Photo: Basil Childers

724 Northwest Davis Street
Portland, Oregon 97209

tel. | 503.223.2654
fax | 503.223.0190
info@MuseumofContemporaryCraft.org

The Gallery
tel. | 503.546.2654
fax | 503.546.2610
Gallery@MuseumofContemporaryCraft.org

Hours
Tuesday through Sunday 11 AM to 6 PM
Thursday 11 AM to 8 PM

Closed Mondays, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day

Admission to the Museum is free.

A Seventy Year Legacy

Museum of Contemporary Craft is one of Portland's oldest cultural institutions and its new iteration is poised to bring greater awareness to the organization’s rich seventy-year legacy. Founded in 1937 by a group of extraordinary women dedicated to the cultivation of craft, the Oregon Ceramic Studio (precursor to Contemporary Crafts Gallery, Contemporary Crafts Museum & Gallery, and Museum of Contemporary Craft) provided a market for artists while elevating awareness and appreciation of Oregon art. Founder Lydia Herrick Hodge, and other early organizers such as Katherine Macnab, had been educated at the University of Oregon under the tutelage of Victoria Avakian. Both Hodge and Macnab studied in Paris during the modern art movement. Hodge, upon her return from Paris, organized the University Alumni Art League, an association dedicated to promoting Oregon artists. The alliance acquired a four-lot site from the city in the historic Lair Hill. The price was modest in exchange for their promise to fire Portland school children’s ceramics in their kiln. Thus, Oregon Ceramic Studio began.

The Studio was built with donated materials by Works Progress Administration labor (WPA). During its early years –before becoming Contemporary Crafts Gallery in 1965, Contemporary Crafts Museum & Gallery in 2002 and then Museum of Contemporary Craft in 2007 – the Oregon Ceramic Studio hosted several exhibitions and participated in design campaigns crucial to the cultivation of the Northwest’s legacy of craft. From day one, this vital organization has contributed to the advancement of craft and has regularly shown and documented the work of artists from the Pacific Northwest as well as those of national acclaim.

Today, positioned in a much more visible and accessible location, the Museum continues to be a beloved regional hub where people connect creatively, professionally and socially through craft.  As it moves forward on a more ambitious trajectory than ever, Museum of Contemporary Craft will continue to be guided by the core goals of the organization's founders - to present excellence in contemporary craft, to support artists and their work, to connect the community directly with artists, to deepen the understanding and appreciation of craft, and to expand the audience that values craft and its makers.

Click here for more information about the Museum's new location.

Support

Meyer Memorial Trust; M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust; Paul G. Allen Family Foundations; The Collins Foundation; James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation; The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation; The Standard; Spirit Mountain Community Fund; PGE Foundation; TriMet; Gerding Edlen Development; Lamb Baldwin Foundation; The Oregonian; Trust Management Services, LLC; US Bank