For the past year, a group of fourth and fifth graders have been curating an exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. They spent a lot of time in the vault, a secret warehouse holding everything in the museum\u2019s extensive collection that\u2019s not currently on display. After schmoozing the right bigwigs and much voting and discussion among themselves, the 9-, 10- and 11-year-olds realized their vision.<\/p>\n
Now, school\u2019s out and the exhibition is up in PAM\u2019s new Black Art and Experiences gallery. <\/p>\n
At a \u201cmeet the curators\u201d tour earlier this month, the students led a few dozen visitors through the gallery, stopping to speak on the importance of specific works as they went, giggling only a little. They carried microphones and wore matching heart-shaped sunglasses and hoodies that read \u201cCURATOR\u201d across the back.<\/p>\n
The show came out of a collaboration between PAM and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School Museum of Contemporary Art, an education-focused museum inside King Elementary in Northeast Portland. Founded in 2014 by Portland State University professors and artists Lisa Jarrett and Harrell Fletcher, the program gives kids hands-on experience working as curators, preparators, artists, gallerists, writers and docents.<\/p>\n
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Brothers Phree by Isaka Shamsud-Din Isaka Shamsud-Din (African American, 1940-2025), Brothers Phree, ca. 1990, acrylic on wood, frame: 50 3\/16 in x 122 1\/2 in x 2 7\/16 in, Museum Purchase: Robert Hale Ellis Jr. Fund for the Blanche Eloise Day Ellis and Robert Hale Ellis Memorial Collection. Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 91.7 (Portland Art Museum) <\/p>\n
Jarrett, whose own exhibit Tenderhead is showing at PAM through January, led the students\u2019 curatorial process. Seventeen students from King Elementary collaborated with grad students at PSU and other adults who usually hang around the museum. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor most of us, we come to a museum and experience a show, but we have no idea how the work got here in reality, and most of us don\u2019t even know that museums have vaults,\u201d Jarrett told the tour group. \u201cTo be able to access these spaces and learn about them directly, as primary research as opposed to secondary research, was super valuable to the students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jaleesa Johnston, a PAM curator who works in the Black Art and Experiences gallery, hosted the students\u2019 visits and assisted in coordinating the show. \u201cThey\u2019re just so fascinated by everything,\u201d Johnston tells WW. \u201cIt made for a really engrossing experience. There was no way to be with them and not be fully present.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnston credits her own career in the arts to a teacher who took her and a few students to visit an art museum. \u201cAt the core of it, it is really making sure that young people understand what\u2019s available to them,\u201d she says. \u201cSome people really feel at home in museums, and there are a lot of people that don\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n
In this setup, Johnston says, it took only a few visits for the kids to get comfortable. \u201cThey know the space,\u201d she says. \u201cThey know the people that work here. And there\u2019s familiarity and comfort that they have.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gallery features 27 different pieces the kids picked. They also orchestrated the layout and display methods for each work and even chose wall colors to complement their selections.<\/p>\n
Brothers Phree, a 1990 painting by Portland artist and civil rights activist Isaka Shamsud-Din, is the first thing you see upon entering. It\u2019s a rich, electrically colored scene of a group shooting pool at the now-closed Alberta bar the Welcome Inn.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Isaka\u2019s piece, it looks like there\u2019s community and people getting together to play something or do something,\u201d says Laveah, one of the King School Museum\u2019s students, in an audio guide that accompanies select works. \u201cThere\u2019s all types of color on peoples\u2019 clothes, their skin color, and that looks really cool because it looks like it\u2019s not even real.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aniya, another King School Museum student, chose to display a letterpress print by Hank Willis Thomas. While Aniya might know Thomas is a world-renowned artist with work in the permanent collections of pretty much every major museum there is, in the audio guide, she notes that she chose Thomas\u2019s 2019 print Keep the Faith, Baby because it makes her think of a friend who really likes the color red.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just like it because it says keep the faith,\u201d she adds. \u201cSo it\u2019s prompting you to keep your confidence or have positive thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019 piece was inspired by a phrase he first saw as a kid, a shortened version of civil rights activist and Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr.\u2019s famed quote \u201cKeep the faith, baby; spread it gently and walk together, children.\u201d <\/p>\n
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A collaboration between PAM and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School Museum of Contemporary Art. (Kendall Porter) <\/p>\n
On another wall hangs a portrait by Portland multidisciplinary artist Intisar Abioto, known for her often experimental works\u2014dance compositions, writings, photographs\u2014documenting the Black diaspora. This photo, Nafisaria Scroggins, from 2015, portrays a young Black woman looking straight at the camera.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s representing her hair,\u201d Storie, another student, says in the audio guide. \u201cI think she loves it, and I feel like a lot of people doesn\u2019t like it. But she\u2019s like: \u2018You got this. Your hair is beautiful. Always represent it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Beside Forrest Kirk\u2019s 2021 painting Fist 42, a wall placard attributed to student La\u2019Nayah reads: \u201cBLM, Fist, Power. I am seeing a lot of colors and stripes. What I didn\u2019t think about before is what art means!\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirk is known for layering unexpected materials\u2014acrylics, spray paint and Gorilla Glue, here\u2014into his paintings to point out and interrogate the connotations different materials carry. Per the title, Fist 42 depicts a fist held proud with swirling blue, yellow and white fingers clenched.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like how it represents Black power,\u201d Storie adds in the audio guide. \u201cIt represents my culture, and I like how it represents my culture.\u201d<\/p>\n