PORTLAND, ME.- The Portland Museum of Art will open a major, collaborative, and community-driven reinstallation envisioned by museum curators, educators, and an Advisory Committee. Made possible through the generosity of the Terra Foundation for American Art, Maine Community Foundation, Wyeth Foundation for American Art, Unum, and the Friends of the Collection, Passages in American Art is a fundamental reinterpretation of the collection, platforming multiple voices, revealing new ways of looking at some of the museum’s most beloved works of art, and inviting community members to drive the conversation. Opening May 27, 2023, the project examines the existing collection, and along with recent acquisitions, commissions, and select long-term loans, integrates Atlantic narratives and Indigenous perspectives to expand the story of American art.

The Advisory Committee is made up of members from Akomawt Educational Initiative, Atlantic Black Box, Indigo Arts Alliance, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, and Portland Public Schools, organizations that represent both existing and newly formed relationships with the museum. With the generosity and expertise of these thought-partners, Passages in American Art became a responsive installation honoring multiple truths, complexities, and understandings.

“With the vital support of the Terra Foundation for American Art, we are committed to thinking in collaborative, cross-cultural, and multidisciplinary ways to foreground how our collection can be a starting point for engaging with important questions: from considering legacies of colonialism and slavery, to exploring the very definition of ‘America,’ and researching artistic resonances with climate change,” says Shalini Le Gall, Chief Curator, Susan Donnell and Harry W. Konkel Curator of European Art.

The Reinstallation:

The reinstallation highlights both major and lesser-known works in the PMA’s holdings and places them in conversation with one another across the second floor of the museum. By bringing contemporary and historical works together, Passages aims to spark connections and ideas for future action around the many themes, issues, and histories on view.

The word “passages” speaks to the interconnected facets of the reinstallation, all of which engage diverse stories of water and land. From canoe portages traversed by Wabanaki nations through the Land of the Dawn (Maine and Maritime Canada) to the migration of sea-run fish and the human disruption of their waterways; from the Middle Passage endured by millions of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the passage of laws, tides, and time.

“The movement that ‘passages’ evokes can be associated with travel and arrival, gesturing to the legacy of global trade networks, slavery, and colonization in the Americas. The works on view in Passages invite us to consider our own relationship to these histories, to ask questions, connect the past with the present, and celebrate the beauty, knowledge, and resilience that art provides amidst profound change and upheaval,” says Ramey Mize, Assistant Curator of American Art. “This installation, in its effort to expand the boundaries of what we consider to be ‘American’ art, is evolving and ongoing. Over the coming years, new stories, ideas, and works of art will be introduced throughout the galleries, highlighting the many possibilities that this project has opened.”

The exhibition has been built through a long-term approach to help transform the space for PMA visitors, educators, and students and is accompanied by over 30 interviews with artists, community members, and collaborators which will be accessible by text, audio guide, a reflection space, and an in-gallery video.