We finished the spring season on an incredibly high note as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism closed with record levels of attendance. More than 300,000 visitors experienced this popular exhibition and its related programming that included live mural painting by local artists, a dual-language family guide, and a number of talks and discussions. We are grateful for our community’s enthusiasm for this important work. On view now, Perspectives, is a powerful exhibition honoring the work of six BIPOC artists who photographed the Black Lives Matter protests in our city in 2020. We opened this exhibition with a public Miller Family Free Day and joined with the Portland Parks Foundation’s Paseo festival in the South Park Blocks for a beautiful day. 

Summer has also seen the return of PAM CUT (formerly Northwest Film Center) favorites like day camps for kids and adults, and the Cinema Unbound Outdoor Movie series at the OMSI Bridge Lot. I hope that you will read on for more community and partnership updates. 

Sincerely, 

Brian Ferriso 

Program Highlights & News

Perspectives 

Perspectives is an exhibition featuring more than 60 works by local BIPOC photographers made during Portland’s Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Artists Emery Barnes, Joseph Blake, Linneas Boland-Godbey, Daveed Jacobo, Mariah Harris, and Byron Merritt express their perspectives saying in part,

“Captured here are various moments during the 2020 Black Lives Matter Protests through the eyes of local BIPOC Artists in Portland, Oregon. We ask that you follow along this journey, relive these moments, listen to the stories shared, and open yourself up to the perspectives represented.” Read their full statement. 

• Opening weekend activities included a Miller Family Free Day and a collaboration with Paseo, a festival that celebrated Portland’s diverse community of artists and community organizations. Portlanders were encouraged  to walk the (closed off) streets together, enjoy music, food, and learn from one another.
  
• A panel discussion with the artists and Don’t Shoot PDX founder Teressa Raiford on opening day drew dozens of people to hear about the artists’ work and process. 

Swimming Home: Nine Objects Repatriated to Tlingit Tribe

In May, the Museum repatriated nine objects of cultural patrimony to the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. The objects are now back home in the hands of the Naanya.aayí clan after being removed from Wrangell, Alaska, in the 1930s and 1940s and subsequently acquired by the Museum via a private dealer. 

“We are so grateful for all of the work that was done to return the Naanya.aayí clan’s atóow. As a caretaker of these clan items, it is an honor. Receiving them back, one by one, brings back the spirit of the person who wore them. We are so happy to have them returned to Wrangell’s Naanya.aayí.”  —  Luella Knapp of the Naanya.aayí clan, member of the Wrangell Cooperative Association, and caretaker of some clan objects. Read more.

Summer education partnerships 

It is thrilling and inspiring to see the transformative experience of a Museum visit for students of all ages and backgrounds, whether a 20-year-old from Libya or a 10-year-old from Lyle, WA.

This summer has seen the in-person return of established summer partner programs, including  Portland Public Schools Summer Arts Academy, Portland State University’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Student Leaders Program, and World Oregon’s Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program. We’ve also welcomed more recent “pandemic partners” like Centro Cultural de Washington County and Wishram and Lyle School Districts in rural Washington who had previously experienced the Museum only through remote programs such as the Miller Family Foundation art kits. 

PAM CUT // Center for an Untold Tomorrow

• Summer Camp — With vibrant new window coverings signaling a new day and a new brand for PAM CUT (formerly the Northwest Film Center), PAM CUT // Center for an Untold Tomorrow welcomed kids back downtown for summer camps after COVID put them on pause for the last two years. New this year were fashion filmmaking and a podcasting camp. Plus adults had a DJ camp under the instruction of the one and only DJ Ambush from Museum partner The Numberz FM.
  
• Cinema Unbound Outdoor Movies  — Continuing a popular pre-and-post pandemic activity, PAM CUT was back at the OMSI campus in July screening movies under the stars. Complete with music, thematic experiences, food, and drink, this series brings people together for the fun and joy of movies on the inner East side.
  
• VR to GO  — This unique virtual reality rental experience, now in its second session continues to attract Portlanders looking for a new, fun, different, and immersive new media activity. 

AUX/MUTE – Album Intro 07:22
The latest AUX/MUTE gallery rotation, a partnership with The Numberz FM, features a showcase of works by artists represented in The Numberz FM’s growing art collection focused on Black and Brown artists. Artists on view include Alice Price, Michelle Lepe, Oluwafemi, Ivan McClellan, Nick Jones, Alicia Pickney, Ben Boutros and Willie Little. The show is the culmination of the station’s journey in the development of not just its collection but also the artists, with some exhibiting for the first time.

• Incorporated in the AUX/MUTE gallery space, The Numz Bodega continues to offer an authentic shopping exhibition experience, honoring the cultural impact and history of the neighborhood staples in underrepresented communities across the country. Visitors have been loving the opportunity to shop new merchandise every few weeks while also often enjoying live DJ sets and more. 

In the News

Nine works from the Portland Art Museum return to their Tlingit home (Oregon ArtsWatch)

Perspectives at PAM Helps Metabolize Portland’s 2020 Protests (Portland Monthly) 

‘Perspectives’: Remembering What Matters (Oregon ArtsWatch) 

Paseo festival will celebrate a downtown Portland for everyone (The Oregonian)

Can Drive-In Theaters Strike Back? (Willamette Week)

The post Community Update August 2022 appeared first on Portland Art Museum.

Take a moment to sit with this piece. Notice which words or phrases you are drawn to. Write them at the top of your page and incorporate at least one into the prompts below. Set a timer for 8 minutes, choose a prompt, keep your pen or pencil moving and see what comes.

Please ________… / This year, I will _________…

Writing in community is powerful. We are grateful to our longtime partner Write Around Portland for the writing prompts and inspiration. You can revisit past Sunday posts and look for continuing posts through the year. Please share your work with us!  @writearoundpdx @portlandartmuseum  #RespectWritingCommunity #WriteAroundPAM @jeppehein

The post Write Around PAM: Jeppe Hein appeared first on Portland Art Museum.

We have two prompts to help you get started. As always, you can choose one, both, or write whatever else comes. Set a timer for 6 minutes and just keep your pen or pencil moving.

The smell of coffee… / My favorite mug…

Writing in community is powerful. We are grateful to our longtime partner Write Around Portland for the writing prompts and inspiration. You can revisit past Sunday posts and look for continuing weekly posts through the year. Please share your work with us!  @writearoundpdx @portlandartmuseum #RespectWritingCommunity #WriteAroundPAM

The post Write Around PAM: Shreve & Company appeared first on Portland Art Museum.

Exhibitions, programs, and partnerships

• Former Portland Trail Blazers star Carmelo Anthony was named the winner of the NBA’s first Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion award in recognition of his work for civil rights, Black empowerment and racial equity. In recognition of this honor, Mr. Anthony was given the opportunity to choose a nonprofit to receive a $100,000 contribution from the NBA, and he selected the Portland Art Museum’s Black Art and Experiences initiative. Learn more about the award and the initiative. 

• The Museum supported the ongoing residency partnership with The Numberz FM during the Madison St. Plaza pop-up events, which featured music, fashion shows, and COVID-19 vaccine clinics, among other community-centered events. The plaza concept is a partnership with Portland Bureau of Transportation. Learn more about The Numberz FM residency.
  
  
• The Museum secured a loan of a painting by Amy Sherald, the Black artist who painted Michelle Obama’s official portrait.
  
  
• In recognizing Juneteenth, Museum Visitor Services Lead Ted Smith recorded a video with The Numberz General Manager DJ Ambush talking about the end of slavery and what came before and after. Learn more, and watch the video.
  
  
• Programming for the Ansel Adams in Our Time exhibition included a screening of Faith E. Briggs’ film, This Land, followed by a Q&A with Briggs and a panel discussion titled  Claiming Connection: Cultivating a Relationship with Place as Disabled Artists.
  
  
• The Museum partnered with the City of Portland on their “Supporting Community Healing with Art” initiative with the See Me. iAm. HEAR: A Creative Activation of Youth Voices of Color event. Other partners included The Numberz FM, I AM M.O.R.E, IPRC, and NAYA Many Nations Academy.

Exhibitions Now on View:

• APEX: Sharita Towne | In the Museum’s APEX gallery showcasing Northwest artists, a new exhibition features the collaborative artwork of Sharita Towne. The transdisciplinary artist gained attention in 2019 for A Black Art Ecology of Portland, an initiative she launched to bring together community organizations in support of creating, reclaiming, and redefining spaces for Black art and audiences in Portland.
  
  
• AUX/MUTE Gallery | Presented by The Numberz FM and the Portland Art Museum, this gallery is an endeavor designed to reduce the barrier for BIPOC practicing artists to be represented within an institution of high art. The first exhibition within the AUX/MUTE Gallery is AWAY|HOME, featuring a cumulation of work created by Portland-based artist Sa’rah Melinda Sabino, a.k.a. “Rah.” The title of the show is a double entendre that can be read AWAY|HOME as a reference to sports teams, and A Way Home in reference to a journey. Rah hopes to create space for stories of underrepresented people and inspire conversations around what it means to be a mixed-race person in America.

Upcoming Exhibitions:

• Mesh | This Center for Contemporary Native Art exhibition will feature emerging Native American artists from across the country who have worked with artist mentors to develop practices informed by multiple traditions and cultural influences. Intergenerational mentoring relationships are the foundation of Native American art in all media, including basketry, weaving, sculpture, and photography.
  
  
• Black Artists of Oregon | The exhibition highlights and celebrates the work of Black artists in and outside of the collection, and will serve to deepen awareness of the talented artists who have shaped and inspired art regionally and nationally. This exhibition will be guest curated by artist Intisar Abioto. This exhibition also recently received a major grant from the Terra Foundation.

Internal and staff updates

New:

• For the fiscal year 2022 the budget for equity work, which was approved at 100%, was separated from other departments. Budget priorities include continuing equity training for docents, equity lens use training for staff, POC staff support plan, and new hire equity training, among other initiatives and ongoing needs.

• The Equity Team and senior managers completed a four-session training on using the Museum and Northwest Film Center’s equity lens for decision making. The goal is to empower all staff with the tools to make more inclusive and equitable choices by broadening the range of perspectives and centering racial equity.
  
  
• The Black Lives Matter banner continues to be taken down or vandalized. Since it was first installed in the summer of 2020, it has been replaced ten times. This has harmed BIPOC staff and our community. A staff-led working group is being assembled to consider options and the future of the banner.
  
  
• Equity Team members and front-line staff, including protection service officers, continue to address issues of police response and de-escalation, with a priority toward community and BIPOC staff safety.  All Museum and Film Center staff will have the opportunity to learn de-escalation skills in early 2022.
  
  
• As a first step toward bringing staff, board, docents, and volunteers all into alignment on equity and inclusion goals, members of the board of trustees are currently participating in anti-harassment training. Docents and other volunteers will soon be required to also complete the training.

Ongoing:

• Financial and professional investment in support for BIPOC employees. This includes working with a facilitator to fully develop a support plan, developing an onboarding process for new BIPOC employees, and budget allocation for a BIPOC staff retreat.
  
  
• The BIPOC affinity group continues to meet virtually once a month. The BIPOC affinity group is a space welcome to anyone who identifies as a Person of Color, with the understanding that everyone’s struggles are unique and different. It is a space of solidarity, sharing, listening, and support.
  
  
• The white learning space group continues to meet virtually once a month. The white learning space brings together staff members who identify racially as white to discuss race, racial equity, and ways we can center people of color (POC) on the Museum and Film Center staff and in our community. In all conversations we enter, we uphold the agreements to stay engaged, speak your truth responsibly, listen to understand, be willing to do things differently and experience discomfort, expect and accept non-closure, and confidentiality. Racial affinity groups are a core element in our work to dismantle racism at our organization. We understand that equity work is ongoing and difficult and that mistakes will be made as we learn and grow. Read more.
  
  
• PAM and members of its volunteer docent program continue to work together on ways to center equity and inclusion.  In particular, the Docent Racial Equity & Inclusion Committee (DREIC, established in 2018) continues to meet and align its work with PAM’s large equity and inclusion goals.  The DREIC group has recently created a charter document outlining its purpose and scope of work which will be shared more widely soon.  

Read the Museum and Film Center’s equity statement, and learn more.

The post Equity and Inclusion Update September 2021 appeared first on Portland Art Museum.

We have two prompts to help you get started. As always, you can use one, both, or write whatever else comes. Just set a timer for 13 minutes and keep your pen or pencil moving.

I am celebrating… / I wish…

Writing in community is powerful. We are grateful to our longtime partner Write Around Portland for the writing prompts and inspiration. You can revisit past Sunday posts and look for continuing weekly posts through the year. Please share your work with us!  @writearoundpdx @portlandartmuseum #RespectWritingCommunity #WriteAroundPAM

The post Write Around PAM: Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer appeared first on Portland Art Museum.

We have two prompts to help you get started. As always, you can use one, both, or write whatever else comes. Just set a timer for 15 minutes and keep your pen or pencil moving.

Among the flowers… / Beyond the trees…

Writing in community is powerful. We are grateful to our longtime partner Write Around Portland for the writing prompts and inspiration. You can revisit past Sunday posts and look for continuing weekly posts through the year. Please share your work with us!  @writearoundpdx @portlandartmuseum #RespectWritingCommunity #WriteAroundPAM

The post Write Around PAM: Charles-François Daubigny appeared first on Portland Art Museum.

We have two prompts to help you get started. As always, you can use one, both, or write whatever else comes. Just set a timer for 12 minutes and keep your pen or pencil moving.

In the middle of the city… / I can see…    

Writing in community is powerful. We are grateful to our longtime partner Write Around Portland for the writing prompts and inspiration. You can revisit past Sunday posts and look for continuing weekly posts through the year. Please share your work with us!  @writearoundpdx @portlandartmuseum #RespectWritingCommunity #WriteAroundPAM

The post Write Around PAM: Marie Louise Feldenheimer appeared first on Portland Art Museum.

We have two prompts to help you get started. As always, you can use one, both, or write whatever else comes. Just set a timer for 10 minutes and keep your pen or pencil moving.

Walking on sand… / At the end of the day…

Writing in community is powerful. We are grateful to our longtime partner Write Around Portland for the writing prompts and inspiration. You can revisit past Sunday posts and look for continuing weekly posts through the year. Please share your work with us!  @writearoundpdx @portlandartmuseum #RespectWritingCommunity #WriteAroundPAM

The post Write Around PAM: Théo Van Rysselberghe appeared first on Portland Art Museum.

We have 2 prompts to help you get started. As always, you can use one, both, or write whatever else comes. Just set a timer for 12 minutes and keep your pen or pencil moving.

In the rearview mirror… / When we looked up…

Writing in community is powerful. We are grateful to our longtime partner Write Around Portland for the writing prompts and inspiration. You can revisit past Sunday posts and look for continuing weekly posts through the summer. This is our last piece connected with Ansel Adams in our Time. Thank you for writing with us through this exhibition! @writearoundpdx @portlandartmuseum #RespectWritingCommunity #WriteAroundPAM

The post Write Around PAM: Ansel Adams appeared first on Portland Art Museum.

We have 2 prompts to help you get started. As always, you can use one, both, or write whatever else comes. Just set a timer for 10 minutes and keep your pen or pencil moving.

She always wondered… / Beyond the horizon…

Writing in community is powerful. We are grateful to our longtime partner Write Around Portland for the writing prompts and inspiration. You can revisit past Sunday posts and look for continuing weekly posts through the summer with a focus on Ansel Adams in our Time. Please share your work with us! @writearoundpdx @portlandartmuseum #RespectWritingCommunity #WriteAroundPAM

The post Write Around PAM: Ansel Adams appeared first on Portland Art Museum.

As an organization, Write Around Portland works to change lives through the power of writing, and to use that power of writing in community to create more just, humane, and kind communities. This opportunity to work with Portland Art Museum has allowed Write Around to connect with new communities, to engage their writing workshop model in a new way, to gain inspiration from new places, and to help people connect with themselves and their neighbors, even across great distances. As Program Manager Sarah Weller notes, “During this time when we haven’t been able to sit at tables and write and share together, Write Around PAM offers invitations to sit on couches (or beds, or floors) instead. The creativity, the connection remains, even though the physical space has changed. The transformational power of writing in community is carried on through this project, and has picked up some new creative energy along the way.”

In May, Write Around Portland facilitator Chelsea Querner led “Writing Place: A Creative Writing Workshop Inspired by Ansel Adams in Our Time” over Zoom. “There was such a unique quality to this virtual workshop,” Chelsea observed. “The distance between one another and between ourselves and the artwork itself felt all but erased. It’s an important reminder that when we write, the best thing we can do is start where we are. ​​Grab that piece of paper, sharpen your favorite pencil. It is as simple as that.” Chelsea and Sarah created an “at home” version of the workshop, which you can follow on your own.

Write Around PAM—initiated in spring 2020 when the Museum was closed and public gatherings disallowed—has continued to feel relevant and inspiring, even as we’ve transitioned to more in-person experiences this month. We plan to continue the program in the months ahead and hope the artwork and prompts that you first experience digitally will draw you to the Museum galleries whenever possible. Thank you, Sarah, Chelsea, and the Write Around Portland community, for providing new and creative ways to connect across distances! We are grateful for our partnership and all of the inspiration you provide.

—Hana Layson, Head of Youth and Educator Programs, Portland Art Museum

The post Art and Writing During the Pandemic: Celebrating the Write Around Portland Partnership appeared first on Portland Art Museum.

Last week’s NBA announcement was reported by local, national, and international outlets including The Oregonian, ESPN Global, ABC News, and Sports Illustrated. 

In recognition of this honor, Mr. Anthony was given the opportunity to choose a nonprofit to receive a $100,000 contribution from the NBA, and he selected the Portland Art Museum’s Black Art and Experiences initiative. We congratulate Carmelo Anthony and thank him for supporting Black artists here in our city and across the globe.

Building on the success of recent exhibitions and programs centering Black artists and community organizations, such as Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal…, the Portland Art Museum’s Black Art and Experiences initiative supports showcasing and acquiring important works created by local, regional, and global Black artists. 

“We are honored that Carmelo is supporting the Portland Art Museum,” said John Goodwin, Director of Community Philanthropy. “In 1994, a young Black student came to our Museum and saw images by photographer Carrie Mae Weems, and it changed her life. She saw these familiar scenes of Black family life on the Museum walls, photographed by a woman of color who also grew up in Portland, and she knew she wanted to be an artist too.”

The person who visited that day is Mickalene Thomas, now an internationally renowned visual artist celebrated for her complex work addressing race and sexuality. And Carrie Mae Weems, one of the most important contemporary artists, is now not only lending her talent to help guide the Portland Art Museum as a trustee, but recently she has been building vital awareness of racial inequity in the pandemic through her art on the outside of the Museum and across the country.

“That’s the sense of eye-opening connection I want everyone in our community to have at the Museum,” Mr. Goodwin continued. “Our Black Art and Experiences initiative will support the next generation of Black artists, and we are so grateful to Carmelo Anthony for supporting this work.” 

This initiative continues a decade-long effort to advance access, equity, and inclusion at the Portland Art Museum. We recognize that at the heart of modern museum work is a tension between our mission to preserve the past, and a moral obligation to confront bias and inequities—both social and economic—entangled with that inheritance. Learn more about the Museum’s equity and inclusion work.

Portland business leader Larry Miller, who has built deep community connections as past president of both the Portland Trail Blazers and Nike’s Jordan Brand, applauded Mr. Anthony’s support for PAM’s Black Art and Experiences initiative.  “I’m supporting this effort because I want all kids to see themselves on the walls of our local Museum,” said Mr. Miller. “After visiting the Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal… exhibition in 2019, I realized how essential it is for other Black visitors to see art in the museum that looks like them. Through this initiative, we will spark awareness of possibility, and make sure Black visitors feel welcomed and seen here, make sure our voices are heard and included. I thank Melo for designating $100,000 to the Museum’s Black Art and Experiences initiative.”

The Museum’s initiative will build on a strong slate of exhibitions celebrating Black artists, as well as community programs such as the partner residency of The Numberz FM, the local Black radio station that is anchoring the weekly Madison Plaza Summer Series of music and celebration outside the Museum. Inside the galleries, visitors can currently view Isaka Shamsud-Din: Rock of Ages, an intimate exhibition celebrating the Portland artist’s masterful paintings, rich in a narrative combining personal stories and folklore. 

In the Museum’s APEX gallery showcasing Northwest artists, where artist-activist Ed Bereal‘s work was recently on view, a new exhibition opening this month will showcase the work of Sharita Towne. The transdisciplinary artist—who was just awarded a 2021-23 Fields Artist Fellowship by Oregon Humanities and the Oregon Community Foundation—gained attention in 2019 for A Black Art Ecology of Portland, an initiative she launched to bring together community organizations in support of creating, reclaiming, and redefining spaces for Black art and audiences in Portland. Ms. Towne’s work and A Black Ecology of Portland were recently featured in The New York Times.

Also highlighted in the Times was artist Intisar Abioto, who is guest-curating an upcoming PAM exhibition of Black artists in our state. Starting in October 2022, Black Artists of Oregon will highlight and celebrate the work of Black artists in and outside of the collection, and will serve to deepen awareness of the talented artists who have shaped and inspired artists regionally and nationally. The exhibition will be the first of its kind to consider the work of Black artists collectively in Oregon, often underrepresented and unacknowledged. In Abioto’s own artistic practice, she has been documenting Black figures in Portland since 2013, through interviews, photography, research, and performance, filling the region’s own historical gaps.

• Learn more about upcoming exhibitions and programs.
• Follow updates about equity and inclusion at the Portland Art Museum and Northwest Film Center 

The post Blazers star Carmelo Anthony nominates PAM for $100,000 prize supporting Black Art and Experiences appeared first on Portland Art Museum.