Search 
Portland Art Museum
Major exhibitions complement the museum’s strong Native American and Northwest collections.
Know Before You Go
The museum is open with timed-entry tickets available online or in-person. Masks are required for all visitors age 5 and older. For more information, please visit the Portland Art Museum website.
The Portland Art Museum is the largest art museum in Oregon and one of the oldest in the country. Located in two historic buildings on Portland’s South Park Blocks, the museum is central to the city’s cultural district and houses a large and wide-ranging collection of art.
#reopeningpdx Video Tour
Portland Art Museum Campus and History
First organized in 1892, the museum’s first exhibition was a set of magnificent plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculpture, now displayed in the upper hall of the city’s library. In 1932, the museum moved into the primary building, designed by Pietro Belluschi: a gracious contemporary update of the Georgian style, sleek-lined and advanced in its ideas. The museum’s renovation of the Masonic temple to its immediate north added more exhibition and office space to the campus in 2005.
Belluschi’s original design was ahead of its time. It was airy and admitted natural light into the museum’s galleries, especially the court beyond the entryway, and the visitor today experiences that grand space as a sort of surprise, given the museum’s relative scale. More wings were added, first to house the Pacific Northwest College of Art then known as the Museum Art School and ultimately separated into its own institution) and then a warren of smaller galleries. The old Masonic temple has become the Jubitz Center of Modern and Contemporary Art, though its old, ornate meeting rooms have been retained.
Northwest art is a primary attraction, cataloging the developments in Western art traditions in Oregon and Washington since the 19th century.
Portland Art Museum Collections
The museum has strong collections of prints and drawings, photography, Asian art, Native American (especially Pacific Coast) art, and Northwest art, and its European and American collections contain some extraordinary individual pieces, especially from the 19th and 20th centuries. The huge prints and drawings collection was built largely by the late Gordon Gilkey and includes Old Masters printmakers (Dürer, Rembrandt) and the most recent examples of the art forms. And under chief curator Bruce Guenther, the museum’s modern art holdings have increased dramatically, in part because of the addition of the collection of the great modernist critic Clement Greenberg, which gives the museum a unique window into the development of advanced art in the mid-20th century.
Native American Art
The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Center was sourced from two primary collectors: the Rasmussen Collection of Northwest Coast art, with its fabulous masks and whaling canoes, and the encyclopedic collection of Elizabeth Cole, which brings the exquisite work of Southwest, Plains, Plateau and Woodlands tribes into focus. The collection is dedicated to all the Native American tribes of Oregon.
Northwest Art
Northwest art is a primary attraction, cataloging the developments in Western art traditions in Oregon and Washington since the 19th century. The museum’s curators have wisely spread this work throughout the galleries, placing the best work of Northwest abstractionists alongside their more celebrated New York peers, for example, but a gallery specifically dedicated to Northwest art supplies a good introduction to the fine artists who have worked here (C.S. Price, Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Hilda and Carl Morris, Sally Haley and Michele Russo).
Tips for Visiting the Portland Art Museum
How do I get to the Portland Art Museum?
Is there parking available?
The closest private lot is Central City Parking at SW 10th and Main.
Do I need to reserve tickets in advance?
How much does the Portland Art Museum cost?
– $20 for adults (18 and over)
– $17 for seniors 62+ and college students
– Free for children 17 and under
Special exhibition and program fees may apply.
Details are subject to change; please check the Portland Art Museum website for current information.
Visual Art Events
Time-Based Art (TBA) Festival
Portland’s Time-Based Art (TBA) Festival, returning Sept. 16–Oct. 3, 2021, unites visual artists, musicians and performers from around the world every year.
Mike Bennett's Museum of Mystery
Walk through Mike Bennett’s immersive Museum of Mystery, filled with 26 life-size Cryptids, Monsters and Mythical Beasts. Play games, win prizes and look out for surprise guests.
Northwest Quilting Expo
Portland’s original sewing and quilting festival returns every fall, providing attendees with creative inspiration and all the tools and classes to expand your quilting skills. There are hundreds of juried quilts to see, and thousands of dollars in award prizes.
GeekCraft Expo
GeekCraft Expo is a curated craft market specializing in handmade, “geek”-themed crafts of all kinds; clothing, accessories, toys, home decoration, furniture, art . . . if it’s geeky and made by hand, it can be found at a GeekCraft Expo. Cosplay is highly encouraged and admission is free (you just need to pre-register).
Last Thursday Art Walk on Alberta
This boisterous street fair attracts independent artists, performers, local bands, troupes of acrobats, buskers, makers and more to celebrate their art on Northeast Alberta Street. Held year-round, the event is biggest from June through August, when the street is closed to traffic during the festivities from 15th Avenue to 30th Avenue.
FashioNXT
FashioNXT is bringing a world-class runway showcase of extraordinary fashion and wearable technology designers both national and international to Portland. FashioNXT has been named TIME Magazine’s #1 production outside New York Fashion Week.
First Thursday in the Pearl District
Started in 1986, First Thursday in the Pearl is a district-wide celebration that occurs on the first Thursday of each month. Originally a gathering of art collectors and dealers, the celebration has grown to a monthly event of over ten thousand people that includes art enthusiasts, wine aficionados, and scenesters looking to see and be…
Portland Open Studios: Artists At Work
For two weekends every October, Portland Open Studios invites visitors to explore the houses and offices of artists across the city.
The Pancakes & Booze Art Show
Portland’s Underground Pop-Up Art Show is BACK. Come experience one of the largest pop-up art movements to hit North America over the past decade. Celebrating over 10 years of serving FREE PANCAKES and introducing you to some of the nation’s leading emerging artists. – Over 50+ local artists exhibiting over 250+ pieces of artwork -…
A Pittock Mansion Christmas
Pittock Mansion Christmas celebrates the wonderful world of animals with this year’s Critters Make Merry exhibit. From reindeer and polar bears to lions and mice and a few in between, volunteer decorators transform the Mansion’s rooms into enchanting animal havens. Tickets for this year’s event are limited due to capacity restrictions. All tickets must be…
Wild Arts Festival
The Wild Arts Festival is Pacific Northwest’s premier art show and book fair celebrating the natural world. Held each November by the Portland Audubon, the festival attracts nearly 5,000 visitors each year. An anticipated 75 artists and authors will come together for the 41st annual event, all for the benefit of Portland Audubon.* *The health…
Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival
At the Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival, you will find a wide variety of sewing, quilting, needle-art and craft supply exhibits from many quality companies, along with make ‘n’ takes, free demos, daily door prize drawings and more.
Crafty Wonderland Holiday Art + Craft Market
Portland’s biannual art and craft fair boasts unique handmade wares from 225+ local vendors.
Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism
Internationally beloved artists Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) and Diego Rivera (1886–1957) played a crucial role in defining and establishing the Avant-Garde cultural movement in Mexico in the early 20th century. Their famously stormy marriage reflected their diverging artistic styles: While Rivera’s art projected itself outward, often in vast murals and concerned itself with the construction of…
Mt. Tabor Art Walk
The Mt. Tabor Art Walk is a Portland tradition. This juried show and sale is a great opportunity to see quality visual art and meet artists in their studios and homes. Diverse media are represented including photography, painting, ceramics, sculpture, prints, metal arts, photography, glass, jewelry, book arts and mosaics. The Mt. Tabor Art Walk…
Harmony
The traditional Japanese techniques and textiles of Kimono, Indigo, Katazome, Shibori, and Quilt as new Fiber Art by local artists Kazue O. Young and Alycia Allen Tolmach. Kazue honors magical moments in Pacific Northwest nature with her intricately stenciled fiber art, using Indigo, Katazome and Shibori, ancient dyeing techniques she learned in Japan. Alycia creates…
Michelle Ramin, 2021 Artist Fellowship Recipient
Portland, OR. July 23 – October 14 — Stumptown Coffee Roasters is excited to present Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea by Michelle Ramin, our newest Portland Fellow. Starting July 23rd, visitors at our downtown cafe will be able to view this series. Her work will be on display until October 14th, 2021. Hailing from the mountains…
Abandon Exhibition Opening
The Arts Council of Lake Oswego is excited to present the exhibition, Abandoned, Images of What Remains at their ARTspace Gallery, located in the Lake Oswego City Hall building, 380 A Avenue, Suite A, Lake Oswego. This exhibition features 45 artists from around the Western region with about 90 works of art in various mediums…
still—moving
A solo exhibition of new work by artist Heather Watkins still—moving brings together a series of intricately stitched textiles and a text-based video projection. This constellation of artworks charts a period of suspended time and stalled movement, shaped by a changing relationship to distance and to spaciousness and to living with the unknown.
From Catlandia to the Columbia River Gorge (and Beyond)
A Last Thursday Artist Opening on 8/26, from 6 to 9pm and running thru 9/21 featuring Ancia NW and Gary Grossman. Come see the world through the eyes of these local artists. Gary uses photography to share the beauty and diversity of the world. Among his favorite captures are landscapes and wildlife images of the…
Prototypes
Prototypes is a physical container for the discussions, debates, reflections, and questions posed by Converge 45’s Portland’s Monuments & Memorials Project (PMMP) which for the past eight months has brought people together to consider the conditions and impacts of public monuments, including those that have been removed and those that should be built. Gathered into…
After Boucher
Fuller Rosen Gallery is excited to present After Boucher, a solo exhibition of new and recent work by Molly Jae Vaughan on view from September 11 – October 24, 2021. After Boucher features paintings, drawings and lithographs based on the works of 18th-century French painter, draftsman and printmaker François Boucher. The Rococo master’s portfolio takes…
Portland Tattoo Arts Convention
The world’s largest tattoo convention tour is coming to Portland, Oregon. Get tattooed by some of the best local, national or international tattoo artists. You’ll also see tattoo TV celebrities, and vendors with every supply a tattoo professional could need, as well as vendors geared toward the tattoo enthusiast, with everything from jewelry, clothing and…
Thunderstruck 2.0: black hole sun
a Thunderstruck Collective group exhibition Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11th, 6-9pm Thunderstruck 2.0: black hole sun is the second in a series of exhibitions inspired by journeys to classic land art sites in the American West. For this exhibition, three artists and one curator traveled to Western Utah to see Nancy Holt’s 1973-76 work Sun…
Street Bazaar at the Electric Blocks
The producers behind Portland Flea, Roux Portland, and Portland Bazaar are now bringing a new summer series to the city. Street Bazaar brings the bold flavors, bright colors, and vibrant energy of Portland’s food, drink, art, and music scene together for a series of festive Friday nights in the Central Eastside. See some of the…
Halloween Roll Out and Artist Showcase
Art walk and sale and live music. The artist showcase and Halloween installment will be up at and ready to enjoy at noon with live music starting at 6. This event will be primarily taking place outside and all health and safety precautions observed.
Rosemaling For Beginners
Rosemaling is Norway’s traditional decorative folk painting that was used to decorate wooden items commonly used in daily life, such as ale bowls, stools, and chairs. Using stylized techniques made up of fantasy flowers, scrollwork and fine line work, and flowing patterns give rosemaling its unique feel. In this beginner-level class, you will learn about…
Continuing the Conversation
A juried show in Lavaun’s Community Gallery at the Alberta Street Gallery September 30 – October 26 For this exhibition, 4 local artists looked back over the last year and spoke out through their art on the theme of the Black Lives Matter movement and the inspiration that came from confronting matters of racial injustice.
Sewing Trees
The art of local artists Michelle Purvis and Kim Tepe September 30 – October 26 Michelle’s work reflects on our symbiotic relationship with the environment. In this new series, she uses acrylic paint and thread, finding symbolism in the thread while mending trees onto canvas. Her intent is to engage you in a conversation about…
Local 14 Art Show & Sale
LOCAL 14 Art Show & Sale is a premier juried art show and sale that has been held in the Pacific Northwest for 54 years. In the 1970s, LOCAL14 was created by a group of women artists who recognized a need for a venue that allowed women artists to promote their work. Today LOCAL 14…
"Among the Trees" Paint Night
“Discover Your Creativity” with PNW Paint Night Join uthe first class of October at Deep Space Brewing in Hillsboro, OR. Begin our Grand Opening month with a vibrant galaxy style painting called “Among the Trees” set on a 16×20 landscape style canvas. This is a scheduled 2 hour class open to ages 13 to adult….
KATER's GHOULS, GHOSTS & GOBLINS
Art exhibition – first Thursday gallery show Exhibition Open through September 2021 by Appointment Alchemy + Archetypes by Jessie Lawson Ghouls, Ghosts & Goblins by KATER
1989
1989 At MinEastry of Postcollapse Art and Culture 2505 SE 11th Ave Suite 233 Portland, OR 97202 Opening: Friday, October 8, 2021 at 6pm-8pm On view: October 8, 2021 – November 28, 2021 Regular Gallery Hours: Fri, Sat, Sun 12pm-5pm Curated by: Ilknur Demirkoparan and Vuslat D. Katsanis Artist: Fung Yee Lick Eric, Lenka Holíková,…
Willamette FLEA
Shop the Willamette FLEA for a delightful adventure supporting local micro-businesses. Discover a mix of vintage, collectibles, makers, and artists. Have a cup of coffee from Barista Brews and get some amazing Missionary Chocolate vegan truffles. The Willamette FLEA is a small indoor market held in NE Portland dedicated to creating an interesting market for…
The Makers Fair
BEER + MAKERS… the perfect Portland combo. Head on out to THE MAKERS FAIR for Slabtown’s best-crafted beer, food, goods, and community at Hammer & Stitch Brew Co., and in partnership with our friends at Makers Union PDX. Makers Union is a Portland-based collective of Makers designed to sell their goods, and raise funds for…
Portland Fashion Week
Portland Fashion Week, the Sundance™ of Fashion Weeks, is the 3rd oldest fashion week series in the United States, TIME ™ Magazine’s “BEST Indie Fashion Week in the USA since 2012, and the only carbon-negative fashion week in the world as outlined by The Huffington Post. From top-of-the-line eco-chic fashion experiences to our support for…
Was this page helpful?