Since the opening of the transformed Portland Art Museum last November, we have seen the promise of the transformation come to life: strong attendance, growing membership, ambitious exhibitions, expanded educational opportunities, positive national attention for Portland, and new ways for people to gather through art, film, and community programs.
In the spirit of our Everybody Is an Art Person campaign, that promise is visible every day—in students, families, artists, film lovers, members, visitors, and first-time museumgoers finding their way into the Museum and making it their own.
What has been most meaningful is seeing the Museum once again filled with people. Families exploring the galleries together. Students experiencing art firsthand. Members returning in force. Visitors from across the region discovering new connections to art, ideas, and one another.
The transformation was never simply about creating more space. It was about creating a more welcoming and accessible cultural institution, one that contributes to the vitality of downtown, serves learners of all ages, and brings people together through shared experiences.
As we move through our first year in the new campus, we are focused on sustaining that momentum. We are grateful for your partnership and wanted to share a few highlights.
With appreciation,
Karie Burch
Co-Interim Director & Chief Development Officer
Don Urquhart
Co-Interim Director & Director of Collections & Curatorial Affairs
Gareth Nevitt
Co-Interim Director & Chief Financial Officer
The New Campus in Action
- Attendance is up 35% over last year, with the Museum on track to welcome nearly 300,000 visitors for the fiscal year ending June 30.
- The transformed Museum opened with more than 30 exhibitions and gallery installations, bringing together artists and perspectives from Rick Bartow to Mark Rothko to Mickalene Thomas.
- Access remains central to our work, with 70,000 free visits over the past year, including more than 34,000 people who attended the four, free Grand Opening community days.
- Membership has returned to more than 20,000 households, reflecting renewed community connection and engagement.
- Demand for K–12 school tours has increased 50% compared to last year.
- The Museum’s reopening generated significant positive attention for Portland, with more than 390 regional, national, art, and architecture stories highlighting the transformed campus, the city’s creative energy, and Portland as a cultural destination.
- PAM CUT welcomed audiences back to the Whitsell Auditorium while continuing to expand programming at Tomorrow Theater.
- New exhibitions, performances, films, and educational programs continue to draw audiences downtown from across the region.
Grand Opening Press Coverage Highlights
National, Art, and Architecture
“The Portland Art Museum’s redesigned, glass-ensconced addition, due to open in late 2025, will make viewing easier and could be a boon to an ailing downtown.” — The New York Times
“From the artists who have come through Portland, to the regional artists, be they national names or not, to the Museum’s collection, which includes an exemplary Claude Monet Water Lilies and a Van Gogh oil painting unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, PAM stands on a belief that its city and region and itself needn’t take a backseat.” — Forbes
“…it offers a new main entrance, defers to its neighbors as a kind of hyphen between them, and stands as a gently glowing nighttime beacon.” — Architectural Record
Local Media Coverage Highlights
“…with its new Mark Rothko Pavilion (officially opening November 20), which connects and smooths out over a century of slightly awkward expansions, PAM is now a certifiably world-class art museum.” — Portland Monthly
“This is the Portland Art Museum’s year. With the grand opening of the $116 million Rothko Pavilion, the museum is betting big on downtown Portland tourism. It might work. The 24,000 square-foot addition connects two disparate halves of the museum, essentially adding up to one massive expansion. Even if you’ve been to the Portland Art Museum before, you owe yourself another visit this year.” — The Oregonian
“Portland Art Museum’s Black Art and Experiences Galleries Are an Art World Game Changer” — Willamette Week
Highlights Since Grand Opening
Closing July 26, David Hockney: Works from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation marked the first post-reopening exhibition. Thousands of people have visited this colorful retrospective of one of the most influential artists of our time, exploring two floors of prints, drawings, photos, and video. Visitors also have the opportunity to try their hand at iPad illustration, a medium that Hockney adopted early on.
The Black Art and Experiences Gallery has been the site of ceremonies, celebrations, performances, and community connection since it opened as part of the grand opening. Highlights included the naming consecration of the Thelma Johnson Street Gallery, a powerful performance series, and pop-up art making and gatherings as part of Free First Thursdays and Miller Family Community Free Days. Later this month, a new exhibition, the Harriet Tubman Center Museum, organized and curated by students at MLK Jr. Elementary School, opens to the public.
HeART of Portland celebrated its 12th year at the Portland Art Museum in April, and marked more than a decade of citywide funding for K-12 arts education. This annual event featured student dance, music, and theater performances as well as the opening of the student visual art exhibition, including over 100 works, and highlighting the diversity of arts offerings across PPS. The exhibition remains on view through September 20, 2026.
“Experiences like this go far beyond the stage—they build confidence, foster growth, and create lasting memories that students carry with them long after the performance ends.” – Jefferson High School Artistic Director Steve Gonzales (Oregon ArtsWatch)
Expanding Access
Free First Thursdays, made possible by the Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program, continue to draw thousands of visitors downtown on the first Thursday of each month. Beyond enjoying the galleries, these days often feature thematic art making, performances, and other ways to connect with art and each other.
Additional free and low cost visitor access opportunities continue to include quarterly Miller Family Community Free Days, free admission for kids age 17 and younger, free admission for veterans, free admission for active duty military and their family from Memorial Day to Labor Day, free Library passes at select library systems, $5 tickets for anyone with an Oregon Trail Card, and discounted admission for college students and seniors.
National Leadership in Arts Education
In March, the Museum launched MORE COLORS THAN THE EYE CAN SEE, an education initiative based on Gibson’s Venice Biennale exhibition, co-commissioned by the Portland Art Museum. The initiative is in partnership with the Smithsonian and features 14 free cross-disciplinary K-12 lessons. The Museum hosted a symposium in March to train local teachers to use these resources to promote Indigenous visibility and creative sovereignty.
PAM CUT and Cinema Unbound
In May, PAM CUT // Center for an Untold Tomorrow, the Portland Art Museum’s home for boundary-defying film and new media, wrapped its first-ever Cinema Unbound Week (May 23–31, 2026) after six days of packed public programming and a Seventh Annual Cinema Unbound Awards gala that exceeded its fundraising goal, raising over half a million dollars to power a year of unbound work. The celebratory week marked PAM CUT’s biggest public footprint to date, and audiences answered: Nearly every event sold out, with more than 16,000 participants taking part in a range of events, including the famed Criterion Mobile Closet, a collaboration with the WNBA Fire, and Unbound Comedy Weekend featuring none other than Maria Bamford.
“What the hell got hundreds of Portlanders out of bed so early on a Saturday morning? The Criterion Mobile Closet, of course. Criterion Closet Picks is the beloved YouTube series in which the world’s finest filmmakers and actors select their favorite films at Criterion’s New York offices. The Criterion truck is a pilgrimage that makes house calls. Parked across from the Portland Art Museum, its line began to form around 5 AM. The Mobile Closet opened at 11 AM.” – IndieWire
Looking Ahead
Opening August 8
Yinka Ilori: Mountains Full of Blessings
The momentum from the Museum’s grand opening continues this summer as we transform a section of the urban street grid on Southwest Madison Street in front of the Mark Rothko Pavilion into a new pedestrian plaza filled with art. Internationally acclaimed British-Nigerian artist Yinka Ilori, MBE, known for his colorful, “joy-led” design philosophy, has designed a monumental work of asphalt art to fill the street. Once complete, the new Cultural District Plaza will serve as an extension of the Museum, greeting visitors with the same spirit of welcome and artistic inspiration found within our galleries.
Asphalt Art Community Painting Day, July 11
Join The City Repair Project and us for a day of community creativity as we bring Yinka Ilori’s monumental asphalt artwork, Mountains Full of Blessings, to life! We’re creating a new plaza in the South Park Blocks and need your help to make it happen.
Opening September 5
The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art
This eye-opening exhibition introduces North American audiences to the diverse and distinct visual iconographies of Indigenous Australia, which is made up of more than 250 distinct Indigenous nations. Visitors will explore this rich and living history of creativity through over 200 works made by more than 130 artists. Drawn exclusively from the collection of Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria, The Stars We Do Not See offers a rare opportunity to experience some of the most significant examples of modern and contemporary Australian Indigenous art.
Thank you for your partnership and for your continued commitment to a vibrant, creative, and welcoming Portland.
We look forward to welcoming you to the Museum soon.
