Tomorrow marks the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year. We invite you to spend some time reflecting on and writing about this arrival of winter, using this piece from Grandma Moses as inspiration. Before or after you write, learn more about her life and work through the National Museum of Women in… Read more
Category: Connect
As we move towards the winter solstice and our nights continue to lengthen, we are exploring the gifts and challenges of the darkness, along with the expectant hope of the return of the light. This piece by Miyashita Zenji feels like the perfect companion for this time. We invite you to spend some time sitting… Read more
The winter chill has descended on much of Oregon, with cold rain, clouds, snow, and wind greeting us most days. Today we are finding some warmth and light in this piece by Anne Ryan. We invite you to take some time to write and reflect on the ways you are nurturing warmth and light in… Read more
“Promise and Purpose, the Ancestor’s Dream” was informed by multiple visits over the last twenty years to Lowndes County, Alabama (where my partner’s parents live) and my conflicted feelings experiencing the flora and fauna of their land while also considering the violent history of Lowndes as a mixed-race (Black and white) individual. The title of… Read more
On Sunday, November 29, 1,600 Museum Stores representing all 50 states, 24 countries, and five continents will offer inspired shopping inside your favorite museums and cultural institutions and online. “The message behind Museum Store Sunday is more important than ever,” said Portland Art Museum Store Manager Michelle Betcone. “The pandemic-related closures and capacity limits have… Read more
Oregonians have been asked to pause social gatherings to help curb the spike in COVID-19 cases across our state over the next two weeks. How can we step outside in our imaginations instead? Both the beauty found in this piece by Shima Tamami and the honking of geese and flitting of birds outside our windows… Read more
During the month of November, Literary Arts celebrates authors and Portland’s community of readers through a virtual edition of their annual Portland Book Festival, presented by Bank of America. Literary Arts is a community-based nonprofit with a mission to engage readers, support writers, and inspire the next generation with great literature. For the past five… Read more
Fall is deepening in the Northwest, and the natural world is letting go in preparation for winter. Amid the shifting social, political, racial, and economic hardships we are facing as a community, our seasons are shifting as well, offering us invitations to write and reflect on change. Childe Hassam’s New England Road captures this shifting… Read more
This Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020, is U.S. Election Day. We Oregonians fill out our ballots at home, return them by mail or by drop box, and then we wait. The results—the decisions we will have made collectively as communities and as a country—will likely have reverberations here at home, at our very own kitchen tables.… Read more
The Portland Art Museum welcomed prominent artists Carrie Mae Weems and Marie Watt to its Board of Trustees in its virtual annual meeting earlier this month. “I am so honored and excited that Carrie Mae Weems and Marie Watt accepted our invitation to help lead our institution at this crucial time,” said Brian Ferriso, Director… Read more