NEWS NOTEWORTHY

KEEPING CONNECTED: YEAR IN REVIEW

Pandemic life continued to influence the Museum and Northwest Film Center’s fiscal year ending June 30, 2021. A great deal of effort, enthusiasm, and engagement over these past two years has allowed the Museum and Film Center to stay connected with the community and with art. Members have played a vital role in supporting the many ways that the Museum and Film Center have continued to be a source of art, inspiration, and connection throughout these pandemic times.

Exhibitions and Programs

Faced with growing uncertainty in the early days of the pandemic, the Museum worked with exhibition partners and lenders across the globe to extend or postpone more than 15 exhibitions ranging from single-artist projects to blockbuster exhibitions. When restrictions finally lifted, visitors were thrilled to experience Ansel Adams in Our Time. The familiarity of his work paired with different perspectives was exactly what was needed to reconnect with each other.

The Museum and Film Center also took advantage of typically mild Portland weather to offer experiences outside, including projection mapping exhibitions in partnership with the Mobile Projection Unit, and reenergizing the Drive-In format by presenting the Cinema Unbound Awards outside, along with more traditional offerings. Partnering with The Numberz FM and the City of Portland, the Park Block in front of the Museum was activated as a neighborhood gathering place, offering music, art, community, and even vaccine clinics.

By the Numbers

10 exhibitions 60 streaming feature films and 40 shorts 52 outdoor drive-in feature films and 5 shorts

30 Northwest Film Center virtual programs and classes 48 virtual programs and podcasts

8in-person programs and pop-ups

Partnerships, Youth, and Educators

Community partnerships, along with youth and educator programs, have continued to thrive amid the challenges presented by the pandemic and the continued uncertainty. As previously reported in this magazine and in other channels, The Numberz FM is making an even greater impact on this institution and in our community than when the local Black radio station first took up residence, broadcasting from the galleries. After a summer of programming and activating the pop-up Madison Street Plaza, The Numberz FM team launched the AUX/ MUTE Gallery on the fourth floor of the Main Building. The Gallery is an inclusive endeavor that invites more BIPOC practicing artists to have their work exhibited in the museum.

With students back in the classroom and yet resources still stretched thin for many schools, the Museum continues to partner and collaborate with educators to ensure that access to art and exhibitions remains possible.

Youth and Educator Program Highlights

The Poster Project—A set of posters that are created each year featuring works across the permanent collections, available free of charge to educators in Oregon and Washington. Funded by PGE Foundation.

Educator Unconference: Memory and Public

Space—An exploration of questions around how we use public space to remember.

See Me. iAm. HEAR: A Creative Activation

of Youth Voices of Color—A collaboration with the City of Portland’s “Supporting Community Healing with Art’’ initiative and other partners that transformed the Madison Street Pop-up Plaza into a vibrant creative space activated by and for youth. Featured partners included: The Numberz FM, I AM M.O.R.E., IPRC, and NAYA Many Nations Academy.

Postcards to Earth: PPS HeART of Portland

Exhibition and Showcase 2021—The Museum celebrated the work of Portland Public Schools students and teachers with an Ansel Adamsinspired installation in the Museum gift store windows.

Finance and Fundraising

During the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021, the Museum’s finances were again dominated by the global pandemic. During the last period of state-imposed closure, the Museum was successful in securing a second round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding that again made it possible to pay staff who were not working for a further two months. Once restrictions were lifted, attendance steadily increased and staff were brought back to work.

Out of the three fiscal years that have been impacted by COVID-19, the Museum will have been closed for nine of those 36 months, and operating with significant capacity restrictions for another 12 months—leaving just 15 months out of three years when the Museum and Film Center could operate normally. The financial impact of this is calculated to be a loss of earned income of approximately $9 million over the three years. Government relief programs will make up $7.7 million of this— leaving a shortfall of $1.3 million to be covered by reserves. Because of this support, and diligent focus on managing expenses, the Museum ended the year with a positive cash position. Museum and Film Center supporters stepped up in a big way over these past 24 months. Highlights of this support include:

Sixty-six percent of all gifts were given

without restrictions, which allowed flexibility to adapt and provide programs and exhibitions in new ways while also supporting the arts ecosystem, with initiatives like the Artist Fund. Donors and members gave at all levels, and last fiscal year, more gifts were received by more donors from more parts of the community than ever.

The Museum and Film Center received

significant relief funding this past year from the state and federal government, preventing drastic cuts to staff and programs during closure, and providing for a smooth reopening. Significant support came from the Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Cultural Trust, Small Business Administration, and Regional Arts & Culture Council.

Equity Update

The past year has seen the Museum and Film Center continue to move racial equity work forward. From exhibitions to programs and partnerships, welcoming conversations about equity and racial justice issues and uplifting the BIPOC community remain priorities. Knowing that COVID-19 continues to have a disproportionate impact on our communities of color, it was an honor to be able to share a message of resistance and hope from renowned artist, Portland native, and Museum board member Carrie Mae Weems through her Resist COVID/Take 6! public art program. Beyond what is visible to the public, the Museum actively reassesses internal policies, creates new initiatives and learning opportunities, and strives to support BIPOC staff.

WOMEN ARTISTS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEXICANIDAD

BY ALBERTO MCKELLIGAN HERNÁNDEZ

Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection provides an exciting opportunity for Portland audiences to explore the ways in which women artists contributed to the immense cultural transformations of early 20th-century Mexico. After the violent battles of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920), the country was eager to define a new form of national identity, a complex process later described as the construction of mexicanidad, or Mexicanness. The monumental public murals created by artists such as Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros—collectively known as los tres grandes, or the three great ones—exemplified the ways in which Mexican visual artists attempted to commemorate the revolution and solidify mexicanidad.

While the imagery of los tres grandes repeatedly celebrated the heroic achievements of the male caudillos, the leaders of the revolutionary armies, the Mexican Revolution was also transformative for Mexican women. During the long years of the armed struggle, the popular ballads known as corridos repeatedly detailed the bravery of the soldaderas, the women soldiers of the revolutionary armies. Moreover, in the midst of the revolution, women activists came together in the First National Feminist Congress of 1916; congress delegates emphasized the legal, social, and educational changes that were necessary to create a more egalitarian society. Still, these earnest attempts to expand women’s social roles faced numerous challenges. Despite the postrevolutionary fervor of the time, institutions such as the Catholic Church and Mexico’s entrepreneurial class intended for women’s social roles to remain unchanged, largely confining women to the domestic sphere. Infamously, the Constitution of 1917—which

symbolically represented the ideals of the Mexican Revolution—did not grant women the right to vote. The works produced by Frida Kahlo, María Izquierdo, and Lola Álvarez Bravo thus serve as important examples of the complex ways in which women artists navigated the postrevolutionary era. The innovative imagery developed by these artists showcases the ways in which the heroic achievements of the caudillos were only one part of mexicanidad. Each of these artists thus actively contributed to the development of modern art in Mexico, even as they questioned and challenged women’s social roles in the aftermath of the revolution.

Certainly, Kahlo’s numerous self-portraits imaginatively represented the visceral personal experiences of her life, including her relationship with Rivera. However, Kahlo’s paintings also showcased her ability to adapt and transform the tenets of Surrealism to her advantage, producing unsettling imagery that ominously considered women’s experiences and subjectivities. The Bride Who Becomes Frightened When She Sees Life Opened (1943) thus exemplified the artist’s ability to visualize a different form of mexicanidad, employing traditional Mexican fruits to create a vaguely threatening landscape for the small bride illustrated within the painting. Similarly, Izquierdo produced several works that explored the accoutrements associated with traditional femininity in Mexico. In Bride from Papantla (1944), the artist presented a discomforting image of a woman wearing her ornate bridal attire; the bride’s stoic demeanor sharply differed from the unfettered natural world surrounding her. While the image may have related to the artist’s lived experiences, the work also served as a commentary on the ways in which Mexican society continued to uphold certain forms of femininity as a normative ideal. On a different note, Álvarez Bravo focused her attention on the country’s rural and indigenous populations, showcasing the diverse cultural practices that were part of the nation’s heritage. In Burial at Yalalag (1946), the artist presented a somber funerary procession; while the photograph documents both the unique landscape of the southern state of Oaxaca as well as the region’s traditional attire, Álvarez Bravo also conferred a sense of dignity and reverence to her photographed subjects. Moreover, the artist complemented these images of Mexico’s rural expanses with experimental photographic montages, illustrating the chaotic urbanization of Mexico City or women’s enrollment in the new educational institutions of postrevolutionary Mexico. In short, the groundbreaking contributions of these artists reveal how women navigated the social and artistic context of post-revolutionary Mexico; exhibition visitors can thus explore the complexities and contradictions associated with the construction of mexicanidad.

Alberto McKelligan Hernández, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Art History at Portland State University. His research includes modern and contemporary art from Latin America, particularly Mexico, as well as the development of feminist art in different geographic contexts. Dr. McKelligan Hernández will present the exhibition opening lecture, “Women Artists and the Construction of Mexicanidad,” on February 27 (see page 9).

Further Reading

Alejandro Anreus, Leonard Folgarait, and Robin Adèle Greeley, eds., Mexican Muralism: A Critical History, 2012. Nancy Deffebach, María Izquierdo and Frida Kahlo: Challenging Visions in Modern Mexican Art, 2015. James Oles, ed., Lola Álvarez Bravo and the Photography of an Era, 2012.

ARNOLD AND AUGUSTA NEWMAN FOUNDATION ENDOWS PHOTOGRAPHY LECTURE SERIES

Since 2013, the Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation has supported the Museum’s Arnold Newman Distinguished Lecturer in Photography series, which welcomes noted photographers and historians of photography to Portland to engage with local communities through public lectures and small-group, student-focused programming. The Newman Foundation has transformed its renewable grant, originally a five-year program, into a permanent, endowed program that will ensure the continuation of the lecture series long into the future. The Museum’s first Newman Distinguished Lecturer, Carrie Mae Weems, was born in Portland and currently serves on the Museum’s Board of Trustees. Subsequent lecturers have included Richard Mosse, Emmet Gowin, Zun Lee, Dawoud Bey, Fazal Sheikh, Hank Willis Thomas, and Kimberly Drew. In 2021, due to the pandemic, Rebecca Senf and Catherine Opie delivered their lectures virtually. The Foundation supports lectures and scholarships at institutions including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; and the International Center of Photography, among others. Recently, the Newman Foundation established a photography exhibition, lecture, and purchase endowment at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in Portland. We are grateful to Arnold and Augusta Newman’s sons, David and Eric, for their family’s generosity and their longterm gifts to the city.

ONGOING, VIRTUAL, AND POP-UP PROGRAMS

Beginning in January, we will reintroduce our popular “Slow Looking” tours and offer these virtual docent-led experiences three times each month.

Studies have shown that visitors spend about eight seconds looking at individual works on display at galleries or museums. By slowing down we have an opportunity to really get to know an artwork and engage more deeply with it. Each 45-minute interactive session will highlight just one or two artworks and include looking, wondering, and group conversation about what we are noticing together. We invite you to join us! These virtual sessions will take place on Zoom at noon on the first Thursday and third Tuesday of every month. A weekend tour will take place on the last Saturday of each month at 1 p.m. “Slow Looking” tours are replacing the bimonthly Artful Meditation tours. There’s always something new to enjoy at the Museum and Film Center. For the latest on

virtual programs, pop-up happenings, and

ongoing offerings, subscribe to our email newsletter and check our online calendar at portlandartmuseum.org.