Portland Art Museum
Portland, Oregon 97205
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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The mission of the Portland Art Museum is to serve the public by providing access to art of enduring quality, by educating a diverse audience about art and by collecting and preserving a wide range of art for the enrichment of present and future generations.
Representing the culmination of a ten-year, $125-million master plan of expansion and growth, the Portland Art Museum completed the massive project to preserve and renovate the adjacent 141,000 square-foot Mark Building in October 2005. The new building provides greater accessibility to the Museum’s growing collections and programs and engages the next generation of museum-goers.
The Portland Art Museum is the oldest art museum in the Pacific Northwest and, since its founding in 1892, has amassed a diverse collection numbering over 35,000 objects and works of art. This “collection of collections” comprises primarily gifts from generous donors and smaller collections purchased in their entirety. The Museum’s collection includes works of European painting and sculpture, American painting and sculpture, silver, Asian art, Native American art, Pre-Columbian art, Cameroon and other African art, contemporary art, sculpture, prints and drawings, and photography.
The Museum’s permanent collection galleries are continually changing. When objects go out on loan, or new works are acquired or loaned to us, individual works or groups of works are rotated into the permanent collection galleries. Come see your old favorites and find some new ones — it’s a different museum every time you visit!
The seventh oldest museum in the United States, and the oldest on the West Coast, the Portland Art Museum is internationally recognized for its permanent collection and ambitious special exhibitions drawn from the Museum’s holdings and the world’s finest public and private collections. The Museum’s collection of 42,000 objects, displayed in 112,000 square feet of galleries, reflects the history of art from ancient times to today. The collection is distinguished for its holdings of arts of the native peoples of North America, English silver, and the graphic arts. An active collecting institution, dedicated to preserving great art for the enrichment of future generations, the Museum dedicates 90 percent of its galleries to its permanent collection. The Museum’s campus of landmark buildings, a cornerstone of Portland’s cultural district, includes the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, the Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts, the Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art, the Northwest Film Center, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Center for Native American Art. With a membership of over 23,000 households and serving more than 350,000 visitors annually, the Museum is a premier venue for education in the visual arts.