PRAx is the hub of an arts and humanities network at Oregon State University.
The expansive mission of PRAx is to activate the power of the arts and humanities across disciplines and across sites at Oregon State University. Through an extensive roster of fellowship and residency programs, OSU places artists as collaborators in field stations, research laboratories (including OSU's new Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex), and experimental contexts. The Horning Endowment supports arts and humanities content tied to annual transdisciplinary themes (beginning with Watersheds, followed by Polar Regions and then Artificial Intelligence) that will include exhibitions, lectures, symposia, and performing arts events.
The physical space of PRAx itself includes five venues, including the Lynne Hallstrom Detrick Concert Hall - a jewel box designed for extraordinary acoustics, as well as the Edward J. Ray Theater, the Kate and John Stirek Gallery, an outdoor arts plaza, and an interior lobby that contains space for performance, film screening, and art installation.
In these venues, PRAx presents a rich mix of programming - including move than 100 events per year - by internationally renowned musicians and performing artists, by OSU ensembles and theater, and by the university's community arts partners.
PRAx 2022-2027 STRATEGIC PLAN
PRAx activates the power of the arts across disciplines at Oregon State University.
The PRAx uses its marquee venues to present content in music, theatre, dance, film, design, visual and installation arts, media and digital arts, industrial arts, science-based arts,literary arts, and experimental forms. It uses its networking capability to organize, amplify, and publicize arts activity in spaces outside the physical building – including community sites, research laboratories, field stations near and far, and settings where artists and creative thinkers bring new ways of looking at familiar content.
The PRAx does this work in order to inspire new audiences, to reframe perspectives on complex problems, and to activate the range, depth, and diversity of the large public research university that it represents.
"In order for us to be all that we can be, in order for OSU to be all that it can be, there needs to be a strong liberal arts program."
- Patricia Valian Reser