Main gallery, Museum of Contemporary Craft

Yesterday, director David Cohen gave the press and other culturalists a tour of the Museum of Contemporary Craft's still unfinished 15,000 sg ft. facilities on Portland's North Park Blocks. The main gallery will have soaring 22 foot ceilings and an impressive overlook. The other galleries are more intimate but no less refined. I'm thrilled that they are keeping the old glass as its irregularities produce cool visual distortions of the outside world activating the viewers perceptual acuity, which can then be trained on the exhibitions. The museum will also have a climate controlled archive and preparation space. The renamed DeSoto building is a commercial condo so the museum and other tenants will own their spaces.

Other features include a community room for meetings and a 3,000 sq foot outside "events" deck for all of the tenants. With other tenants like Bluesky, Augen & Foelick galleries as well as a new photography gallery by Charles Hartman it should further solidify Portland's core of easy to walk art spaces on the west side. Another plus, most of these gallery spaces have soaring ceilings with lots of light, something sorely missed since the demise of the original Savage Gallery whose space was better than most in Chelsea.

The new Museum space will open July 22nd and their last shows in their old space run through March 11th, so last chance.

Note Melia's posting from earlier this week too about the final bash on March 17. A great farewell to a beautiful building and seventy-year old home!!

Saturday night has the farewell bash, with fancy drinks and dancing, for the Contemporary Craft Museum and Gallery (soon to be the Museum of Contemporary Craft). With that, you should be aware that this week is the last chance you have to see their current shows.

Farewell 3934: Seventy Years of Contemporary Craft
Featuring DJ Anjali & The Incredible Kid
Sat • Mar 17 • 9p - 12a
$25 at the door • 21 & over (get a babysitter)

(All proceeds benefit the capital campaign for
Museum of Contemporary Craft. Admission
includes snacks and 2 complimentary beverages
at the cash bar. Capacity is limited, so
please come early to ensure entry.)