Founded in 1892, the Portland Art Museum (PAM) is the oldest art museum in the Pacific Northwest. It is considered an encyclopedic museum, featuring both rotating exhibitions, permanent galleries, and plentiful other opportunities throughout the museum itself and the outlets it partners with.
PAM currently only offers a limited number of exhibits due to construction for the new Mark Rothko Pavilion, set to open in 2025. Hopefully however, the improvements the pavilion will bring for PAM will greatly be worth the temporary limits on exhibition.
By creating a better connection between the two PAM buildings, the pavilion aims to increase community and accessibility throughout, creating better access, fluidity, and connection across the museum. As Grace Kook-Anderson, the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Artists, explains, “the largest aim for this Rothko Pavilion is to connect [PAM’s] two buildings, which are two very [historic and different] buildings …in an elegant way, all across on each floor.” Doing so will help make some corrections to the old designs and offer universal access. As Kook-Anderson states, in the “older model…the wheelchair access was a little bit hidden” and the approach to the museum entrance consisted of staircases. “That’s not something that everybody can access.” Furthermore, Kook-Anderson expresses that “hopefully, [the pavilion] will also provide a lot more areas of light and fluidity and other opportunities of gathering,” increasing the community for everyone.
Despite construction, there are still collections worth seeing. Visitors can wander through Throughlines: Connections in the Collection, the Black Artists of Oregon exhibition, and the new Africa Fashion exhibition, which opened Nov. 18, 2023.
As Kook-Anderson describes, a lot of thought and planning goes into each aspect of what is shown and when. The permanent collection galleries are “distinguished by the different areas of the museum’s collections,” including but not limited to the “Native American collection, the Northwest collection, Prints and Drawings, Photography, European American art, and Modern and Contemporary [art].” Within the collections, the artwork can vary in time shown in order to preserve the art pieces. Some factors, such as light sensitivity, can cause pieces to be up for shorter periods of time.
The exhibitions, however, are typically “more focused exhibitions that are on view for short term [and either] have a particular theme or are traveling shows,” Kook-Anderson continues. Their time at the museum typically lasts between 3-6 months.
Black Artists of Oregon, one of the exhibitions currently open at PAM, is an exhibition lasting roughly six months from Sept. 9, 2023 to March 17, 2024. This exhibition was guest curated by Intisar Abioto. Kook-Anderson, who also worked on this exhibition, explains that the idea was proposed by Abioto in 2020, and is “based on [Abioto’s] research and work that she’s been doing for over six years [to answer the question] who are the black artists that have preceded [her] here in Oregon.” Like many of the other research based exhibitions at PAM, it is based on a significant amount of research from the PAM archives at Oregon Historical Society, as well as on oral histories from talking to artists and elders in Oregon. As Kook-Anderson elaborates, it was important to “have the work on view as long as [PAM] could because there’s so many artists involved and also just the opportunity for people to have more time to see.”
The Africa Fashion Exhibition, on the other hand, is one of the traveling exhibitions at PAM. Kook-Anderson explains that it “came from the Victoria and Albert Museum, then went to Brooklyn, and now it’s coming [to PAM].” As of what is featured, she elaborates that “it represents several countries, [as well as] represents the kind of diasporic experience” and features local artists too. This exhibition will last three months, concluding on Feb. 18, 2024.
Throughlines, however, is more similar to the permanent galleries, mirroring many of the temporarily closed collections and showing “a glimpse of the exciting growth ahead as we look forward to the Mark Rothko Pavilion,” as the PAM website explains. It is “an exhibition about how the curators have all worked together,” Kook-Anderson details. This aligns with one of Kook-Anderson’s favorite things about PAM; she says that she “was really drawn to how collaborative all the curators are.”
Keri Jhaveri, the head of the collaborators at the Portland Art Museum Center for an Untold Tomorrow (PAM CUT), adds that the team of “really smart, motivated people” she works with is one of her favorite things about PAM CUT. As she says, PAM CUT is “separate but part of the Portland Art Museum.” PAM CUT is centered around new media focus projects, “so film, but also virtual reality, augmented reality, gaming, [and] podcasting. Anything that falls under New Media Arts is under the purview of PAM CUT.”
With this focus, PAM CUT has a variety of artist services, such as the sustainability lab. In this program, PAM CUT picks five artists who are in the middle of their artist career. “They get a sort of professional development support,” Jhaveri explains. “They’re paired with a mentor, and they learn about marketing. They really identify their own goals, and then [are paired] with folks in the industry who can help get them to the next level.” As Jhaveri reiterates, these artists aren’t “just getting out of college. [They’ve already] been making art for a while.” Per the PAM CUT website, they have a “minimum of one significant project completed in at least two different disciplines or mediums.” Mid-career artists aren’t the only ones served by PAM CUT though; PAM CUT also offers professional development workshops, and programs such as the upcoming “Youth Art Unbound, which is an art making intensive around New Media Arts for folks who are 11 to 14” that Jhaveri is building.
PAM now even extends to SE Portland, with PAM CUT’s newly opened Tomorrow Theater, which as Jhaveri elaborates “will have a more traditional film focus, but also film plus.” Most recently, “Where There’s Smoke” was featured at Tomorrow Theater, giving audiences an immersive storytelling experience created by Lance Weiler. More events, movies, and experiences are to come. Per the website, they all “embrace cinematic storytelling in all its forms” and often combine at least two art forms.
From galleries to exhibitions to workshops, classes, mentorships, new media arts, and film, the Portland Art Museum has a lot to offer. Though parts of the main museum are temporarily limited, its outreach is still strong, and currently becoming better than ever.
