MORE COLORS THAN THE EYE CAN SEE: A Conversation with Jeffrey Gibson
Event overview
Join us for an evening with acclaimed artist Jeffrey Gibson. Gibson’s selection to represent the United States at the 2024 Venice Biennale marked the first solo presentation of an Indigenous artist for the U.S. Pavilion. His resulting exhibition, the space in which to place me, was jointly presented by the Portland Art Museum and SITE Santa Fe, and extended beyond Venice through an ambitious Educator Project with the goal of transforming how Native American art and cultures are taught in classrooms nationwide.
This March, in partnership with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), the Educator Project launches a new suite of free, classroom-ready resources for K-12 educators. In this conversation, Gibson will reflect on his larger artistic practice and also share how education, collaboration, and responsibility to future learners shapes his thinking.
Ticket price includes admission to the Museum during regular hours on March 13. Free admission for Museum Members and youth 17 and under.
Free admission available to educators (current K-12 and college faculty, teaching artists, and teachers-in-training). Quantity is limited. First come, first served. Please contact learning@pam.org.
Find information on the Saturday Educator Symposium with Jeffrey Gibson here.
Jeffrey Gibson
Jeffrey Gibson (American, b. 1972) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and convener celebrated for his work in painting, installation, video, and performance. For over two decades, he has examined how language, pattern, and music construct meaning, synthesizing Indigenous and Western traditions through vibrant color, complex patterning, and layered sound. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, Gibson represented the U.S. at the 2024 Venice Biennale with his acclaimed exhibition the space in which to place me, which made its U.S. debut at The Broad in Los Angeles in May 2025. In June 2025 he unveiled a site-specific installation at Kunsthaus Zurich. Gibson was selected for the Metropolitan Museum’s 2025 Genesis Facade Commission. His work is held in major collections including MoMA, the Whitney, and the National Gallery of Art. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley and is artist-in-residence at Bard College.
The Jeffrey Gibson Educator Project
The Jeffrey Gibson Educator Project transforms how Native American art and cultures are taught nationwide with new, free resources for K-12 educators. Established in 2024, the project is a key component of artist Jeffrey Gibson’s vision for the space in which to place me, his solo exhibition for the U.S. Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, commissioned by Portland Art Museum (PAM) and SITE Santa Fe (SITE). Led by PAM and SITE, in collaboration with Gibson and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), a cohort of 10 educators participated in a multiyear program that generated 13 cross-disciplinary lessons, freely available in March 2026 to educators on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Indian Native Knowledge 360° (NK360°) digital platform and the Jeffrey Gibson 2024 Venice Biennale website.