grant. She earned an MFA in Graphic Design from CalArts.

You can read more about her HERE

And email her at charman@pdx.edu

Lo Moran creates interdisciplinary projects that are often socially engaged, participatory and collaborative. They aim to experiment with and question the systems we are embedded in by organizing situations of connection, openness and nonhierarchical learning. Working towards accessibility and reimagined ways of being together, they investigate community support and belonging through exploratory education. Lo has also been involved in creative projects within disability communities for the last ten years and regularly presents experimental performance work. They embrace fluidity and contribute to emergent futures and radical approaches.

Robert is a dedicated educator with over 20 years of experience teaching graphic design and art at both the middle and high school levels. Currently based in Portland, Oregon, he teaches at Walt Morey Middle School in Troutdale.

Originally from the South, Robert brings a warm, personable approach to teaching and enjoys engaging with others through meaningful conversations. He firmly believes in the power of storytelling as one of the most impactful forms of art.

He is extremely passionate about crafting curricula that spark motivation and inspiration in his students. For the past four years, he has actively participated in the Friendtorship Program at Portland State University, mentoring and guiding future designers and educators. Outside of teaching, he loves exploring Portland's vibrant arts scene, biking and hiking in the Pacific Northwest, and spending time with his wife and two children.

Conrad Schumacher is a knowledge wrangler and a grub rustler. 

He is an arts teacher at Heron Creek Therapeutic School in the Clackamas District and also serves as an adjunct professor at Portland State University. Previously, Conrad was the Dean of Students at Centennial High School, as well as an Art, Language Arts, and Culinary Arts teacher at Centennial Park and High Schools. He was also a founding teacher and an art and language arts teacher at Riverdale High School. Conrad holds degrees from Lewis and Clark College and the Horst Mager Culinary Institute (now Le Cordon Bleu).

Conrad’s wife, two sons, daughter, and home life provide the stability that enables him to thrive as a teacher.

Visiting artist Jen Delos Reyes started a conversation about difficult issues that many of us face every day. Race, class, and identity are big topics, but this workshop helped college students and their high school mentees to unpack the ideas and relate them to our own lives.

What's your dream? How will you get there? These were the questions we asked this fall term in Friendtorship at PSU, and our exhibition, "A Ladder To the Moon," is all about our journey to find those answers.

In a world without CGI or high-priced special effects, students in the Friendtorship program created their own DIY movie trailers out of cardboard, duct tape, a green screen and plenty of imagination.

This project is about evening the playing field. In an effort to bring high school and college students together as collaborators, we use a point of similarity upon which to build: the universally awkward adolescent experience.

Rockwood Stories is a collection of the stories produced in collaboration between the students and residents of Rockwood and the Friendtorship project. These outlets are a small, complex, and hopeful snapshot of Rockwood as seen by its current residents and high school students.

I AM I WILL invited high school students and their college mentors to reflect on who they are and their dreams for the future. Here, we share our aspirations, goals, and hopes. Serving two purposes, I AM I WILL helps us get to know one another better while also empowering us to connect with our present selves as we shape our futures.

This exhibit showcases student-created digital portraits celebrating everyday individuals—family members, friends, or community figures—through the distinctive artistic style of Hung Liu.

Together, teams of middle school students and college students developed fictional bands and designed promotional materials including logos, band’s characters’ identity and clothing, music, stop motion, albums, and t-shirts.

Together/Apart built community through art during the COVID pandemic. College students created projects fostering inclusion through shared experiences. We took creative risks, processed emotions, and ensured distance didn’t diminish our connections.

Together/Again, as we emerged from quarantine, we explored the experience of reuniting in person—how to ease into it, celebrate it, and reimagine the world we’re returning to. College and middle school students designed in person activities for reconnection after a year of online learning.

WELCOME was interactive installation for Portland’s Winter Light Festival, welcoming the public to PSU’s campus. A light projection and interactive installation welcomed folks passing by. Inspired by what it means to feel welcome, we invited visitors to pause, get oriented, and connect before continuing your festival journey. Created by PSU’s Friendtorship program, Centennial Park High School students, and artist Kelsey Snook.

The Color Outside the Lines exhibition, from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation at PSU’s JSMA, inspired our work. Following the example of the featured artists, we explored how color challenges institutions, beliefs, and expectations. Celebrating and amplifying colors in our artwork, intrinsic to our cultures, showcasing the beauty of color.

Inspired by adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy, the project encourages creative expression, self-care, and community activism. Students responded to key prompts like What brings me joy? and What change do I want to see in my community?, using art as a tool for reflection and empowerment.

In this hands-on workshop, high school students and their college mentors explored the intersection of technology and human experience by designing their own cyborgs and robots.

We started with a question: What holds you back? Have you found ways to overcome it—through tools, technology, or even a shift in perspective? Students reflected on personal challenges and innovations that help navigate them.

We also examined real-world examples of technology enhancing human ability, from prosthetics to athletic performance and healthcare. Through collaboration and imagination, we created costumes to turn ourselves into robots or cyborgs.

This Friendtorship project explores the intersection of food and identity. The middle school and college students make a series of art projects including illustrations around a meal with a specific story that connects to who they are as a person; placemats, and table sculptures.

Wearing Our Identity was inspired by PAM's Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks exhibition featuring nearly 60 futuristic footwear designs pushing the boundaries of what footwear can be. College mentors collaborated with middle schoolers on shoe, fashion, product and pattern design exploring cultural identity and creative expression.