Welcome to our fully searchable guide to the best in Portland arts & entertainment. Please call to confirm dates and times of events, as information is often received well in advance by our office and may be subject to change. Prices listed are for adult individual tickets; check with box offices for subscription, student or senior discounts. This selective, rotating guide is independent of advertising. (To add your event, please contact listings@portlandmonthlymag.com.)
| Showing 1—20 of 80 entries. |
| Event Title | Date | Location | Contact Information | Cost |
| Morrison’s Cooking for Kids | Jan 01 2008 to Jul 30 2008 | | 503-258-4295
www.morrisonkids.org | |
| For the 12th straight year, Morrison Child and Family Services presents this gourmet dining series to benefit the organization’s programs, which aid thousands of Oregon’s most troubled children. For the month of January, participating restaurants include Terroir, Sel Gris, DF and Meriwethers. |
| Planetarium: Black Holes—The Other Side of Infinity | Jan 01 2008 to Sep 30 2008 | OMSI | 503-797-4000
www.omsi.edu | Call for Omnimax and planetarium showtimes and ticket information |
| Planetarium: Black Holes—The Other Side of Infinity So where do you end up if you dive into a black hole? And just how far away is infinity? We’re not sure, but to find out you’d probably want to pack a lunch. Get the straight answers at this cosmically inclined planetarium show. |
| Planetarium: Cosmic Collisions | Jan 01 2008 to Sep 30 2008 | OMSI | 503-797-4000
www.omsi.edu | Call for Omnimax and planetarium showtimes and ticket information |
| Sit starry-eyed as huge, heavenly bodies on collision courses crash and carom in this deep-space, high-impact feature. |
| American Sabor: Latinas in U.S. Popular Music | Jan 01 2008 to Sep 07 2008 | Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum | 206-770-2702
www.empsfm.org | $12-15 |
| Five thousand square feet of EMP are devoted to screening rooms, listening kiosks, artifact exhibits and interactive stations exploring the cultural influence Latino artists from New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio and San Francisco have had on post-World War II music. |
| Dinosaurs! China’s Ancient Giants , OMSI | Feb 02 2008 to Sep 01 2008 | OMSI | 503–797–
www.omsi.edu | $9 |
| Wander among towering dinosaur skeletons recently excavated from their ancient burial grounds in China and Mongolia. Look up old friends like the Velociraptor and get acquainted with new ones, such as the near–endless, 58–foot–long Mamenchisaurus. Call for Omnimax and planetarium showtimes and ticket information. |
| Every Picture Tells a Story: Persian Narrative Painting | Apr 01 2008 to Jul 27 2008 | Portland Art Museum | 503-226-2811
portlandartmuseum.org/ | $10 |
| From pre-Islamic depictions of heroic tales to paintings of Islamic ritual and ceremony, the 26 works, which range from the 14th to the 19th century, reveal much about the culture and history of Persia (present-day Iran), a land that has been contested and fought over seemingly since its very beginnings. |
| Dinosaurs: China’s Ancient Giants | Apr 01 2008 to Sep 01 2008 | OMSI | 503-797-4000
www.omsi.edu | $11; call for Omnimax and planetarium ticket information |
| Wander among towering dinosaur skeletons recently excavated from their ancient burial grounds in China and Mongolia. Look up old friends like the velociraptor and get acquainted with new ones such as the 65-foot-long Mamenchisaurus. |
| Glass: A Site-Specific Installation | Jun 01 2008 to Aug 10 2008 | Museum of Contemporary Craft | 503-223-2654
| Free |
| Using a large sheet of industrially produced skyscraper glass (commonly used in major buildings around the world), artist Melissa Dyne will examine the relationship between industrial object and art. The glass will bend and ultimately shatter under its own weight during the course of the installation. |
| Every Picture Tells a Story: Persian Narrative Painting | Jun 01 2008 to Jul 27 2008 | Portland Art Museum | 503-226-2811
| $10 |
| From pre-Islamic depictions of heroic tales to paintings of Islamic ritual and ceremony, these 26 ancient works reveal much about the culture and history of present-day Iran, a land and culture that has been fought over seemingly since its very beginnings. |
| Klaus Moje: The Portland Panels | Jun 01 2008 to Sep 07 2008 | Portland Art Museum | 503-226-2811
| $10 |
| Painted and diamond-polished glass panels by the German-born Moje—who now calls Australia home—one of the foremost artisans working with the medium of glass. |
| Britt Festivals | Jun 01 2008 to Sep 07 2008 | Britt Festival Gardens & Amphitheater | 800-882-7488
| $9-101 |
| Jacksonville’s summer arts festival and concert series rolls out a little something for everyone, featuring prominent practitioners of pop, country, jazz, and classical music. June includes highly anticipated shows from the always-harmonious Crosby, Stills & Nash (June 1); fiery folkie Michelle Shocked (June 13); Michael Franti & Spearhead (June 21); and Dire Straits main man Mark Knopfler (June 29). And blues fans should be queuing up to the Keb’ Mo’ and Taj Mahal twin bill on June 23. |
| Window Shopping | Jun 03 2008 to Sep 06 2008 | 3D Center of Art & Photography | 503-227-6667
| $4 |
| You may recognize some of the retail locales featured in George King’s latest collection of 3-D images: Although some are located abroad, many can be found right here in Portland. King’s photographs capture shockingly lifelike storefront mannequins, as well as the reactions of window-shopping onlookers. |
| Urban Forest | Jun 04 2008 to Jul 25 2008 | Chambers | 503-227-9398
| Free |
| A marked departure from his previous digital works, artist and gallery owner Wid Chambers presents new sculpture and video inspired by the wild and urban forests. A surreal landscape anchored by an enormous skeletal Douglas fir, this installation acts as “a tribute to the huge trees that once covered most of the Portland area,” according to the artist. |
| Return to the Land: Photographs by Paul Goldman | Jun 05 2008 to Sep 07 2008 | Oregon Jewish Museum | 503-226-3600
| Free |
| First seen in New York City, this exhibition makes its first stop on a national tour at the Oregon Jewish Museum. Hungarian-born photojournalist Paul Goldman documents the events leading up to the foundation of the state of Israel with photos of life before statehood, after its war of independence, and during its resettlement by dispersed Jews. |
| Sparrow Lane | Jun 05 2008 to Jul 26 2008 | Quality Pictures | 503-227-5060
| Free |
| Portland-based photographer and filmmaker Holly Andres explores the transition from girlhood to womanhood with 10 photographs from her newest series. The artist’s work has been shown by Portland Art Museum, Newspace Center for Photography, and Jen Bekman Gallery in New York. |
| Glass Arts of Native America | Jun 05 2008 to Jul 31 2008 | Quintana Galleries | 503-223-1729
| Free |
| Contemporary works in glass by Marvin Oliver, Lillian Pitt, Alano Edzerza, and Lawrence Ahvakana reflect different tribal perspectives on the medium. Subjects range from glass representations of the spirit world to modernist sculptures inspired by the Quinault Nation. |
| Northwest Professional Dance Project | Jun 13 2008 to Aug 16 2008 | | 503-421-7434
www.nwpdp.com | |
| Annual Summer Programming Back for its fifth year under the artistic direction of award-winning choreographer and dance teacher Sarah Slipper, the project affords dancers aged 16 to 25 the chance to workshop with established choreographers and to demonstrate their abilities to visiting company directors. This year includes four performances by the NWPDP dance company: The first program, on July 11-12, will feature world premières from Lucas Crandall, associate artistic director of Chicago’s Hubbard Street Dance, and from Oregon Ballet Theatre founding director James Canfield, among other pieces. And to conclude the series on Aug 15-16, dancers will perform new works by Broadway dance legend Donald McKayle; Cayetano Soto, a choreographer from Ballet Theatre Munich; BodyVox co-artistic director Jamey Hampton; and more. |
| Contemporary Northwest Art Awards | Jun 14 2008 to Sep 14 2008 | Portland Art Museum | 503-226-2811
| $10 |
| Out of 259 finalists from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, five were selected for this inaugural showcase of some of the best and brightest artists working in the region today. This reinvention of the Oregon Biennial, which last featured 35 Oregon artists in 2006, will present a more focused representation of art from a wider geographic area—a move PAM curator and exhibition organizer Jennifer Gately hopes will bring greater attention to our homegrown talents from observers based outside the region. Whatever the case, one of the five honorees will come out ahead by pocketing a $10,000 prize. |
| Chamber Music Northwest Summer Festival | Jun 23 2008 to Jul 27 2008 | Kaul Auditorium, Reed College / Cabell Center Theater, Catlin Gabel School | 503-294-6400
www.cmnw.org | |
| Goethe once compared chamber music, a musical genre created for intimate settings such as the sitting rooms of people’s homes, to a conversation among rational people. Starting this month, Chamber Music Northwest will stimulate the discussion with a varied repertoire at its 38th annual Summer Festival. Though icons such as Beethoven, Bach, Vivaldi, and Schubert will be accorded prominent places at the table, organizers recommend that guests pay special attention to the festival’s contemporary and non-European composers. On July 4 and 5, hear early 20th-century Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos’s ethereal piece Bachiana Brasileira No. 5, written for eight cellos and a soprano—Hyunah Yu will sing. The next night, the Mark O’Connor Quartet will tune its fiddles to pure Americana with compositions centered on a bluegrass theme. But fans of the irrepressible Peter Schickele (pictured) will be in for one of the festival’s biggest treats at the end of this month, as the composer, conductor, and alter ego of the infamous P.D.Q. Bach will be on hand for a little classical tomfoolery—and to narrate Camille Saint-Saëns’s whimsical and charming Carnival of the Animals, rendered by the region’s top musicians. —Megan Callow |
| Summer Music Festival | Jul 01 2008 to Jul 27 2008 | Chamber Music Northwest | 503-294-6400
www.cmnw.org | |
| Goethe once compared chamber music, a genre developed for intimate settings, to a conversation among rational people. Chamber Music Northwest will help to stimulate the discussion this month with a varied repertoire at its 38th annual Summer Festival. On July 5, the members of the Mark O’Connor Quartet will rosin their bows with pure Americana in a nod to the evening’s bluegrass theme, while two of the country’s finest chamber ensembles, the Orion String Quartet and the Miami String Quartet, will perform selections by George Enescu, Mozart, Haydn, and Mendelssohn over the course of five nights (July 14-15 & 17-19). Acclaimed pianist André Watts will close the festival with four nights of French chamber music, including works by Claude Debussy (July 24-27). |
