Portland Art Museum Opens Huge Addition

One of the Northwest’s cultural jewels, the Portland Art Museum, will unveil the largest expansion project in its history this week - and the first gallery addition since 1939.

The renovated Hoffman Wing, formerly home of the Pacific Northwest College of Art, now has more than 60,000 square feet of gallery space on its four floors.

The estimated $20 million project, which took two years to complete, places the museum as one of the top 25 largest in the country.

The museum’s third wing will house the new centers for Native American Art and Northwest Art, two special exhibition galleries, a community education center, an auditorium, shop and cafe as well as a renovated outdoor sculpture garden.

The expansion will allow the museum to install its collections in permanent galleries and host special exhibits at the same time. Many of the museum’s masterpieces have been in storage for lack of gallery space. The collection includes European and American painting and sculpture, English silver, Asian art, PreColumbian art, Cameroon and other African art, prints, drawings and photography.

The wing’s first floor will be home to Asian and contemporary art and a special exhibition gallery. The second will display American and European art and English silver.

The Grand Ronde Center for Native American Art, on the second and third floors, will house some 375 works of art drawn from almost every cultural group in North America.

The Center for Northwest Art, on the third and fourth floors, will focus on Oregon art but will include pieces from Washington, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia.

The grand opening celebration will be held Saturday and next Sunday, with artist demonstrations, hands-on arts activities, music, dance and more. Museum admission will be free next weekend through Sept. 17.

The museum, founded in 1892, is located in downtown Portland at 1219 SW Park Ave. For information and events listings, call (503) 226-2811 or visit the Web at www.pam.org.

Cheney Cowles cultural tour

Aching to see some of the cultural hot spots in New York City and Washington, D.C.? Want to travel with a bunch of fellow Inland Northwest residents?

The Cheney Cowles Museum is offering an eight-day tour from Oct. 29 to Nov. 5. Don’t spend too much time making up your mind, though. The sign-up deadline is Tuesday.

The New York highlights include tours of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty as well as admission to the Broadway production of “The Lion King” and the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the Frick Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian.

The four nights there will be spent at the Mayflower On The Park Hotel (that would be Central Park, with nine museums within a mile of the hotel).

The D.C. days will feature the Smithsonian, Capital Mall monuments, an evening at the Kennedy Center and a visit to Mount Vernon. The three nights will be at the Holiday Inn Downtown.

The tour guide and narrator will be Kate Duignan, manager of the museum’s Art at Work program.

Trip price includes all transportation, tours and two dinners and a lunch. Cost is $3,310 for a single; $2,610 per person for double occupancy; and $2,410 per person for triple occupancy.

For reservations, call Harla Jean Biever at (509) 455-4354 or Sally Duffy at (509) 363-5318.

Mount Hood train

The Mount Hood Railroad’s popular train ride from Hood River, Ore., up to the base of Mount Hood offers something extra on Sept. 23-24.

Passengers will be treated to the third annual Native American Celebration. They will get to watch the Warm Springs Spirit Walker Dancers, listen to cultural storytelling and sample native cooking while the train lays over in Parkdale, at the foot of Mount Hood. Arts and crafts will also be available.

Trains run twice daily from Hood River, from 10 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. and from 3 to 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $24.95 for adults, $22.95 for seniors and $16.95 for children ages 2 to 12.

The 94-year-old train offers a variety of daytime excursions as well as Saturday evening dinner and Sunday brunch from April through December. On its journey to Mount Hood, passengers ride through orchards, meadows and forests along the Hood River.

For details, call (800) 872-4661 or visit the Web at www.mthoodrr.com.

Regional events

Butte Heritage Days, Aug. 29, Butte, Mont. Celebrates city’s mining, cultural, labor and ethnic heritage with displays, music, food, art and entertainment. Info: (406) 782-1859.

Wagon Days, Sept. 1-4, Ketchum, Idaho. Annual Labor Day celebration offers a parade, rodeo, shootouts, carnival, pancake breakfasts, antique fairs and classic car auction. Big Hitch Parade is largest nonmotorized parade in the West, with more than 100 museumquality buggies, carriages, buckboards and wagons along with marching bands and equestrian groups. Info: (208) 726-3423.

Lewiston Roundup, Sept. 8-10, Lewiston. Billed as area’s largest and oldest community event, it features three days of PRCA-quality rodeo action. Info: (208) 743-3531.