NEWS NOTEWORTHY

LISTENING TO COMMUNITY: THE NUMBERZ AND PORTLAND ART MUSEUM PARTNERSHIP

Written in collaboration by Jaleesa Johnston and Stephanie Parrish from the Portland Art Museum and DJ Ambush from The Numberz FM. A central component of our work at the Museum is building meaningful relationships that strengthen the bridge between art and community. This guiding principle has been at the core of an ongoing partnership with The Numberz FM, a community-based radio station that identifies with the taglines “Liberated Black Media” and “The Black Music Experience for Black Portland.” The Museum and The Numberz first worked together during the exhibition Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal... in 2019, where The Numberz was a community partner-in-residence, conducting interviews, broadcasting on-site, presenting playlist workshops, and more. After the Hank Willis Thomas exhibition, the Museum stayed connected with The Numberz, investing in the station with advertising to encourage visitation, and making plans for the future. When the pandemic struck, followed shortly thereafter by the murder of George Floyd, the moment was ripe for urgent change. As the Museum’s galleries closed to the public, we used the rare moment of literal open space to continue activation and engagement with The Numberz through a long-term residency. The station’s offices were closed due to COVID-19

restrictions, and they were without a space from which to operate. In August 2020, The Numberz moved into the Museum’s fourth-floor Center for Northwest Art, which was shuttered at the time to the public, but housed an incredible exhibition of work by artist Ed Bereal. Amid Bereal’s installation, and visitor favorites like William Morris’ Artifact Panel, The Numberz team was reunited in a physical space to continue broadcasting and creating content.

Throughout the residency, The Numberz has invited artists of many different disciplines to sit down and share their stories, detailing the impact of today’s issues on their work. Artists who have made their mark and are now using their position to highlight privileges that they have while using that same privilege in an attempt to even the playing field for others. Over the summer, and before the Delta variant prompted renewed caution, The Numberz, in partnership with the Museum and the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), presented a number of programs, concerts, pop-up vaccine clinics, and even a fashion show in the Madison Street Plaza. The Plaza, a section of Southwest Madison Street at Park Avenue that has been closed to cars and furnished with seating to encourage neighborhood gathering, was spearheaded by PBOT as part of a citywide summer plaza initiative for communal gathering and events. Today, The Numberz is still working, recording and broadcasting from the fourth floor, this time alongside Sharita Towne’s APEX exhibition A Black Art Ecology of Portland where they are curating their own rotating gallery of BIPOC artists called AUX/MUTE (see page 13) and will be offering a unique bodega shopping experience as well. The Numberz FM’s Community-in-Residence is supported in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council, The Oregon Cultural Trust, The Portland Art Museum’s Artist Fund, and The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Endowments for Northwest Art.

Internal initiatives

EQUITY AND INCLUSION UPDATE

In our continuing effort to increase communication and transparency around equity and inclusion work at the Portland Art Museum and Northwest Film Center, our Equity Team regularly shares initiatives, partnerships, programs, and exhibitions that are moving our racial equity work forward. Equity work is ongoing and never truly finished, but our hope is that by sharing honestly and openly, we can continue to be held accountable to our goal of racial equity. Below is a selection of projects and initiatives that are moving our work forward. For more information and to read more comprehensive updates, please visit portlandartmuseum.org/equity-and-inclusion.

Exhibitions, programs, and partnerships

• Current and upcoming exhibitions celebrating the work of BIPOC artists include

APEX: Sharita Towne: A Black Art Ecology of

Portland; AUX/MUTE: HOME|AWAY. See pages 12-13. • Ongoing residency partnership with The

Numberz FM. See page 20. • The Museum secured a loan of a painting by Amy Sherald, the Black artist who painted Michelle Obama’s official portrait.

The painting is on view across our Link

Gallery from a large-scale loaned painting by Kehinde Wiley, who painted the official portrait of President Barack Obama. • As Juneteenth became a federal holiday this year, Museum Visitor Services Lead Ted

Smith recorded a video with The Numberz

General Manager DJ Ambush talking about the end of slavery and what came before and after. • In July, the Museum partnered with the City of Portland on their “Supporting Community

Healing with Art’’ initiative with an event titled “See Me. iAm. HEAR: A Creative

Activation of Youth Voices of Color.” Other community partners included The Numberz

FM, I AM M.O.R.E, IPRC, and NAYA Many

Nations Academy. • In late 2020 and early 2021 the Museum supported Resist COVID/ Take 6!, a public art and health campaign in partnership with artist

Carrie Mae Weems, the City of Portland, and

Multnomah County Public Health Division to draw attention to the outsized impact of

COVID-19 on BIPOC communities. • The Portland International Film Festival had guest curators from diverse backgrounds for the first time. • Financial and professional investment in support for BIPOC employees. This includes working with a facilitator to fully develop a support plan, and developing an onboarding process for new BIPOC employees. • Racial affinity groups are a core element in our work to dismantle racism at the Museum and Film Center. The BIPOC affinity group and white learning space continue to meet virtually once a month. • The Museum and members of its volunteer docent program continue to work together on ways to center equity and inclusion. • In fall 2020, staff completed part one of a training course with the Sexual & Gender

Minority Youth Resource Center’s Bridge 13 to introduce and further knowledge around LGBTQ+–related issues and combat intolerance. • In October 2020, the most diverse slate of new Board of Trustees members were elected. Artists Carrie Mae Weems and

Marie Watt are among the new Museum trustees guiding this important community institution.