Portland Art Museum Sets November Opening Date for Renovated Campus

PAM will celebrate with four days of free admission and special activities.

Rendering of new Rothko Pavilion by Hennebery Eddy Architects and Vinci Hamp Architects, showing the open community passageway and the new West Plaza with the Museum's recently acquired Ugo Rondinone sculpture the sun (2018). (Hennebery Eddy Architects and Vinci Hamp Architects)
By Rachel Saslow

Art lovers, you’re just a few months from seeing your new and improved museum. The Portland Art Museum has set an opening date of Nov. 20 to welcome visitors back to its remodeled campus.

The opening will include four days of free community access to the museum and activities such as music, food carts and art-making.

“The museum’s transformed campus is a result of a decadeslong vision to better serve our community as the cornerstone of Portland’s downtown cultural district,” PAM director Brian Ferriso said in a statement. “As one of the oldest art museums in the country, and the only major art museum between Seattle and San Francisco, PAM is an essential cultural lifeline for our region. The new PAM will create a dynamic destination for the arts, reinvigorating our city and offering expanded opportunities to engage audiences with art from around Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and the world. We can’t wait for everyone to experience the new PAM this November.”

The expansion will touch 100,000 square feet of new or upgraded public and gallery space, according to PAM, including the creation of the 21,881-square-foot Mark Rothko Pavilion. The glass pavilion will connect the museum’s two historic Southwest Park Avenue buildings. The project’s construction cost $111 million and began in 2023.

The transformed PAM will include a new Black Art and Experiences Gallery plus a complete reinstallation of the museum’s collection, highlighting nearly 300 major new acquisitions. The fall exhibitions on view this November will be Global Icons, Local Spotlight: Contemporary Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and a retrospective of the late Japanese modernist Yoshida Chizuko.

A few reinstalled galleries in the main building will open earlier in the fall, and the new cafe and store will open in August. PAM remains open to visitors during construction.

Derrick Adams (American, born 1970), Boy on Swan Float, 2020, woodblock and screen print with fabric collage on Rives BFK paper, Museum Purchase: Funds provided by Greg and Cathy Tibbles, © Derrick Adams, Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon PAM's new Black Art and Experiences Gallery will include this work by Derrick Adams. (Portland Art Museum)

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