Portland Art Map Returns in Second Printing With 73 Venues

A new edition of the Cultural Corridor Art Map, a guide to Portland's public arts spaces, is arriving this week. The map is produced by the Oregon Alliance for the National Museum of Women in the Arts, known as NMWA Oregon.

The second printing locates 73 galleries, museums, art-centric bookshops and other venues across the city. The original map, printed in 2024, listed 59. The result is a colorful bird's eye view of a sprawling arts scene.

Brooke Willow, a steering committee member of NMWA Oregon, said the group's first goal is to bring arts organizations and the wider community together. She said the new map aims to put organizations of all sizes on people's radar, including those along the Cultural Corridor, the cluster of art and cultural spaces beside Portland's historic park blocks. It also reaches North and Northeast Portland, Beaverton and Lake Oswego, among other areas.

Alongside the expected museums, galleries and private institutional collections, the map features businesses. One is the long-standing Stumptown Coffee Roasters cafe in Old Town-Chinatown, which includes a commercial gallery space. Another is Chess Club, a downtown shop selling independent periodicals and art books.

Chess Club co-owner Andrew Simon said much of the interesting work in Portland happens at a smaller scale, in independent spaces, artist-run projects and bookstores that lack large marketing budgets. "This project helps visualize that ecosystem and connect the dots," he said.

Chess Club is moving from the Pearl District to 1111 SW Washington St., with the new location opening in late October. The updated map carries that address. It also adds more than a dozen new arts and culture venues, among them the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts in Beaverton and Portland State University's new Jordan Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design.

NMWA Oregon founder Elizabeth Leach said the map is becoming "part of the DNA of the city." She described it as a treasure hunt of hidden gems for tourists, and also a way to create opportunities for smaller organizations and newer galleries to connect with Portlanders.

NMWA Oregon will formally launch the second edition at a press event on Wednesday. The map will be available in print at participating venues and other locations around town, and as a downloadable PDF.