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In the early 1980s, the Portland art scene was small and fragmented. There were galleries and artists, sure, but “there was no cohesive kind of attitude about what was going on here,” says Bob Kochs, owner and director of Augen Gallery. The Pearl District had yet to see a boom in condominiums, and it reeked of beer brewing at the Weinhard Brewery.
Kochs and late, great gallery owner William Jamison of Jamison/Thomas traveled to Seattle for work and noticed the art community there had streamlined art exhibition openings to a single night, increasing attendance. Kochs, Jamison, and other Portland gallerists at the time, including Elizabeth Leach and Laura Russo, took a page from the Emerald City.
First Thursday was born in the fall of 1986. The event caught on quickly. The idea was simple: Galleries coordinated their opening receptions to the first Thursday of every month and stayed open late. Many served snacks and wine. Street vendors and musicians followed the crowds.
“By the early ‘90s, it had ballooned into something really big,” Kochs says. “We had crowds big enough that the police had to come and move people off the street and onto the sidewalks.”
They weren’t just art lovers—they were also wine lovers and just plain ol’ lovers. Kochs remembers unlocking a restroom near his downtown gallery and finding piles of discarded clothing inside, the sloppy aftermath of hookups. “It got to be a madhouse,” Kochs says.
Next Story > 1986: Widmer Hefeweizen
First Thursday almost died under the weight of its own success, but the newly established Portland Art Dealers Association stepped in. The group decided galleries should stop serving drinks to keep the crowd civil. Ever the gallerist as he reflects on the greatest triumphs of First Thursday, Kochs lists among his favorite Augen shows over the decades late Wieden+Kennedy adman Jim Riswold’s fine art and the work of sideshow banner painter Johnny Meah, who swallowed swords at the opening.
Portland now has more art spaces within walking distance of one another than any other urban center on the West Coast, according to Leach, with a “cultural corridor” starting at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in the Pearl and extending along the Park Blocks to the Portland Art Museum (which now offers free admission on First Thursday) and Portland State University.
Formal First Thursday programming took a three-year break during the pandemic and is still rebuilding attendance. Kochs and Leach agree that COVID was the largest challenge First Thursday has faced, beyond the rowdiness of the ‘90s.
“When a popular event is abruptly halted, it takes time to get it going again,” Leach says. “I am happy to report that First Thursday is back in full swing again.”
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