Blue Sky is the collective brainchild of five 20-something creatives who wanted to provide space for photographers to show work outside the mainstream art world. In 1975, the young artists pooled their unemployment checks (the story goes) to open a nine-by-14-foot gallery space on NW 23rd Avenue. <\/p>\n
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The original Blue Sky Gallery on NW 23rd and Lovejoy was tiny, measuring just nine feet by 14 feet. But 50 years later, it’s still going strong. 1975<\/p>\n
Courtesy Blue Sky Gallery<\/p>\n
Despite dimensions Rauschenberg compared to those of a freight elevator, the name \u201cBlue Sky\u201d suggested the unconstrained, innovative approach to artmaking the friends shared. In addition to photographing novel subject matter, they regularly conducted experiments such as activating a camera\u2019s timed shutter and tossing it in the air to see what kind of images it captured. The name may have also presaged the gallery\u2019s unexpected success, which did seem to come out of the blue.<\/p>\n
The power of an image<\/p>\n
In the mid-seventies, photographers Ann Hughes and Robert DiFranco were paying $40 a month for a storefront darkroom in Portland\u2019s old Northwest district. When the weavers they were sharing the space with decided to move out, their friend Craig Hickman suggested they open a photography gallery and invited Terry Toedtemeier and Rauschenberg to join. The five friends\u2019 original idea was to create a place for local photographers to show work. But Rauschenberg remembered Hughes taking the idea a step further.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnn thought about it and she said, \u2018Well, that\u2019d be good because then if a photographer comes to town, they\u2019ll come to the gallery and we\u2019ll meet them.\u2019 So, the gallery was conceived as kind of a honey trap to meet photographers,\u201d Rauschenberg chuckled. <\/p>\n
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Blue Sky Gallery’s first exhibition poster attracted the attention of photographic artists all over the country. The novel graphic was designed by the gallery’s co-founder Ann Hughes.<\/p>\n
Courtesy Blue Sky Gallery<\/p>\n
Hughes, also a gifted graphic designer, immediately went to work on publicity posters. The posters were sent out using mailing lists borrowed from New York\u2019s now-defunct Light Gallery<\/a> and Portland Center for the Visual Arts (PCVA<\/a>). The homegrown enterprise thus joined just a dozen other American galleries focused on photography. Rauschenberg described the huge response to their venture as \u201coverwhelming.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as we opened, we were getting show proposals from all over the country and Blue Sky became a highly sought-after place to have a show,\u201d Rauschenberg said. <\/p>\n A window on the world<\/p>\n Fifty years later, Blue Sky has been joined by well over 100 other photography galleries, and according to the Oregon Encyclopedia<\/a>, is one of the oldest fine arts galleries in the United States operating as a collective.<\/p>\n The current home of Blue Sky Gallery in Portland’s Pearl District. The gallery has 20 times more exhibition space than the original storefront on NW 23rd Avenue.<\/p>\n Courtesy Blue Sky Gallery<\/p>\n In 2007, Blue Sky relocated to the Pearl District and a space 20 times larger than its original storefront. The gallery typically opens two new shows each month, selected by a committee made up of gallery members from all walks of life. It\u2019s also home to a revolving group of 60 regional artists, whose work is selected by a guest curator for the gallery\u2019s \u201cPacific Northwest Drawers<\/a>\u201d project. Each photographer presents 10 prints in flat file drawers, accessible at the gallery year-round. Semi-annual \u201cPrint Walk\u201d exhibitions invite the public to meet the artists behind the work. <\/p>\n Blue Sky’s “Print Walk” events allow Pacific Northwest photographers to meet the public to discuss their original work. November, 2025.<\/p>\n Jule Gilfillan \/ OPB<\/p>\n \u201cIt has this really cool dynamic of having this sort of micro impact here in our community, but then a macro impact too by providing an opportunity for emerging artists to get their work seen by curators from all over the country,\u201d explained Blue Sky executive director Kristin Solomon. <\/p>\n According to Solomon, the gallery\u2019s remarkable ability to draw local, national and international talent to a small city like Portland allows Blue Sky to stay relevant in a rapidly changing artistic landscape. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s also been critical to really creating this space here in Portland that was a window into the rest of the world. And I think the strength of this gallery is that it continues to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n A year-long party<\/p>\n Throughout 2025, events commemorating Blue Sky\u2019s 50th anniversary, such as a rooftop gala and a series of openings, each of which is focused on a decade of Blue Sky\u2019s exhibitions, have drawn enthusiastic crowds.<\/p>\n \u201cThe vibe has been kind of like a college reunion,\u201d mused Solomon. <\/p>\n This December\u2019s First Thursday opening, which featured past and present work from alumni of Blue Sky\u2019s second decade (1985-1995<\/a>), was also attended by gallery founders Di Franco, Rauschenberg and Hickman.<\/p>\n The son and granddaughter of photographer Ann Kendellen enjoy an image of themselves on display at Blue Sky’s First Thursday event. December 2025.<\/p>\n Jule Gilfillan \/ OPB<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve really found it so satisfying to be playing point guard on the photography team,\u201d quipped Rauschenberg. \u201cI have my own shows in galleries around, and I\u2019ve had the wonderful opportunity to help photographers further their careers by having exhibitions here. And it\u2019s really fun to talk with other photographers about work.\u201d <\/p>\n A Pacific Northwest \u2018parade\u2019<\/p>\n The gallery has now shown more than 1000 artists and is still going strong.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are just really proud that we have something so special here in Portland that\u2019s lasted so long,\u201d explained Solomon. \u201cWhen the founders talk about this gallery and everything we\u2019ve achieved, the vision for those things have always come from the community.\u201d <\/p>\n Blue Sky also reserves gallery space to elevate voices from outside established art circles, including Street Roots<\/a>, P:ear<\/a>, and students from PNCA<\/a> and PSU<\/a>.<\/p>\n This 21st century image made by Ken Straiton was displayed during Blue Sky Gallery’s “First Decade” show, in which photos from the gallery’s first decade (1975 – 1985) were featured beside artists’ recent work.<\/p>\n Ken Straiton\/Blue Sky Gallery<\/p>\n What Rauschenberg called \u201ca nice, communal thing to do\u201d was also responding to a genuine need that surfaced from the creative tumult of the 1960s, combined with the down-to-earth practicality that\u2019s always been part of living in the Pacific Northwest. <\/p>\n \u201cI mean, if you\u2019re doing something that is really actually useful, you find it self-sustaining in a certain kind of a way,\u201d reflected Rauschenberg. \u201cIt\u2019s been something where you feel like you\u2019re just walking down the street, and you look behind you and find you\u2019re leading a parade.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s pretty unusual for an arts non-profit to last 50 years. But here in Oregon, one such organization…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134,197897],"class_list":{"0":"post-363783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-oregon-art-beat-culture-art-portland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/W5KKEMNKUJDDFFGX7V7KFAGZLY.jpg\")
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