"A wealth of Oregon history disappeared from public view when the Five Oaks Museum, founded in 1956 as the Washington County Museum, officially shut down at the end of April because of a financial crisis. In 2019 the museum, on the campus of Portland Community College Rock Creek, had expanded from its roots in white-settler pioneer history to emphasize also the county's Native and other cultural roots."
"Its exhibition This Kalapuya Land was drastically changed with new leadership and a guest curator, Steph Littlebird Fogel (Grand Ronde, Kalapuya) in 2019. The revised and critically annotated new This IS Kalapuyan Land was a mix of historical information, contemporary Native American art, and historic artifacts," Friderike Heuer wrote in her ArtsWatch story Art on the Road: Some thoughts on heritage, which also took a look at Thompson's Mills, Oregon's newest State Heritage Site."
"On a much brighter museum note, in November the Portland Art Museum unveiled its $116 million reinvention, a 10-year project that expands and vastly improves its galleries, and introduces the new Rothko Pavilion, a glassed-in structure that connects the museum's Belluschi and Mark buildings, greatly improves layout and access, and opens the museum to pedestrians and bicyclists using the passageway from Southwest Park Avenue to 10th Avenue. The reinvigorated museum also gives a major boost to Portland's recovering downtown."
Five Oaks Museum, founded in 1956 as the Washington County Museum, officially shut at the end of April 2025 because of a financial crisis, removing a wealth of Oregon history from public view. Located on the Portland Community College Rock Creek campus, the museum had expanded in 2019 beyond white-settler pioneer history to emphasize Native and other cultural roots and revised its Kalapuya exhibit with guest curator Steph Littlebird Fogel to combine historical information, contemporary Native art, and artifacts. Washington County commissioners judged alternative funding infeasible and moved to close and distribute the collection. In November the Portland Art Museum unveiled a $116 million, 10-year reinvention including the Rothko Pavilion, improving galleries, access, and downtown recovery. The Oregon Symphony staged the Sounds Like Portland festival to broaden programming.
#five-oaks-museum #portland-art-museum #indigenous-representation #cultural-funding #oregon-symphony
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