Congratulations to OJMCHE Board Member John Laursen who is one of four artists to receive a 2020 Governor’s Arts Award. John is a writer, designer, editor, and typographer and he first became involved with the museum as part of the design team that worked on the Oregon Holocaust Memorial. He has been actively involved with OJMCHE ever since the Memorial opened in 2004.
“I am delighted that John’s exceptional contributions to the arts have been recognized with this prestigious award. Within the multitude of his talent, skill, innovation, kindness, and decency, we see an Oregonian who epitomizes all that is great about Oregon. How fortunate we are that you serve as a member of OJMCHE board,” said OJMCHE Director Judy Margles.
2020 Governor’s Arts awardees are Darrell Grant, a jazz musician and educator from Portland; Roberta J. Kirk, a traditional artist, and educator from Warm Springs; John Laursen, a writer, designer, editor and typographer from Portland; Toni Pimble, the founding artistic director of the Eugene Ballet; and Portland Gay Men’s Chorus in Portland.
Oregon’s highest honor for exemplary service to the arts, the 2020 Governor’s Arts Awards will be celebrated during a virtual ceremony at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, on the Oregon Arts Commission Facebook page. The ceremony is free and open to the public.
About John Laursen
John Laursen is a writer, designer, editor, and typographer. For four decades he has owned and operated Press-22, a Portland studio specializing in the design and production of high-quality books and text-based public art projects. Among the institutions for which he has produced books and art catalogues are the Portland Art Museum, the Oregon Historical Society, Whitman College, Reed College, Marylhurst University, Oregon Health & Science University, and the Regional Arts & Culture Council. His work in public art includes the creation of commemorative installations for the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission and serving on the design team for the Oregon Holocaust Memorial. The Special Collections archive at the University of Oregon’s Knight Library maintains a collection of works on paper from Press-22, which is updated periodically.
In 2002 Laursen, together with his close friend photographer and curator Terry Toedtemeier, formed the Northwest Photography Archive, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to publish books of artistically and historically important photographs from the region. Their first volume was “Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge, 1867–1957,” which they co-authored and Laursen designed. Their work on “Wild Beauty,” published in 2008, led to a major exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. The book was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards in nonfiction and was declared the best Northwest book of the year across all categories by The Oregonian. Laursen is currently working on the NWPA’s second volume, “Enduring Spirit: Photographs of Northwest Indians, 1855–1934.”
Laursen was born in Tacoma, Washington; as a child he lived in Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Arizona, and California. He came to Oregon in the 1960s to attend Reed College and since then has immersed himself in the history of the Pacific Northwest. In addition to his degree from Reed, Laursen holds a master’s degree in political science from UCLA.