First Wave Programming Revealed March 5–14, 2021 (PORTLAND, OR) — The 44th Portland International Film Festival (PIFF 44) is proud to announce the first wave of titles and special events. Taking place March 5 – 14, 2021, PIFF 44 is a program of the Portland Art Museum’s Northwest Film Center, one of the oldest and… Read more
Author: Michael Smith
Many of us have likely gotten to know the streets we live on a bit better this year as we take walks in the neighborhood or spend time looking out our windows while we try to stay close to home and maintain social distancing. Or maybe life has shifted in a way that means our… Read more
January 22–February 8 Buy and browse online at westcoastprintfair.com By Mary Weaver Chapin, Curator of Prints and Drawings As with so many things this past year, the Portland Fine Print Fair (PFPF) is pivoting online. I am thrilled that we’re able to play a part in keeping this event going. For me, the Museum, and… Read more
Something about the diagrammatic silhouettes and obscured labels in Larry Rivers’s An Outline of History hit differently when I came across it in PAM’s Online Collections today. The shapes and composition are so familiar that I instantly recognized the moment in American history. Yet I still imagined a multitude of alternative narratives filling the negative… Read more
Approaching this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I am called to gather my thoughts more intentionally on what this day offers us in this particular moment in time. As one of the few Black stories acknowledged in US history books throughout childhood, the work of Dr. King cements him as a fixture in political… Read more
At two inches by two inches in diameter, this piece by Mary Adams (Mohawk, Canadian) feels quintessentially “small but mighty” and so full of intricate beauty. In these fraught days, we invite you to spend some time writing in this spirit of “small but mighty,” knowing that each of us has a mighty role to… Read more
Back in November, we closed the national tour of the PAM-organized exhibition, Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal… The works in the exhibition stick with me and I continue to be moved by Thomas’s art that tells us so much about the history and the present in our country. Throughout the last year, I’ve… Read more
We are thrilled to share seven new educational posters added to the popular Poster Project. With generous support from the PGE Foundation, the Portland Art Museum has created a set of posters every year since 2015 featuring works across our permanent collections. Our goal has always been to provide educators and students with inspiring and… Read more
This giant outdoor sculpture is not only an inspiring pop of color, but it is one of the artworks that’s free to view whether or not the Museum is open. Narrated by Sara Krajewski, the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Curator Of Modern and Contemporary Art, this video explores the history behind Roy Lichtenstein’s series of… Read more
This print is one of 12 split-screen compositions that represent each month of the year. Much like writing resolutions or eating black-eyed peas, The First Month shows activities associated with New Year celebrations. At the top, a handsome young man writes New Year greetings on a sheaf of paper tied to the decorative pine. A… Read more