Portland Museum of Modern Art

What a great museum! The staff were really friendly and there were lots of different exhibitions to see. We enjoyed the Portland Museum of Modern Art exhibition.

I’m sorry. I’m an art freak, and I can’t call this place a museum, or a museum of modern art. They show local contemporary art, and they should have called it a Gallery of Local Art, rather than a museum. It’s in the basement of the Record store, so I wasn’t too excited or had too much of an expectation for the place. It’s really well kept, don’t get me wrong. And it’s free, but just not the experience I was looking for.

Folk art is art. It’s a human creativity channeled into making objects that are beautiful or expressive. Sometimes museums dip into this deep well. Galleries too, especially when they can tap a commercially successful genre. Portland has a large group of artists making folk art-​influenced work. You can find them at the Peoples Art of Portland.
The Portland Museum of Modern Art has a more sharply defined focus on folk art painting in a naïve style. You can see their website for examples. They are also showing art from Africa.
They are in the basement of Mississippi Records and open the same hours. They just opened at the end of September.
The Portland Museum of Modern Art is a small gallery with a tight focus and solid curation. Get on their notifications for openings, which are recommended.