PORTLAND, ORE.- The Portland Art Museum will celebrate the opening of the new Cultural District Plaza in downtown Portland with a community free day on Saturday, August 8. The centerpiece of the new pedestrian plaza is a monumental asphalt painting, Mountains Full of Blessings, designed by multi-disciplinary British-Nigerian artist & designer Yinka Ilori, MBE, and painted by hundreds of volunteers at a community painting day in July. The August 8 Miller Family Free Day opening celebration will feature a ribbon cutting at noon, followed by an artist talk with Ilori, a site-responsive performance by Heidi Duckler Dance/Northwest and 45th Parallel Universe, and free admission to the Museum from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The new pedestrian plaza on Southwest Madison Street marks the crowning milestone of the city’s major downtown cultural expansion. The Cultural District Plaza will become the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT)'s twenty-fifth PBOT Public Street Plaza site. When the Portland Art Museum unveiled its new Mark Rothko Pavilion in late 2025, it marked a massive shift for the city’s Downtown Cultural District. But the Museum’s ambitious, campus-wide expansion was always meant to connect to its surrounding environment. This summer, the stunning renovation reaches its final milestone by spilling directly into the neighborhood, transforming a section of Southwest Madison Street from a standard city street into a vibrant, car-free plaza. The new Cultural District Plaza will serve as an extension of the Museum, greeting visitors with the same spirit of welcome and artistic inspiration found within our galleries.
To activate this new open-air extension of the Museum’s galleries, PAM commissioned internationally acclaimed, London-based multi-disciplinary British-Nigerian artist & designer Yinka Ilori, MBE, to design a monumental work of asphalt art to fill the street. Known for his colorful, “joy-led” design philosophy, Ilori captures the spirit of community in his work through a vibrant fusion of contemporary aesthetics and traditional Nigerian parables. His canvas for this project is a large-scale work of asphalt art, designed to break down the traditional Museum boundaries and help create an even more joyous, unified, and accessible cultural campus that belongs to the entire city.
The project’s design is deeply rooted in the local community. In February, the Museum hosted a collaborative workshop led by the City Repair Project where South Park Block neighbors and other Portlanders shared stories and inspiration directly with the artist. A diverse group of Portlanders—including artists, representatives from local arts and nonprofit groups, South Park Blocks residents and businesses, educators, and Portland State University students—worked together to share memories, visualizations, and input about the future asphalt art and plaza. Major themes that emerged from the workshop focused on whimsy and bright colors, resilience, connection and welcoming, native plants, and movement and energy inspired by our outdoor recreation communities and rivers.
Then on July 11, more than 400 multigenerational community volunteers gathered alongside the City Repair Project for a painting party to bring Ilori’s dynamic vision to life. The mural highlights Portlanders’ connections to our natural landscape and each other, with a central swamp rose (Rosa pisocarpa)—a wild flower that is native to the Pacific Northwest unlike the typical roses portrayed around the Rose City—representing resilience, rebirth, and connection. Drawing inspiration from the mountains and rivers that flank the city of Portland, Mountains Full of Blessings has overarching themes of nature, movement, and joyful connection.
“Mountains Full of Blessings stands as a pillar and gateway, commingling the spirit of the Portland Art Museum with the surrounding community,” said Yinka Ilori in an artist’s statement displayed in the new Cultural District Plaza. “Bright bridges and rivers—reminiscent of Portland's own—connect the mural together, with mountainous guardian-like motifs framing the design. Each element of the artwork represents the people of Portland’s deep connection to each other and the natural landscape that surrounds them.”
Yinka Ilori will be a special guest at his artwork’s opening celebration on August 8 and will engage in a free public conversation about the power of using joy, color, and cultural stories to foster welcoming and connection in public spaces. His conversation partner will be Rukaiyah Adams, Chief Executive Officer of 1803 Fund, which generously supports PAM’s new Black Art and Experiences Galleries as part of its mission to strengthen Black life in Portland.
The Cultural District Plaza project is a partnership with the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), the City Repair Project, and the City of Portland Office of Arts and Culture, and is made possible by funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Asphalt Art Initiative, PBOT, and the City of Portland Office of Arts and Culture.
Portland is one of only 10 cities selected this year from more than 200 applicants across Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. to receive a $100,000 grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Asphalt Art Initiative. Since 2020, this program has supported projects that use art and design to improve street safety, revitalize public spaces, and engage communities. Asphalt Art projects also allow artists and residents to be active participants in designing their public spaces, which leads to stronger community engagement and support for future street safety projects.
As part of a broader effort to revitalize Downtown Portland, the Cultural District Plaza now anchors a historically and culturally significant area in the South Park Blocks, creating a welcoming gathering space infused with color outside a newly transformed Portland Art Museum. Plaza neighbors include the Oregon Historical Society, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and other Portland'5 Centers for the Arts theaters, as well as residences, businesses, and a weekday farmers market.
"The new Cultural District Plaza brings the beauty and vibrancy of Portland's amazing art museum expansion into our downtown street space, where everyone can experience it, every day," PBOT Director Millicent Williams said. "Across the city, our Public Street Plazas help communities see our streets as a place to gather, not just a place to pass through. We're proud to partner with the Portland Art Museum to create this new gathering place, which gives everyone even more reason to come enjoy the museum and experience our vibrant downtown."
