Visit Portland

Museum of Contemporary Craft in partnership with Pacific Northwest College of Art welcomes you to Portland, a city where art and culture is integral to everyday life. In close proximity to a number of vibrant cultural institutions, both the Museum and PNCA are located in the heart of the downtown Pearl District, Portland’s urban center. Whether you are seeking museums, galleries, performing arts or a walking tour of public spaces, we would like to offer highlights and resources to help plan your experience.

Arts + Culture

The local art community features a number of arts organizations that support commercial galleries and non-profit art organizations. Among these, Portland Art Focus has a broad reach that includes Pacific Northwest College of Art’s Feldman Gallery among other university art galleries, the venerable Portland Art Dealers Association features Portland’s most esteemed commercial spaces and A Portland Conversation in Culture keeps its ear to the ground to bring you up and coming projects.

Museum of Contemporary Craft anchors the Pearl District’s historic DeSoto Building alongside neighboring art spaces Augen Gallery, Blue Sky Gallery Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, Froelick Gallery, and Charles A. Hartman Fine Art.

“Who cares if it’s raining when you have the DeSoto Building/Museum of Contemporary Craft—four fine art galleries and an innovative museum under one roof?” —Sunset Magazine, Best of Portland: Hotels, Dining and Attractions 2010

To gain a more colorful perspective of the Portland art scene, you may wish to participate in one of several monthly art walks. The downtown Pearl District comes to life the First Thursday of each month with gallery receptions, street performers and a convivial atmosphere around each corner. Other neighborhoods feature similar events such as First Fridays in the Central Eastside Arts District and Last Thursdays in the Alberta Arts District.

Travel and Accommodations

The mainstay of Portland planning resources is Travel Portland, a comprehensive website featuring myriad opportunities for fun and adventure in the region. The website also features special hotel offers with everything you need to know about accommodations.

If you are planning to explore by bicycle, you probably know that Portland is one of the most bike-friendly cities in the nation and has over 100 miles of bicycle lanes. Public transportation is also plentiful in Portland, featuring a network of buses, streetcars, and the MAX light rail system. Portland’s Trimet website offers a Trip Planner tool that will help you find your way.

Eat + Drink

The food cart scene in Portland has been on the rise in recent years, with profiles appearing on Food Network, Sunset Magazine, and The New York Times. With a nearly limitless array of carts from which to choose, pods of carts exist in neighborhoods across the city so that you can sample from a variety of options without leaving your picnic table. Food Carts Portland is the authority on carts around the city and has search functions that will help you find exactly what you are looking for.

The Portland Farmer’s Market is one of the best in the country, with multiple locations around the city throughout the seasons. On any given day, you may find yourself shoulder-to-shoulder with the chefs of Portland’s noteworthy farm-to-table restaurant scene. To locate restaurants throughout the city, from the most celebrated to tucked away hidden gems, you may find just what you’re looking for through Portland Monthly, featuring reviews and a searchable database to quench your palate.

Resources

For information about current news and events, there are a number of quality publications and resources to inform your Portland experience.

The Oregonian is Portland’s Pulitzer prize-winning newspaper, the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. West Coast. There are two free alternative weeklies—the Willamette Week and the Portland Mercury are available throughout the city. PORT is the city’s online source for discourse on the local art scene, with a number of local contributors weighing in with critics’ picks and reviews. Portland Monthly is a monthly news and general interest magazine that covers events and culture around the city.