The Portland Art Museum, the seventh oldest art museum in the United States, is a resource-rich community partner in furthering education about neuroscience and art. We’ve enjoyed collaborating with Hana Layson, Head of Youth and Educator Programs, and Mike Murawski, Editor of ArtMuseumTeaching, Co-Producer of Museums Are Not Neutral and a former Director of Learning & Community Partnerships at PAM.

We routinely bring our undergraduates in the Perception class at Portland State University into the museum (both live and virtually) to explore and consider the neuroscience research concerning what we see, feel, find beautiful, attend to and recall.

LEARN MORE: Noggin @ Portland State University

LEARN MORE: Your Brain on Art: The Case for Neuroaesthetics

Teacher Advisory Council

Noggin Arts Coordinator Jeff Leake served on the Portland Art Museum’s Teacher Advisory Council from 2017 – 2019, and Noggin Neuroscience Coordinator Bill Griesar served from 2021 – 2023. Participating on the Council led to several exciting community collaborations.

LEARN MORE: Jeff Leake Joins Teacher Advisory Council @ PAM!

This is the Future

Northwest Noggin was thrilled to receive an invitation from the Portland Art Museum, the seventh oldest museum in the United States, to present a workshop on neural networks at their free community “Evening for Educators” event in February, 2023.

LEARN MORE: We are all neural networks

ART MUSEUM EDUCATOR RESOURCES: Hito_Educator-Resources_flyer_0223_P2

Seeing Nature

NW Noggin also collaborated with the Portland Art Museum on the popular “Seeing Nature” exhibit, contributing Noggin panels with text on the neuroscience of vision for a “Nature of Seeing” gallery which accompanied this striking collection of landscape paintings from the Paul G. Allen Collection.

LEARN MORE: The Nature of Seeing @ the Portland Art Museum

LEARN MORE: The Nature of Seeing: Noggins and Art

Art + Brains in Congress

PAM also co-sponsored our Brain + Art briefings for the U.S. House of Representatives in both 2016 and 2017.

LEARN MORE: STEAMing to DC!

Art, Race, Bias & Brains

In 2020, we collaborated with Teresa Raiford of Don’t Shoot Portland on outreach at the Portland Art Museum in conjunction with the extraordinary Hank Willis Thomas exhibit.