{"id":851832,"date":"2026-08-11T21:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T21:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851832\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T21:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T21:00:11","slug":"portland-art-museum-names-new-director-after-9-month-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851832\/","title":{"rendered":"Portland Art Museum names new director after 9-month search"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael J. Anderson, seen in a provided image, will lead the Portland Art Museum as its new director beginning Oct. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n

Illustration Courtesy of Portland Art Museum<\/p>\n

Michael J. Anderson, currently president and CEO of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, will soon lead the Portland Art Museum as its new director, PAM announced Tuesday morning. His tenure begins Oct. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n

Anderson\u2019s appointment comes after the museum\u2019s previous director of nearly 20 years, Brian Ferriso, left the institution<\/a> after spearheading the $111 million renovation and expansion<\/a> of its downtown Portland campus. Ferriso now directs the Dallas Museum of Art. <\/p>\n

\"Hundreds<\/p>\n

Hundreds gather for the opening ceremony of the new Mark Rothko Pavillion of the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Ore., on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. The Portland Museum’s new $111 million addition connects the former Masonic Temple built in 1927 and the 1932 original museum complex by Pietro Belluschi.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

After Ferriso\u2019s departure, a trio of co-interim directors was appointed to lead the museum while it searched for a new permanent director. <\/p>\n

The nine-month search chose Anderson, a former teacher who\u2019s since become an established curator and museum executive. Anderson \u2014 who holds a PhD in the history of art and film studies \u2014 is also a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael is a thoughtful, disciplined leader who can leverage the Museum\u2019s existing strengths to expand its public impact and help animate every aspect of the program and campus,\u201d Alix Meier Goodman, a museum search committee co-chair, said in a press release Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Anderson said he\u2019s eager to begin working with PAM as it enters its post-expansion phase, which he called a \u201cgreat moment\u201d focused on programming, community partnerships and \u201cmaking sure that all Oregonians know that this is their museum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think anybody in my position would be salivating at the prospects of working with this institution,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Anderson said he wants to strengthen PAM\u2019s connection with local communities at a time when many museums nationwide continue to pull themselves out of a post-pandemic visitation slump<\/a>. PAM said in its press release that visitor levels have gone up 35% since the campus expansion last fall.<\/p>\n

At the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Anderson has focused on broadening access to art by implementing bilingual interpretation in the galleries, giving children free admission and partnering with Indigenous artists in the region. He said he\u2019s eager to work with the curators of the Native American collection when he comes to Portland in the fall.<\/p>\n

Anderson said when he comes to Portland, he wants to create \u201cnew opportunities for audiences to experience exceptional art, engage with new ideas, and discover the diverse stories reflected in PAM\u2019s collections and exhibitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he doesn\u2019t plan to lead the museum in a drastically different direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cPacific Northwestern art, Oregon art \u2014 that will remain a focus of the museum,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

His first order of business will be to meet with curators to better understand ongoing museum projects. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael J. Anderson, seen in a provided image, will lead the Portland Art Museum as its new director…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,422428,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-851832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-culture-portland-metro","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851832","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=851832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}