Portland Art Museum

The Portland Art Museums, will launch the Building Community-Centered Practices project, an institution-wide initiative to build capacities for expanded community engagement. In recent years, Portland has experience sudden demographic changes, rapid gentrification, a widespread housing crisis and a 'state of emergency' on homelessness, and a significant increase in hate crimes against immigrants and communities of color. Partnering with the Pomegranate Center, museum staff and community partners will receive intensive training and mentorship on the Pomegranate Method, a community facilitation method that empowers people to come together, become change-makers, and achieve constructive outcomes. The training will focus on community engagement skills such as meeting facilitation, design thinking, and how to develop an early success project. Building on previous work at the Museum related to inclusion and accessibility, the project's goal is to expand community-centered practices that can meaningfully involve community voices to shape the design of spaces, programs, and exhibitions.