The final piece of the Portland Art Museum’s recently completed $116M campus transformation, the renovated PAM CUT @ The Whitsell for film, new media, and visual storytelling, is set to reopen to the public on January 10, 2026. 

PAM CUT’s reimagination of the Whitsell Auditorium is part of the Portland Art Museum’s expanded and renovated campus that opened November 20, which completely transforms the existing Museum and creates a vital “cultural commons” in the heart of downtown Portland. The campus transformation adds nearly 100,000 square feet of new or upgraded public and gallery space, providing increased access to exhibitions and programs, updated amenities that address the needs of more diverse audiences, and new ways to experience PAM’s robust collection. 

PAM’s transformation has created for the first time a vital space for media arts on the lower level of the Museum’s new Mark Rothko Pavilion. The renovated 293-seat Whitsell Auditorium offers comfortable new seats with improved accessibility; upgraded cinema projection, sound, and screen; and improved camera and streaming capabilities for public programs and events. Just outside the Whitsell, a dedicated gallery for new media, the Blair Family Gallery, hosts world-renowned media artist Marco Brambilla’s exhibition Maximalist Dreamscapes, pushing the boundaries of cinematic storytelling further into the museum. 

Together, the Whitsell Auditorium and Blair Family Gallery create a new destination to showcase PAM CUT // Center for an Untold Tomorrow, PAM’s program for film, new media and visual storytelling, in conjunction with PAM CUT’s eastside Tomorrow Theater, education and artist spaces at PAM CUT downtown, and the new Blair Family Gallery in the Portland Art Museum. 

In this reimagined cinematic destination at the heart of the Portland Art Museum, screenings and events will be held in the upgraded space as part of PAM CUT @ The Whitsell programming. The exhibition-style programming showcases work by local and global artists, filmmakers, and culturemakers past and present. Screenings will be held every Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. 

Curated collaboratively by Amy Dotson, PAM CUT Director and PAM Curator, Film & New Media, and PAM CUT Head of Programming Joanna Sokolowski, along with creative guest programmers, PAM CUT @ The Whitsell programming features distinctive, must-see cinematic programming in a range of film and digital formats. Guest curators for Winter 2026 include creative polymath Carrie Brownstein, multi-faceted director Lance Bangs, fashion expert Looks on Screen, writer and content creator Remy Solomon, actor and content creator Michele Venlee, and artists and partners in conjunction with the Portland Art Museum’s new Black Art and Experiences Gallery. Inaugural partners include Criterion, which will be sharing giveaways of iconic films from its Collection and access to the Criterion Channel throughout the opening series.

“PAM CUT @ The Whitsell is the perfect venue for cinematic arts collision,” says Amy Dotson, Director of PAM CUT.  “Pushing the boundaries of what’s possible by changing for whom, by whom, and how visual stories are told is PAM CUT’s mission, and we can’t wait for audiences to be immersed in the new space.” 

Ongoing Signature Series 

Subsequent film series will be released on a rotating basis, often in theme and conversation with exhibitions and work at the Portland Art Museum. Additional series will launch in the spring, including Deep CUT, featuring screenings that expansively highlight the work and creative inspirations of directors, artists, and visionaries, and the CUT Away, featuring the best of the cutting edge of international cinema. 

The reopening of the Whitsell Auditorium is an invitation to dream, to expand the possibilities of who and what shape our realities, and to create and experience something entirely distinct where art and cinema collide.

Learn more about the PAM CUT @ Whitsell and view programming.

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The Portland Art Museum (PAM) today announced the completion of its $116 million capital campaign in support of the Museum’s campus transformation opening on November 20, 2025. Marking one of the most significant investments in the arts in the history of Oregon, PAM’s capital campaign supports the expansion and renovation of its campus to reimagine the visitor experience and make the museum and its growing collections more accessible to all. The Museum raised $5M over its original capital goal to account for ongoing enhancements. The Museum has also raised $28.4M towards its $30M endowment campaign, which supports ongoing operations, endows curatorial and leadership positions, and more, ensuring PAM’s sustainability as a vital cultural resource for audiences throughout Oregon and Washington for generations to come.

Designed in partnership by Portland’s Hennebery Eddy Architects and Chicago-based Vinci Hamp Architects, the Museum’s transformation project connects PAM’s two historic buildings, adding nearly 100,000 square feet of new or upgraded public and gallery space, providing increased access to exhibitions and programs, updated amenities that address the needs of more diverse audiences, and new ways to experience the robust collection. Upon reopening next month, the galleries will feature a complete reinstallation of the Museum’s wide-ranging collection, highlighting nearly 300 major new acquisitions including works by Jeffrey Gibson, Ugo Rondinone, Marie Watt, Carrie Mae Weems, Simone Leigh, and more.

The successful completion of the capital campaign, which was 98% privately funded, was made possible by the generous support of more than 1,000 individual donors, including 49 who have made gifts of $1 million or more to the Museum’s broader Connection Campaign, which encompasses both capital and endowment initiatives. Contributions to the overall campaign range in size from five dollars to $13.5 million. Lead campaign gifts include $13.5 million from Arlene Schnitzer, $8 million from an anonymous donor, $5 million from Mary and Tim Boyle, $5 million from Trudy and Pat Ritz, $5 million from Nani S. Warren, $5 million from Helen Jo and Bill Whitsell, and $5 million from an anonymous donor. The capital campaign was formally completed thanks to a $1.1 million gift from longtime PAM supporters Fred and Gail Jubitz, for whom the Museum’s modern and contemporary galleries are named, bringing their total contribution to the campaign to over $4 million.

“The overwhelming support from our community for the Portland Art Museum speaks to the important role this cultural institution plays in our city and the greater region as a dynamic and vibrant civic, educational, and cultural resource,” said Brian Ferriso, The Arlene & Harold Schnitzer Director of the Portland Art Museum. “The generosity of our over 1,000 donors with gifts of all sizes, enables us to better serve all our audiences and to continue to fulfill our mission to connect the community with art that reflects their own experiences, voices, and personal journeys for years to come.”

Cyndy Maletis, chair of the Portland Art Museum board, commented, “I am deeply grateful for the generous support from the individuals, foundations, and businesses in Portland and across the region who recognize and value the impact of the arts on our city and its downtown. For more than a century, this museum has served as a beacon of inspiration in the Northwest and with this expansion, we can ensure it continues to thrive into the next century.”

PAM’s campus is a cornerstone of the downtown Portland cultural district, and as the only major art museum between Seattle and San Francisco, serves as an essential lifeline for the region with a diverse slate of exhibitions and programs that highlight art from around Oregon, the region, and the world.

PAM’s Connection Campaign is co-chaired by Alix Meier Goodman and Angela Snow. For more information about the transformed Portland Art Museum campus, please visit https://portlandartmuseum.org/campus-transformation.

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On Thursday, November 20, the transformed Museum will officially open with a ribbon ceremony at noon, marking the opening of the new Mark Rothko Pavilion and a new era for art and community in Portland. The Museum will be open free to the public from noon to 5 p.m. on opening day, plus a free after-hours celebration 5 to 9 p.m. packed with food, music, and art inspiration. The celebration continues Friday through Sunday, November 21 – 23, with free admission 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and a range of activities throughout the day, including art making, DJ music, food trucks, curator conversations, educator-led programs, and happy hour at the Museum’s new cafe, Coquelico by Providore Fine Foods.  Free admission to the Portland Art Museum’s grand opening days is generously supported by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program, which also provides support for the Museum’s monthly Free First Thursdays.

Anchored by the new, nearly 22,000-square-foot Mark Rothko Pavilion, which provides a new transparent, welcoming “front door” and connects the two campus buildings, the expansion project is one of the most significant capital investments in the arts in the history of Oregon. It adds nearly 100,000 square feet of new or upgraded public and gallery space, providing increased access to exhibitions and programs, updated amenities that address the needs of more diverse audiences, and new ways to experience the Museum’s robust collection. The galleries feature a complete reinstallation of the Museum’s wide-ranging collection, highlighting nearly 300 major new acquisitions including works by Marie Watt, Simone Leigh, Ugo Rondinone, Pedro Reyes, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Jeffrey Gibson, and Carrie Mae Weems, alongside works that are rarely or have never before been on view, revealing perspectives that emphasize key themes of place, community, and identity.

Visitors will experience a new approach to the collection, shifting from traditional chronological presentations to thematic displays that speak to the interests of Oregon audiences, tell little-known stories, and foster dialogue about the ideas shaping our lives. Several galleries also draw throughlines across the collection that allow discoveries of unexpected connections between works on view. Two special exhibitions, previously opened this fall, will also be on view: Yoshida Chizuko and Global Icons, Local Spotlight: Contemporary Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer.

Expanded Campus, Expanded Hours

With the opening of the expanded campus, the Portland Art Museum is also expanding its hours for the community. Starting November 25, the Museum will be open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For our monthly Free First Thursdays (resuming in January), the Museum is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., with free admission for the community.

Free tickets available November 1

Tickets for the free community days, November 20-23, can be reserved at portlandartmuseum.org starting November 1. Tickets for the expanded museum and exhibitions are available now; beginning November 1, admission is $27.50 for adults, $24.50 for seniors 65+, and $22.50 for students with ID. Admission is free for Museum members and for children 17 and under. To learn more about Museum membership, visit portlandartmuseum.org/membership.

Schedule of events and activities

Thursday, November 20 — Grand Opening Day

The celebration begins at 12 noon with a Ribbon Ceremony marking the opening of the new Mark Rothko Pavilion and a new era for art and community in Portland. The event includes remarks by civic and Museum leaders, a custom ribbon created by Portland Garment Factory, and live entertainment. The ceremony launches four days of free admission, inviting everyone to explore the transformed Museum.

Visitors enjoy free admission from 12 noon to 9 p.m. with access to newly installed galleries and recent acquisitions. From 5 to 9 p.m. the celebration continues with Museum Open Late, a free after-hours celebration featuring festive food and drinks, DJs, pop-up performances by local arts partners, and plenty of creative spirit. Guests are encouraged to dress inspired by their favorite artist or artwork—or simply come as they are.

Friday, November 21

Free admission all day, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., guests can Meet the Curator, with different curators featured each day. Look with Me, a rotating series of gallery talks, takes place from 12 noon to 3 p.m. In the Learning Studio, Artmaking activities run from 12 noon to 5 p.m., including felting with LaBrie Rich from noon to 2 p.m. and make-and-take artwork with Julz Clementine from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Happy Hour follows from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the new cafe, Coquelico by Providore Fine Foods, featuring partners from the Everybody is an Art Person initiative. Throughout the day, Friends of Noise presents music in the Pavilion, with DJs performing from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Saturday, November 22

Free admission all day, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Daily programs continue with Meet the Curator from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Look with Me/Art in ASL from 12:00 to 3 p.m., and Happy Hour from 3:30 to 5 p.m. The Black Art & Experiences Gallery hosts Riso Printmaking with Sharita Towne from 12 to 3 p.m.

Music fills the Pavilion from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., presented by Tender Loving Empire, featuring DJs and live performances in the galleries. Food trucks will be available from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and family friendly art-making throughout the day led by PAM’s Venice Biennale Educator Cohort, a group of Oregon educators who have collaborated with artist Jeffrey Gibson to expand how contemporary Native art is taught and experienced for K-12 students.

Sunday, November 23

Free admission all day, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The weekend concludes with Meet the Curator from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Look with Me from 12 noon to 3 p.m., and Happy Hour from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.Riso Printmaking with Sharita Towne continues from 12 noon to 3 p.m., and Tender Loving Empire presents DJs and live music in the Pavilion from 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.Food trucks will again be available from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the Venice Biennale Educator Cohort programming rounding out the four-day celebration.

Access requests? Please email us at access@pam.org or leave a message at 503-276-4284. Deaf visitors can leave messages directly in ASL on our videophone at 503-420-3169.

Note: Free First Thursdays will pause in November and December as we celebrate the November 20 – 23 Grand Opening with four free days in a row. Free First Thursdays will return in January (January 8, since New Year’s Day museum closure falls on Free First Thursday). Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.

Special thanks

Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program for underwriting free admission to the grand openings.

We also gratefully acknowledge the support of our major funders, whose generosity helped make the inaugural year of exhibitions and programs possible. Presenting Sponsor: Mary and Tim Boyle; Lead Sponsors: William G. Gilmore Foundation, Mary and Pete Mark Family Foundation, Meier Family Fund, and Anonymous; Major Sponsors: Greg and Cathy Tibbles, Pat and Trudy Ritz; Sponsors: Alix and Tom Goodman, Grace Serbu and Ivan Gold, The Smidt Foundation, Darci and Charlie Swindells, Mr. and Mrs. William A. Whitsell, and Janet Macomber Williamson.

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Coquelico will be an experiential, modern European bistro offering an inspired, simple menu with breakfast, lunch, and dessert, plus seasonal offerings and rotating dishes inspired by exhibitions at the Museum. It will also offer full coffee service all day, featuring iconic Portland roaster Spella Coffee, who has created a custom roast available only at Coquelico and Providore, with wine, beer, vermouth, and non-alcoholic cocktail options in the afternoon and early evening. Coquelico is slated to open in mid-September, in advance of the Museum’s grand campus reopening on November 20.

“Food is art, and we hope that people will come and see some really beautiful art, and then sit down and have a continuation of that on the plate,” said Kaie Wellman, co-owner of Providore Fine Foods. 

Customers can look forward to bistro dishes like Toasted House Loaf with Ricotta and Caramelized Honey, Lyonnaise Salad, Tartines, and Seasonal Pavlovas, to name just a few of the dishes available for dine-in or take-out. The collaborative, community-building spirit shared by both Providore and PAM will be evident through thoughtfully sourced ingredients, partnerships, and collaborations with Portland brands and partners.

“I am thrilled to have Kaie’s vision and leadership for this major moment for us and the city,” said Brian Ferriso, Portland Art Museum Director. “Kaie’s creative approach to food and inclusive hospitality align perfectly with the Museum’s. She also believes in Portland, with a deep connection to the vibrant food scene and cultural vitality that has made the city so special in recent decades.”  

For Wellman, who co-owns Providore with her husband, Kevin de Garmo, the opportunity to be part of a flagship institution invigorating the downtown core was a key part of their decision-making. 

“I want to be part of people seeing downtown through a new lens. We want to show people, along with this spectacular remodel and reimagining of the museum, that Portland is not only an incredible, unique city, but one that stands tall during tough times,” Wellman said. “Museums are the cultural hubs of cities, and for us to be a part of the next chapter of PAM is super exciting.”

Coquelico will occupy a prime location on the Portland Art Museum’s new West Plaza with windows onto Southwest 10th Avenue and doors that open for al fresco dining and imbibing on the plaza. It is also adjacent to the brand-new Shop at PAM, which opens to the public on September 3. Together, the cafe and shop provide a continuous, flexible use space for Museum programs and rental events. The West Plaza, created by the addition of the Mark Rothko Pavilion, offers Museum entry from Southwest 10th Avenue, sculpture, and outdoor seating.

The renovated cafe and adjacent retail space are essential components of the Museum’s $111 million expansion project, which represents one of the most significant capital investments in the arts in the history of Oregon and was made possible through the Museum’s Connection Campaign. PAM is especially grateful to Board of Trustees member Grace Rose Serbu for her generous support of these beautiful new spaces that enrich the visitor experience and affirm the Museum’s role as a civic anchor in downtown Portland. As one of the oldest museums in the Pacific Northwest and the only major art museum between Seattle and San Francisco, PAM is an essential cultural lifeline for the region with a diverse slate of exhibitions and programs that highlight art from around Oregon, the region, and the world.  For more information on PAM’s campus transformation, please visit portlandartmuseum.org/campus-transformation.

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Portland Art Museum (PAM) announced today that its expanded and renovated campus, which will completely transform the existing Museum and create a vital “cultural commons” in the heart of downtown Portland, will open to the public on November 20, 2025. The Museum will host a free four-day celebration for the community with festivities inside and outside the museum, and meaningful opportunities to connect with and be inspired by art.  

Designed in partnership by Portland’s Hennebery Eddy Architects and Chicago-based Vinci Hamp Architects, the expansion project is one of the most significant capital investments in the arts in the history of Oregon. It will add nearly 100,000 square feet of new or upgraded public and gallery space, providing increased access to exhibitions and programs, updated amenities that address the needs of more diverse audiences, and new ways to experience PAM’s robust collection. The expanded and renovated galleries will feature a complete reinstallation of the Museum’s wide-ranging collection, highlighting nearly 300 major new acquisitions including works by Jeffrey Gibson, Simone Leigh, and Ugo Rondinone, alongside works that have rarely or never before been on view. The reimagined Museum will also house a newly dedicated gallery space for exhibition programming focused on Black art and experiences, showcasing works, exhibitions, and performances by local, regional, and global emerging and established Black artists.

“The Museum’s transformed campus is a result of a decades-long vision to better serve our community as the cornerstone of Portland’s downtown cultural district,” said Brian Ferriso, Director of the Portland Art Museum. “As one of the oldest art museums in the country, and the only major art museum between Seattle and San Francisco, PAM is an essential cultural lifeline for our region. The new PAM will create a dynamic destination for the arts, reinvigorating our city and offering expanded opportunities to engage audiences with art from around Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and the world. We can’t wait for everyone to experience the new PAM this November.”

In an effort to bring elements of the completed campus to the public as soon as possible, select newly reinstalled collection galleries will reopen in PAM’s landmark 1932 Main Building prior to the fall, and PAM’s new café and store will open to the community in late August. Additionally, the Museum will continue its special exhibition programming, with Global Icons, Local Spotlight: Contemporary Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer, opening September 6, 2025, and Yoshida Chizuko, opening September 27, 2025.  Global Icons, Local Spotlight highlights works by celebrated artists of the 20th century such as Louise Bourgeois and Jasper Johns, and contemporary luminaries including Nick Cave and Mickalene Thomas from the collection of Jordan Schnitzer, one of Oregon’s foremost art collectors and the son of philanthropist and longtime PAM supporter Arlene Schnitzer. Yoshida Chizuko will present the first major retrospective to focus on the groundbreaking 20th-century painter and printmaker Yoshida Chizuko (1924–2017), a pioneering woman modernist from Japan. With recent acquisitions drawn from PAM’s collection, the exhibition will feature several works by the oft-overlooked artist that have never been exhibited.

PAM’s transformation centers on the creation of the 21,881-square-foot Mark Rothko Pavilion, which provides a new transparent, welcoming “front door” to the museum. The glass Pavilion connects the Museum’s two historic buildings—the landmark 1932 Main Building to the south, designed by Pietro Belluschi, and the Mark Building to the north, a former Masonic Temple designed by Frederick Fritsch in 1924—creating streamlined circulation across all four floors of gallery space. Upon the project’s unveiling, visitors will experience new, more intuitive pathways to encounter art throughout the entirely reimagined permanent galleries. 

PAM’s collection & reinstalled galleries

PAM’s far-ranging collection encompasses Northwest art, Native American art, Asian art, European and American art, prints and drawings, photography, and modern and contemporary art. Over the past two decades, the Museum has significantly expanded its collection to add works by historically underrepresented artists from across the region and the broader U.S., with an emphasis on acquiring works by women, Native American, and Black artists, as well as by other artists of color. New acquisitions to the collection will be on view both in PAM’s galleries and in newly created outdoor public spaces, providing opportunities for the entire Portland community to engage with and experience art.

The reinstalled galleries will adopt a new approach to exhibiting PAM’s collections, shifting from traditional chronological and geography-based presentations to thematic displays that emphasize place, community, and identity, and tell stories that speak to the interests of Oregon audiences and foster critical dialogue. Several collection galleries will reflect a more collaborative, cross-departmental approach to curation that allows visitors to discover new interpretations of and unexpected connections between the works on view.

PAM’s new campus

The pavilion is named in honor of Mark Rothko (1903–1970), who spent his childhood in Portland after his family emigrated from Latvia and who took classes at the Museum’s art school, reflecting a unique partnership between PAM and the Rothko family. Further underscoring this connection, when it reopens the Museum will present a focused exhibition of the late artist’s work in the Museum’s Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, featuring works on loan from the Rothko family’s unparalleled collection, the National Gallery of Art, and private collectors.

The Rothko Pavilion is clad in custom, white-fritted and semi-transparent glass, offering glimpses of the art and activity within during the day, and acting as a glowing beacon for the arts downtown when illuminated at night. The Pavilion’s design incorporates an open-air passageway through the building connecting the museum’s East and West Entry Plazas to Portland’s South Park Blocks. The sheltered passageway provides unique views into the lobby and galleries for pedestrians and bicyclists who pass by.

The transformed campus also creates areas for the community to rest, reflect, and gather—inside the museum, on second and fourth-floor terraces overlooking the street and parks below, and in an outdoor public plaza on the west side of the new Pavilion. A new café and expanded store will also be accessible from the West Plaza, providing another public entry point.

Investing in PAM’s future

The Connection Campaign, PAM’s fundraising campaign to expand its campus and increase the Museum’s endowment, has raised 90 percent of its $141 million goal, 98 percent of which is privately funded. The campaign includes $111 million in construction costs and $30 million to grow the Museum’s endowment, ensuring that it remains a civic anchor for generations to come. More than 600 donors have expressed their support through contributions to the campaign as of March 2025, with gifts ranging in size from $1,000 to over $13 million. Fundraising is ongoing, with the campaign recently having entered its public phase. The Museum is welcoming gifts from donors at all levels.  

Learn more and join in supporting this once-in-a-generation project.

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The Portland Art Museum (PAM) has been awarded $500,000 from Bank of America in support of the Museum’s historic campus transformation. The $111 million expansion is one of the most significant capital investments in the arts in the history of Oregon. This generous gift also launches PAM’s Business Champions Circle, a new initiative inviting other businesses to invest in the future of the arts and recognize the critical role this project will play in the civic and economic revitalization of downtown Portland. 

PAM’s campus expansion and renovation will completely transform the existing museum and create a vital “cultural commons” in the heart of downtown Portland and will open to the public in late 2025. Adding nearly 100,000 square feet of new or upgraded public and gallery space, the project provides increased access to the museum’s exhibitions and programs, new ways to experience its extensive collection and new amenities that address the needs of more diverse audiences. The project centers on the creation of the new 24,000-square-foot Mark Rothko Pavilion, which will provide a transparent, welcoming “front door” to the museum. Designed for increased visitor accessibility, the glass Pavilion will connect the museum’s two historic buildings, creating streamlined circulation across all four floors of gallery space.

“Our transformed campus will invite visitors to make meaningful connections with art, find inspiration, and spark their creativity,” said Brian Ferriso, Director of the Portland Art Museum. “We are deeply grateful to Bank of America for their leadership and generous support, which underscores their commitment to strengthening cultural institutions and their role in revitalizing communities. The new PAM will become a vibrant destination for residents and tourists alike, helping to reinvigorate downtown Portland and contribute to the broader economic recovery of our city.”

By supporting PAM’s transformation, Bank of America underscores the importance of investing in cultural institutions that drive economic growth and tourism. The Museum’s expansion will attract visitors from across the region and around the world, generating revenue for local businesses, hotels, and restaurants, while positioning Portland as a major cultural destination.

Business investments in cultural institutions such as PAM contribute directly to the economic health and cultural vitality of their communities. The arts not only enhance quality of life but also have a measurable impact on tourism, job creation, and local economies. A revitalized Portland Art Museum will support downtown’s recovery by drawing visitors back to the city’s core, creating a ripple effect that drives commerce to local businesses, supporting local jobs, and contributing to a vibrant community. In the City of Portland, nonprofit arts and culture organizations spent an estimated $237.8 million in 2022, which supported 4,435 jobs and generated $59.1 million in local, state, and federal government revenue.

“Bank of America’s support of the arts as a driving force in the revitalization of Portland’s economy comes at a crucial time for our city,” said Roger Hinshaw, president of Bank of America Oregon and Southwest Washington. “PAM is Portland’s preeminent visual arts organization, and this support for their transformation is a further demonstration of our ongoing commitment to responsible growth that we hope will serve as a larger catalyst—attracting others from the business community to support the Corporate Champions Circle—as we work together to bring back a vibrant and inclusive downtown.”

The renovation will culminate with a complete reinstallation of the Museum’s encyclopedic collection, which includes Northwest art, Native American art, Asian art, American and European art, modern and contemporary art, prints and drawing, photography, and new media and film. The Museum’s collection is distinguished by its strong sense of place, with art that reflects the regional landscape and works spanning generations of nationally renowned artists who have all drawn inspiration from Oregon’s natural beauty and Portland’s creative culture.

The transformed campus will provide areas for visitors to rest, reflect, and gather—inside the museum, on second- and fourth-floor terraces overlooking the street and parks below, and in an outdoor public plaza on the west side of the new Pavilion. A new café and expanded store will be accessible from the West Plaza, which also provides another public entry point to PAM. Additionally, the design incorporates an open-air passageway through the building connecting the Museum’s East and West Entry Plazas to Portland’s South Park Blocks. The sheltered passageway provides unique views into museum galleries and the Commons for passersby.

PAM’s campus is a cornerstone of the downtown Portland cultural district, serving as an important source of inspiration for those who live and work in Oregon. The Museum also radiates its impact out beyond its walls with programming and partnerships that reach communities across the state and Southwest Washington. As one of the oldest museums in the Pacific Northwest and the only major art museum between Seattle and San Francisco, PAM is an essential cultural lifeline for the region with a diverse slate of exhibitions and programs that highlight art from around Oregon, the region, and the world.

The Business Champions Circle will bring together visionary leaders interested in investing in the arts to build a brighter future for our city. The Business Champions Circle honors those business leaders who recognize that the arts are a spark for the economy while improving Portland residents’ quality of life and forging community connection and learning.

Bank of America is one of PAM’s longstanding partners and has been involved with many initiatives at the Museum, including support of past PAM exhibitions Jeffrey Gibson: They Come From Fire; Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism; and Paris 1900: City of Entertainment, among others. Bank of America has also supported two conservation projects at the Museum: in 2019 PAM received an Art Conservation Project grant for the conservation of the Roy Lichtenstein Brushstrokes, the iconic sculpture in front of the museum on SW Park Avenue, and in 2024 PAM received an Art Conservation Project grant to support the restoration of Claude Monet’s Waterlilies, one of the French painter’s most universally recognized oil-on-canvas paintings, to return the work to Monet’s intended appearance. The financial institution has also lent works from its private collection to PAM and the museum is a Bank of America Museums on Us Partner, where bank clients can use their debit or credit cards to obtain free entry into the museum the first full weekend of every month.

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Collection objects never before exhibited in museum to comprise one-third of the total works on view.

Portland Art Museum (PAM) today shared details about what visitors will experience upon the opening of the Museum’s $111M campus expansion and renovation project in late 2025. The project to transform the existing museum will add almost 100,000 square feet of new or upgraded public and gallery space, providing new ways to experience its robust collection, updated amenities that address the needs of more diverse audiences, and increased access to exhibitions and programs. Expanded and renovated galleries will feature a complete reinstallation of the Museum’s wide-ranging collection, highlighting nearly 300 major new acquisitions including works by Jeffrey Gibson, Simone Leigh, Ugo Rondinone, Wendy Red Star, Pedro Reyes, Marie Watt, and Carrie Mae Weems, alongside works that are rarely or have never before been on view, revealing new perspectives that emphasize key themes of place, community, and identity. 

“We cannot wait to welcome visitors to the reimagined museum that will offer new and unexpected ways to engage with beloved works, alongside recent, exciting additions to the collection,” said Brian Ferriso, Director of the Portland Art Museum. “As a cultural anchor in a Pacific Rim city, the Portland Art Museum’s collections and programs are shaped by a profound sense of place and enriched by significant Indigenous histories and a vibrant community of regional artists. The newly unveiled galleries will invite our community to see themselves in our collection, highlighting the myriad identities that make up the Pacific Northwest and presenting works by generations of nationally renowned artists who have drawn inspiration from Oregon’s natural beauty and Portland’s creative culture.”

Designed in partnership by Portland’s Hennebery Eddy Architects and Chicago-based Vinci Hamp Architects, PAM’s transformed campus will create a vital “cultural commons” in the heart of downtown Portland. The project centers on the creation of the 21,881-square-foot Mark Rothko Pavilion, which will provide a new transparent, welcoming “front door” to the museum. The glass Pavilion will connect the Museum’s two historic buildings—the landmark 1932 Main Building to the south, designed by Pietro Belluschi, and the Mark Building to the north, a former Masonic Temple designed by Frederick Fritsch in 1924 that houses the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art—creating streamlined circulation across all four floors of gallery space. Upon the project’s completion, visitors will experience entirely reimagined permanent galleries; new, more intuitive pathways to encounter art; and increased visibility for PAM’s Native American and contemporary art collections.  

PAM’s far-ranging collection also encompasses Northwest art, Asian art, European and American art, prints and drawing, photography, and new media and film. Over the past two decades, the Museum has significantly diversified its collection, adding works by historically underrepresented artists from across the region and the broader U.S., with an emphasis on acquiring works by women, Native American and Black artists, as well as by other artists of color. New acquisitions to the collection will be on view both in PAM’s galleries and in newly created outdoor public spaces, providing opportunities for the entire Portland community to engage with and experience art.

The reinstalled galleries will adopt a new approach to PAM’s collections, shifting from traditional chronological and geography-based presentations to thematic displays that tell stories that speak to the interests of Oregon audiences, introduce new perspectives, and foster dialogue about the ideas shaping our lives. Several galleries will also draw throughlines across PAM’s collection, adopting a more collaborative, cross-departmental approach to curation that allows visitors to discover new interpretations of and unexpected connections between the works on view. Underscoring this approach, the Grand Gallery in the new Rothko Pavilion will feature an inaugural exhibition of sculpture that spotlights favorite works alongside recent acquisitions to explore how artists use natural materials and depict nature in three dimensions.

Collection galleries

Native American art (second & third floors, Main Building)

Portland Art Museum’s Native American art collection of 3,500 objects spans works representing the experiences of approximately 200 Indigenous cultural groups throughout the Americas. The second-floor galleries will showcase the diversity of Native American art through Shifting the Narrative: 21st Century Acquisitions, an exhibition of contemporary and historic art in photography, sculpture, fashion, basketry, and more. The presentation will highlight PAM’s acquisitions from 2000 to 2025 including Apsáalooke artist Wendy Red Star’s síkahpoyíí / bishée / baleiíttaashtee (Motor Oil Buffalo Dress), 2013; Diné photographer Will Wilson’s portrait of Nicholas Galanin from the Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX – O’Keeffe), 2013; and Ponca artist Julie Buffalohead’s The Nourished, 2019, alongside favorite pieces from the collection, among them a traditional Kwakwaka’wakw feast dish.

The third-floor galleries, which bridge the Native American and Northwest Art collections, will feature an exhibition of work by Rick Bartow, one of the region’s most prominent Native artists. Rick Bartow: Storyteller will include over 40 works from both PAM’s collection and loans demonstrating the late Wiyot artist’s gift as a visual storyteller, from whimsical depictions of animals to distorted and dark self-portraits, using a wide range of media including painting, pastels, and mixed media sculpture.

Northwest art (third & fourth floors, Main Building)

Continuing PAM’s tradition of amplifying Northwest artist voices, the third-floor galleries in the Main Building will feature a focused exhibition on Mary Henry, a painter from the region. On view will be a variety of works from Henry, from never-before-exhibited works on paper to large-scale geometric paintings, tracing the artist’s evolution from figuration to abstraction. 

On view in the fourth-floor galleries will be works drawn from PAM’s growing collection of more than 10,000 objects by artists from the Northwest region, including many new acquisitions yet to be exhibited by artists such as Frank Okada, Dinh Q. Lê, V. Maldonado, Mary Ann Peters, and Tannaz Farsi, that reflect on personal history and identity forged through experiencing migration. The exhibition will further PAM’s dedication to serving as a living incubator for diverse stories from the region’s unique cultural heritage. 

Modern and Contemporary art (first, second, third, and fourth floors, Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, Mark Building)

For the inaugural year, the first floor of the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art in the Mark Building will feature an exhibition space highlighting artwork that reflects the multitude of Black experiences in the United States. On view in this space will be Tenderhead, a solo exhibition featuring new works and a site-specific installation by Portland artist Lisa Jarrett; an exhibition of Black printmakers from PAM’s collection, including recent acquisitions from Derrick Adams, Robert Pruitt, Alison Saar, Kara Walker, and others; and Do I Look Like a Lady? (Comedians and Singers) (2016), a video installation by Mickalene Thomas. The gallery will also be visible through the museum’s transparent facade as visitors traverse a public passageway. 

Showcasing more of the Museum’s monumental contemporary works, the spacious second level of galleries will exhibit visitor favorites from the collection, alongside a number of significant recent acquisitions that explore contemporary stories of identity, activism, and place. The reconfiguration of the voluminous and high-ceilinged contemporary galleries offers a new approach to exhibiting large-scale works and new ways for visitors to encounter the breadth of the collection. New acquisitions on view will include Wolfgang Tillmans’ Greifbar 50, 2017, and Simone Leigh’s Sentinel IV (Gold), 2021. PAM’s former library on the same floor will be redesigned as the Crumpacker Center for New Art, a 2,700-square-foot space dedicated to large-scale artists’ projects and innovative art forms. Inaugurating the new gallery will be an installation of Pipilotti Rist’s 4th Floor to Mildness (2016), making its West Coast debut at PAM. The groundbreaking video artist will transform the gallery into a space filled with luminous color, moving imagery, and melodic sound, creating an environment that allows visitors to relax and lose themselves in the work. 

The upper floors of the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art will show selections from the modern collection, highlighting its strength in Light and Space artists from the 1960s to 1980s with works that explore perception, surface, materials, and process. The top-level gallery will be dedicated to a focused exhibition on Mark Rothko, the namesake for PAM’s new pavilion and a onetime Portlander, reintroducing local audiences to one of the foremost American artists of the twentieth century. The exhibition will include works on loan from the Rothko family’s unparalleled collection, secured through a unique partnership with the Museum. Further exploring the artist’s legacy, an accompanying exhibition on the same floor will showcase innovations in abstract painting with works by women artists and artists of color, alongside other major figures in PAM’s collection. Joining collection favorites by Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, and Anne Truitt, recent acquisitions on view in this presentation include works by Kay WalkingStick, Reginald Sylvester II, Tabor Robak, and Morris Louis.

Photography (second floor, Main Building)

With a newly expanded footprint in the Museum, the 3,342-square-foot photography galleries will present Together, an exhibition of 60 photographs, including several recent acquisitions from artists such as Berenice Abbott, Ray Metzker, Leah Kolakowski, and Emery Barnes, that picture groups of people in community. The first new exhibition of photography from PAM’s collection since 2021, Together will emphasize how photography meaningfully connects us to each other and documents the connectedness in our lives. The galleries will also feature works that explore how photography connects us to place with an array of images that explore West Coast landscapes of the United States, as well as a focused study on the history of photography and the evolution of photographic materials.

New Media (lower level, Main Building)

Located on the lower level of the Main Building just outside of PAM’s newly restored Whitsell Auditorium, the new media gallery will feature a single large-scale work by Marco Brambilla, Heaven’s Gate, 2022. Adapted especially for PAM to fill this space, the hyper-saturated image unites familiar film characters with fantastical set pieces, transforming them into infinitely looping memes trapped in time. 

Together, the Whitsell Auditorium and dedicated gallery for new media create a new destination to showcase PAM CUT // Center for an Untold Tomorrow, the Museum’s film and new media program. Events, installations, and activations in these spaces will complement the cutting-edge programming taking place at the Tomorrow Theater, PAM CUT’s space in Southeast Portland.

Asian art (first floor, Main Building)

Showcasing PAM’s robust collection, which has been a focused area of collecting since the museum’s inception, the Asian art galleries will display a mix of contemporary and historic works, featuring recent acquisitions alongside loans from notable collections. Visitors will first encounter the inaugural exhibition, MAKERS: The Culture of Craft, spotlighting the beauty of everyday objects from the Japanese collection across time periods. The exhibition draws its inspiration from Portland’s vibrant maker culture that has long made the city a destination for artists and creatives. Adjacent galleries focused on works from Japan, Korea, and China will include contemporary Japanese ceramics by women artists, recently gifted works by Japanese photographer Kenji Nakahashi, a newly conserved Korean screen painting, the arts of Buddhism from across Asia, and significant works from PAM’s Chinese collection that emphasize its strengths in Han dynasty and early Chinese art.

Prints & drawings (lower level, Main Building)

The prints and drawing galleries will emphasize the PAM collection’s strong sense of place, uplifting the history of printmaking in the Pacific Northwest with Inkling Studio: Printmaking in Portland, 1981-2009. The exhibition tells the story of a cooperative print studio in Portland that fostered community and inspired dozens of artists including Sherrie Wolf and Tom Prochaska. A special presentation of lithographs by Paul Harris will also be on view in a newly created gallery space for rotating exhibitions on the second floor of the Main building. The exhibition will present 20 recently gifted, colorful lithographs from Harris’ Shut-in Suite, 1969-70 series depicting vibrant tableaus that reflect upon the isolation, beauty, and magic of everyday life. 

European and American art pre-1930 (second floor, Main Building)

Spread across nine galleries, paintings, sculpture, vases, silver, busts, and more works from the European and American collections will be featured in thematic presentations that provide visitors new entry points to engage with, understand, and appreciate PAM’s collection. The European galleries will examine portraiture as an expression of identity and impressionism as a global phenomenon, highlighting the museum’s outstanding collection of classic French Impressionist masterpieces alongside works that trace this movement as it was interpreted around the world. Among the works on view will be one of the collection’s treasures, Claude Monet’s Waterlilies, 1914-15, freshly restored by PAM’s conservation staff in 2024.

The American galleries will explore landscape paintings from across the United States; depictions of home life versus city life; and American painting in late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, marking a pivotal moment in U.S. history as America transitioned into the modern age. Paintings on view will include a mix of visitor favorites and rarely seen works from nationally celebrated artists such as John Singer Sargent, Albert Bierstadt, and Eliza Barchus. To encourage dialogue around the works, they will be paired with objects from other areas of PAM’s collection, such as sculpture by William Edmondson and selections of Native beadwork, that confront or engage the themes in the paintings. Continuing this cross-departmental curatorial collaboration, the landscape galleries will include a mix of European painting, photography, and Japanese prints, highlighting how a natural monument, such as the Portland area’s Mount Hood, can be the anchor of identity for an entire region.

PAM’s new campus 

In addition to offering visitors new ways to make meaningful connections with art, the transformed campus will provide areas for the community to rest, reflect, and gather—inside the museum, on second and fourth-floor terraces overlooking the street and parks below, and in an outdoor public plaza on the west side of the new Pavilion where a new acquisition, the sun, 2018, by Ugo Rondinone, will be installed. A new café and expanded store will also be accessible from the West Plaza, providing another public entry point. The design for the Pavilion incorporates an open-air passageway through the building connecting the museum’s East and West Entry Plazas to Portland’s South Park Blocks. The sheltered passageway provides unique views into museum galleries and lobby for pedestrians and bicyclists who pass by.

Named in honor of Mark Rothko, who spent his childhood in Portland after his family emigrated from Latvia and who took classes at the Museum’s art school, PAM’s Rothko Pavilion will offer glimpses of the art and activity during the day and at night, the lit-up crystalline pavilion will glow, serving as a beacon for the arts downtown. 

PAM’s campus is a cornerstone of the downtown Portland cultural district, serving as an important source of inspiration for those who live and work in Oregon. As one of the oldest museums in the Pacific Northwest and the only major art museum between Seattle and San Francisco, PAM is an essential cultural lifeline for the region with a diverse slate of exhibitions and programs that highlight art from around Oregon, the region, and the world.

Investing in PAM’s future

The Museum’s $111 million expansion represents one of the most significant capital investments in the arts in the history of Oregon. 

The fundraising campaign to expand PAM and increase the Museum’s endowment has raised $125.9 million as of September 30, 2024, of its $141 million goal, 98 percent of which is privately funded. The campaign includes $111 million in construction costs and $30 million to grow the Museum’s endowment, ensuring that it remains a civic anchor for generations to come. More than 400 donors have expressed their support through contributions to the campaign as of September 30, 2024, with gifts ranging in size from $1,000 to over $13 million. Fundraising is ongoing to complete the campaign. 

Generous contributions from donors, extending beyond the Connection Campaign, have enabled major new acquisitions, enriching the collection for the transformed campus. PAM is pleased to acknowledge the gift of the Miller Meigs Collection, Simone Leigh, Sentinel IV (Gold), 2021; the acquisition of Ugo Rondinone’s the sun, 2018, made possible by Frances and John von Schlegell; and Painting the Town, 2021 by Carrie Mae Weems, generously gifted by the artist.

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During the ceremony, the top roof beam was placed for the nearly 22,000-square-foot pavilion, which will provide a new transparent, welcoming “front door” to the Museum. Guests had the opportunity to commemorate by signing the beam, and representatives from the Portland Art Museum and Mortenson gave remarks during the event. 

Designed for increased visitor accessibility, the glass Pavilion will connect the Museum’s two historic buildings—the landmark 1932 Main Building and the Mark Building, a former Masonic temple renovated by PAM in 2005—creating streamlined circulation across all four floors of gallery space. The pavilion is named in honor of renowned abstract artist Mark Rothko (1903-1970) who spent his childhood in Portland. 

“Yesterday’s topping-off ceremony was an inspiring moment for the PAM and the larger Portland community, marking an important step in realizing the vision of our transformed campus,” said Brian Ferriso, Director and Chief Curator of the Portland Art Museum. “The Museum is the anchor of our downtown cultural district, and we look forward to being able to better serve our audiences across the city and state, and to welcoming national and global visitors to experience the work of artists from across the region and around the world.”

Spearheaded by Chicago-based architecture firm Vinci Hamp in collaboration with Portland’s Hennebery Eddy Architects, the PAM campus transformation project is among the most significant capital projects in the city and a catalyzing force in revitalizing Portland’s downtown core. According to a 2023 study released by Americans for the Arts, Oregon’s nonprofit and for-profit arts and culture sector accounted for 3.4% of the state economy and its nonprofit arts industry alone generated $829 million in economic activity annually. Upon completion in late 2025, visitors will encounter an entirely reimagined museum experience with reinstalled galleries and more intuitive pathways to encounter PAM’s collection. The renovation and expansion will feature a complete reinstallation of the Museum’s encyclopedic collection, which includes Northwest art, Native American art, Asian art, American and European art, modern and contemporary art, prints and drawing, photography, and new media and film. The transformed campus will also provide areas for visitors to rest, reflect, and gather with new outdoor terraces and public plazas, as well as an expanded café and store.  

​ “For more than 130 years, PAM has served as an essential cultural resource and beacon of creativity in this region. We are deeply grateful to our supporters across Portland and beyond as we embark upon this monumental transformation,” said Alix Meier Goodman, Chair of the Portland Art Museum Board of Trustees. “Thanks to the enormous generosity in our community, we can ensure this museum will remain a source of joy, learning, and inspiration for generations to come.” 

“This project is incredibly special on so many levels, not the least of which is the opportunity to expand such a culturally important destination for Portland,” said Mike Clifford, Vice President and General Manager of Mortenson. “The intricacies of surgical-like demolition and the merging of modern new construction with the historic buildings required meticulous planning and precise skills. We could not have accomplished this great progress so far without many great partners like the Museum’s leadership and a team of highly experienced construction professionals.”  

The Museum and Mortenson recognize and thank all of the partners that are a part of this complex project, including Urban Resources Inc, Hennebery Eddy Architects, Vinci Hamp Architects, and the many sub-consultants, trade partners, and craftworkers that have contributed.

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Portland Art Museum (PAM) announced today that its campus expansion and renovation project, which will completely transform the existing Museum and create a vital “cultural commons” in the heart of downtown Portland, will open to the public in late 2025. Adding 95,000 square feet of new or upgraded public and gallery space, the project provides increased access to the Museum’s exhibitions and programs, new ways to experience its robust collection, and new amenities that address the needs of more diverse audiences.

Designed in partnership by Portland’s Hennebery Eddy Architects and Chicago-based Vinci Hamp Architects, the $111 million expansion is one of the most significant capital investments in the arts in the history of Oregon. The project centers on the creation of the new 24,000-square-foot Mark Rothko Pavilion, which will provide a new transparent, welcoming “front door” to the museum. Designed for increased visitor accessibility, the glass Pavilion will connect the Museum’s two historic buildings, creating streamlined circulation across all four floors of gallery space.

Named in honor of Mark Rothko (1903–1970)—the renowned abstract artist who spent his childhood in Portland after his family emigrated from Latvia and took classes at the Museum’s art school—the Pavilion will bridge PAM’s landmark 1932 Main Building, designed by Pietro Belluschi, and the Mark Building, a former Masonic Temple designed by Frederick Fritsch in 1924 and acquired by the Museum in 1992. With a translucent facade that offers glimpses of the art and activity within, the Pavilion will be clad in custom, white-fritted and semi-transparent glass, creating an elegant, crystalline building that when lit, will serve as a glowing beacon for the arts downtown. Upon the project’s completion, visitors will encounter an entirely new Museum experience with completely reinstalled galleries; new, more intuitive pathways to encounter art; and increased visibility for its Native American and contemporary art collections.

“Though the Museum has remained open during construction, we are looking forward to welcoming our community back to experience a new PAM next year,” said Brian Ferriso, Executive Director and Chief Curator, Portland Art Museum. “Our transformed campus will invite visitors to make meaningful connections with art, find inspiration, and spark their creativity. The new PAM will create a dynamic destination for the arts in downtown Portland, reinvigorating our city and drawing visitors from around the region and world.”

The renovation and expansion will feature a complete reinstallation of the Museum’s encyclopedic collection, which includes Northwest art, Native American art, Asian art, American and European art, modern and contemporary art, prints and drawing, photography, and new media and film. The Museum’s collection is distinguished by its strong sense of place, with art that reflects the regional landscape and works spanning generations of nationally renowned artists who have all drawn inspiration from Oregon’s natural beauty and Portland’s creative culture.

Over the past two decades the Museum has significantly diversified its collection, adding works by historically underrepresented artists, with an emphasis on acquiring works by women, Native American and Black artists, as well as by other artists of color. The expanded public and gallery spaces will allow the Museum to showcase more of its holdings, exhibiting favorite works of art alongside recent acquisitions to introduce fresh perspectives on the collection.

The campus expansion will add 2,700 square feet of exhibition space for contemporary art in the Crumpacker Center for New Art, located in the Mark Building, and create a new gallery space on the second floor of the Main building. The Museum’s Library & Research Center will be relocated to the first floor of the Mark Building, allowing easier access to its extensive holdings of archival materials. The interior of PAM’s Whitsell Auditorium, a popular location for talks and film screenings, will also be refreshed.

The transformed campus will provide areas for visitors to rest, reflect, and gather—inside the museum, on second- and fourth-floor terraces overlooking the street and parks below, and in an outdoor public plaza on the west side of the new Pavilion. A new café and expanded store will be accessible from the West Plaza, which also provides another public entry point to PAM. Additionally, the design incorporates an open-air passageway through the building connecting the Museum’s East and West Entry Plazas to Portland’s South Park Blocks. The sheltered passageway provides unique views into museum galleries and the Commons for the pedestrians and bicyclists who pass by.

“This project would not be possible without the generous support of so many people from Portland and across the region, along with the foundations and businesses who value the role that the arts play in our city,”said Alix Meier Goodman, Chair of Portland Art Museum Board of Trustees. “For more than 100 years PAM has served as a vital civic, educational, and cultural resource, and this expansion will ensure the Museum continues to thrive for generations to come.”

PAM’s campus is a cornerstone of the downtown Portland cultural district, serving as an important source of inspiration for those who live and work in Oregon. The Museum also radiates its impact out beyond its walls with programming and partnerships that reach communities across the state and Southwest Washington. As one of the oldest museums in the Pacific Northwest and the only major art museum between Seattle and San Francisco, PAM is an essential cultural lifeline for the region with a diverse slate of exhibitions and programs that highlight art from around Oregon, the region, and the world.

The fundraising campaign to expand PAM and increase the Museum’s endowment has to date raised $122 million of its $141 million goal, 98 percent of which is privately funded. The campaign includes $111 million in construction costs and $30 million to grow the Museum’s endowment, ensuring that it remains a civic anchor for generations to come. More than 300 donors have expressed their support through contributions to the campaign, with gifts ranging in size from $1,000 to over $13 million. Fundraising is ongoing to complete the campaign.

Lead campaign gifts include $13.5 million from Arlene Schnitzer, $8 million from an anonymous donor, $5 million from Mary and Tim Boyle, $5 million from Ryan and Mary Finley, $5 million from Trudy and Pat Ritz, $5 million from Nani S. Warren, and $5 million from Helen Jo and Bill Whitsell.

The expansion and renovation of the Museum’s main campus follows the opening late last year of the Tomorrow Theater, PAM CUT // Center for an Untold Tomorrow’s new space to present film and new media in Southeast Portland, expanding the Museum’s programming and physical presence to another part of the city as part of the ongoing revitalization of Portland.

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We’re flexing these new muscles in the coming year with the exhibition Throughlines: Connections in the Collection (opening October 28, 2023), engaging more with community-based and artist partners to better spotlight art, artists, and the communities they come from. We envision collection galleries as responsive spaces for storytelling, creative production, and community connection, engaging with more diverse audiences as well as evolving social, cultural, and creative contexts.

Hear from PAM curators about this process: Kathleen Ash-Milby, Curator of Native American Art; Mary Weaver Chapin, Ph.D., Curator of Prints and Drawings; Julia Dolan, Ph.D., The Minor White Curator of Photography; Erin Grant, Assistant Curator of Native American Art; Jeannie Kenmotsu, Ph.D., The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art; Sara Krajewski, The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art;  and Grace Kook-Anderson, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art. 

What opportunities excite you about the new Pavilion and the refreshed galleries, and how does the new physical connection prompt the team to think about thematic connections amongst the artworks? 

Sara: I am thrilled by the opportunity that the Pavilion entrance and community commons offer visitors—you will be able to choose your own pathway through the galleries from the beginning of your experience, connecting horizontally on each level. I hope this encourages visitors to explore the galleries in ways they haven’t before. For example, we’re thinking of a broader presentation of contemporary art across the top level where the Hoffman wing joins the Jubitz Center.

Grace: The physical connection on the fourth floor across our intersecting departments is really exciting, as it will truly echo the connections made by contemporary art. Previously, what might be programmatically the most similar in scope and attention—the APEX exhibition series showcasing Northwest artists, the Contemporary Native American Art program, and the ongoing Crumpacker Center for New Art—were physically in very separate spaces. In this new presentation, along with PAM CUT’s programs, I hope that some form of these exhibitions will offer more of a flow of an exchange of ideas and collaborative efforts. 

Sara: The new orientation also provides visitors a direct route to the Crumpacker Center for New Art contained within the Modern and Contemporary wing, where we will program exciting exhibitions of cutting-edge contemporary art drawn from research across the curatorial team, from photography to new media, international to Northwest, and more, giving us another platform to support emerging artists and innovative practices. 

Jeannie: The current main entrance, facing the South Park Blocks, will transform from an entry point into an expansive new space for art. I’m excited by the possibilities and challenges of this gallery, which will retain its historic glass windows and doors. This makes for a beautiful setting but raises important considerations for light-sensitive works of art. I’m researching new projects that would highlight this unusual space, yet still maintain a kinship with the adjacent galleries of Asian art. 

Mary: A new gallery above the new loading dock on the south side of the Main Building will provide a prime location for rotating exhibitions. I am busy working on shows featuring prints and drawings in dialogue with the adjacent galleries. Because the art in this room will be rotated frequently, visitors will make new discoveries each time, encountering Old Master woodcuts and engravings on one visit, and contemporary screenprints on another. The space is also amenable to focus exhibitions of paintings or photography—flexibility is a key feature of this beautiful gallery. 

Julia: I’m so excited that the floor where the current photography galleries are located will be greatly expanded and offer places to sit, visit, and take in art as well as the cityscape. I love the intimate dimensions of the photography gallery and think that the new spaces around it will offer a lovely balance of experiences, especially after time spent looking closely at photographs.

Sara: The second floor in the Pavilion will be a beautiful, double-height gallery to showcase PAM’s strong collection of sculpture. We are collaborating on a project that highlights works from the Native American, Northwest, and Contemporary collections. One idea we are exploring—how sculptors depict nature—will resonate with the wonderful indoor/outdoor sensibility provided by the Pavilion’s glass walls. The airy aesthetics of this space will also make a lovely home for occasional performances and events. 

What has the planning process been like?

Mary: Over the past few years, we curators have been very attentive to other museums that are planning reinstallations. We take notes, ask questions of our colleagues, and when possible, make site visits. We are fortunate to have generous curators around the country who are willing to share their experiences. Like us, they are seeking to create warm, inviting spaces for visitors. There are so many diverse ways to approach this question, and the learning process is quite invigorating.  

Julia: Gallery reinstallation is a hot topic throughout the museum field, and we’re learning from our colleagues as they work on similar reconsiderations. In July, I attended the symposium Expanding Horizons: New Approaches in Display and Interpretation, which convened at the Toledo Museum of Art. Over 150 museum professionals from throughout the country were in attendance. People shared about their reinstallation planning processes, community considerations, successes and challenges, and varied approaches.

What new collaborations have emerged through the planning process? How are you thinking about how the spaces can reflect and speak to the connections between the collections that already exist?

Mary: Artists rarely confine their practices to one medium—painters frequently make prints and photographs, and sculptors often have lively drawing practices—but because works on paper are light sensitive, they have different requirements in the gallery. We hope to integrate works on paper into the painting galleries when appropriate, while also keeping separate spaces for these specific art forms where we can tell different, more medium-specific stories. 

Kathleen: Native American artists also work in all mediums, so confining their work to Native American Art galleries does not always make sense. I’ve had many opportunities to collaborate with acquisitions, programs and exhibitions since I arrived four years ago. The new Rothko Pavilion planning is building on this spirit of connection between our curatorial areas. Our visitors and artists benefit from this more expansive vision.

Are there ways that the team is thinking differently about acquisitions and shaping the collection in collaborative ways? With exhibitions too? 

Sara: We have been doing this over the past several years, but now the new connectivity in the galleries allows us to call it out and contextualize this practice

Mary: Agreed—this isn’t a new practice for us, but it has been moved to the forefront. There is a lot of overlap in our curatorial niches, and now we have the opportunity to think about collections in a collaborative way. 

Jeannie: One example is Japanese photography—I recruited Julia to work with me on a recent acquisition of a group of conceptual photographs, which will likely be shown soon after reopening. Together we are also in the very early stages of a larger exhibition project that will examine an early twentieth-century Japanese-American photographer from the Pacific Northwest. Both projects are rooted in a shared sense that moving beyond area-specific curatorial silos is not only desirable and endemic to our way of working, it’s critical. 

Sara: We have experimented with Throughlines to give visitors a look at what cross-department collaboration could look like. This exhibition, in part, asks us to consider the ways art connects us across time, culture and geographies, and proposes that within the broad realm of visual art there are continuities and resonances to be celebrated together. In our planning for after the Pavilion opens, we have been holding two important considerations: While we’ll maintain specific collection galleries across the buildings, we will create moments where constellations of diverse works will expand narratives and perspectives. We also want to instill other areas of collaboration both internally and with partners, artists or guest curators, to be responsive to current issues, community voices, or other social opportunities where we can utilize the collection as a resource for reflection or provocation.

What opportunities does this bring for deepening relationships with Portland artists and community partners? 

Erin: I am hopeful the Rothko Pavilion will set the stage for Indigenous communities and all communities of color to center themselves and their knowledge amongst the art. During the next few years, the Native American Art galleries will undergo an entire redesign that prioritizes the art, Indigenous community voices, and updated display practices. We are currently in the process of doing a collection review including repatriation research, which will ultimately aid Kathleen Ash Milby and me in the ethical storytelling of these items for wider audiences. 

Kathleen: While the new Native American Art galleries will undergo a complete redesign which will likely launch a few years after the Rothko Pavilion is completed, we are exploring other ideas to highlight the collection in our galleries. These include a 21st-century acquisitions exhibition and a smaller installation focused on our local and regional collections. The Native American art program is bigger than our permanent collection galleries, so you’ll continue to see it throughout the Museum and new spaces. There is so much more to come in the years ahead!

Learn more about the Portland Art Museum’s collection and our Mark Rothko Pavilion, coming in 2025!

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Following the relocation of its main loading dock from the plaza facing the South Park Blocks to Southwest Jefferson Street, the Portland Art Museum is set to begin construction on the central Mark Rothko Pavilion. The Museum will remain open to the public offering a vibrant slate of special exhibitions, including the recently acclaimed Black Artists of Oregon (through March 17, 2024). 

Upcoming exhibitions include Africa Fashion (November 18, 2023 – February 18, 2024), Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks (March 30 – August 31, 2024), Psychedelic Rock Posters & Fashion of the Sixties (September 2024 – January 2025), and Throughlines: Connections in the Collection a collaborative exhibition of collection highlights that opens October 28 and will remain on view while the Museum’s permanent collection galleries are closed for construction.

This phase of construction is part of a major, multi-year expansion and renovation to create a more welcoming and inclusive art experience in downtown Portland. The project is among the most significant in the city, and a key part of revitalizing a downtown core that has been slow to recover after the pandemic. When construction is complete in mid-2025, the Museum will have added or renovated 95,000 square feet, connecting its historic Main and Mark buildings and creating new state-of-the-art exhibition galleries and features that include new elevators, public gathering spaces, and accessible restrooms.

“As the oldest museum in the Pacific Northwest, the Portland Art Museum is dedicated to the revitalization of our city and region,” said Director Brian Ferriso. “We are committed to remaining open during this renovation and to continue to fulfill our mission of making art accessible to all through world-class exhibitions, programs, and events.” Fundraising is underway for this project, which constitutes an investment of more than $111 million in downtown Portland at an essential time for reinvigorating the city. Fundraising is still underway, and the Museum will share more about the campaign next year.

During construction, visitors will enter the Museum on the SW Park Avenue side of the Main Building. Additionally, the passageway between the two buildings connecting SW 10th Avenue and SW Park Avenue will be fenced starting October 3, 2023, and will remain closed until completion of the project. The Museum has taken steps to ensure that both SW Jefferson and SW Main remain safe and usable routes for neighbors and people visiting Portland’s Cultural District.

For more information visit portlandartmuseum.org/rothko-pavilion.

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Preparation for the Mark Rothko Pavilion continues as the new loading dock is being constructed on the south end of campus along Southwest Jefferson Street. This move not only makes way for the Pavilion but provides a safer and more efficient way to move art and exhibitions in and out of the Museum. Progress includes the careful removal of the brick garden wall followed by larger-scale excavation and the commencement of building the new loading dock. Visitors inside the Museum will notice galleries on the south end of the Main Building are closed. This is because of the vibrations of the machinery and increased encroachment into the Museum interior as construction progresses. Concurrent with the construction
of the new loading dock, there is work throughout the Main Building to upgrade mechanical systems like sprinklers.

In August, preparations to begin work on the Mark Rothko Pavilion will be visible, with fencing going up in the courtyard and other work taking place. 

How to visit 

The Museum will remain open to visitors throughout the project. We encourage members and visitors to refer to the website, subscribe to our email newsletter, and follow us on social media before visiting to ensure that you get the most out of your visit while construction is underway. Some galleries may be inaccessible during various phases of construction. We are committed to reducing the environmental impact of construction (filtering air and reducing noise, for example) and ensuring visitor and staff safety; our visitor services associates are always here to help. 

Get involved 

Making this project a reality is a monumental undertaking, and we are so grateful to all of the donors and partners who have gotten us this far. Are you interested in learning more about the project and how you can be involved? Please contact campaign@pam.org. 

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