Portland Art Museum history

By 1905, the Museum had outgrown its location in the public library and moved into its own building at SW 5th and Taylor.

Three years later, in 1908, the Museum acquired its first original piece of art, Afternoon Sky, Harney Desert, by American impressionist painter Childe Hassam.

She was also the first head of the Museum Art School, which opened in 1909 and is now the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

The exhibition featured artwork that had been on display earlier that year at the famous 1913 New York Armory Show, which introduced American audiences to Modern art.

The museum continued to grow following World War I. In the 1920’s the museum held one of their most memorable exhibitions.

In 1923, Lewis organized an exhibition at the Museum that included 44 paintings by Picasso, Matisse, André Derain and American Modernists, such as Maurice Prendergast, Charles Burchfield, and Max Weber.

Finally, on November 18, 1932, the museum’s permanent location opened to the public.

Opening on September 15, 1939, the new wing doubled the Museum’s gallery space.

By its 50th birthday in 1942, the museum held a permanent collection of 3,300 objects and 750 works on a long-term loan.

In 1959, more than 80,000 people visited a Vincent Van Gogh showcase that generated enough funds for the museum to purchase Waterlillies by Claude Monet.

The Museum underwent a major renovation to build the Hoffman Memorial Wing in 1968, named for L. Hawley Hoffman, who served as president of the Museum twice.

In 1976, Maine native Charles Shipman Payson promised the museum his collection of paintings by Winslow Homer.

Vivian and Gordon Gilkey began their association with the Museum in 1978, bringing with them a collection of thousands of works on paper.

In direct response to the Payson gift, the 1979 gift of the Hamilton Easter Field Art Foundation Collection added more than 50 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by American modernists to the PMA collection.

The PMA broke ground on the Charles Shipman Payson Building in 1981, and within two years facility was opened to the public.

In 1991, the Joan Whitney Payson Collection of 20 impressionist and post-impressionist works of art was given to the museum on permanent loan.

The museum celebrated its centennial in 1992, which was marked by the purchase of an adjacent Masonic temple, now known as the Mark Building.

The purchase was completed in 1994, the same year that a capital campaign to finance a refurbishment of the Main Building began.

In 2001, the Museum made its largest single acquisition through the purchase of New York art critic Clement Greenberg’s private collection.

After a successful capital campaign, the PMA meticulously renovated the property, restoring it to its original condition and reopening it to the public in 2002.

To house this new collection, the Museum renovated the former Masonic temple, transforming it into the 141,000-square-foot Mark Building, which opened in October 2005.

Under the leadership of Brian Ferriso, the Museum’s Director since 2006, the Portland Art Museum is looking forward to a future even brighter than its past.

2012, Opens to the public

2014, Museum purchases the land surrounding the studio to be preserved in perpetuity

In June 2017, opened to the public for the first time in nearly 35 years.

In March 2018, through the generosity of Susie Konkel, the PMA introduced free admission to everyone ages 21 and under.

In October 2019, the PMA took its latest big step: the purchase of 142 Free Street, a 19,158 square foot building directly adjacent to the museum’s Charles Shipman Payson building.