About Competition
The Portland Museum of Art (the PMA), founded in 1882, is Maine’s largest and most visited art institution, and among the oldest museums in America. Located in the heart of downtown Portland, one of the country’s most beloved cities, the museum encompasses a full city block of historically and architecturally significant buildings. The PMA’s world-class collection includes more than 18,000 objects, including 19th-and-20th century American and European art, modern and contemporary art, and iconic works from Maine that highlight the rich artistic traditions of the state and its artists.
The museum has outgrown its current campus due to increased visitation and several major gifts to its collection. The broadening and diversification of the artwork, record attendance prior to the pandemic and community feedback have underlined the need for more space.
The PMA sees this as an opportunity to discover the impact a museum can have when it is built through an inclusive lens. By creating a community hub with myriad collaborative spaces, and focusing on groundbreaking approaches to art, the PMA believes it can become a place where all people feel they belong. More than just a new building, the PMA’s campus unification and expansion is a value proposition, envisioning the monumental positive impact museums can have on their communities.
The institution’s progressive and inclusive outlook on curation, education, and engagement will be reflected through innovative and future-forward architecture. This will ensure the PMA and the region’s future is rooted in diversity, equity, accessibility, inclusivity, and sustainability. And as a result, the PMA will transform the very nature of what a museum can be.
The PMA’s new museum wing will anchor and integrate the entire campus and double the institution’s existing size. It will be an environmentally and ecologically responsible expansion that will accommodate new collections and major exhibitions, host community events, programs, and performance space for the seeing and making of art, and will consolidate all staff offices.
The museum’s bold and ambitious agenda will physically harness the PMA’s commitments and deep values through an architecture that will renew, revitalize and redefine a museum’s role in society. The PMA is courageous, forward-looking and intent on creating a paradigm shift for museums around the globe.
The Portland Museum of Art Campus Unification + Expansion International Design Competition challenges architects to form a multi-disciplinary team with accessibility, inclusivity and sustainability experts, landscape architects and graphic designers to create an inclusive place that champions open expression and makes art accessible to all, a place that delivers on the promise of the PMA’s mission, Art for All.
The PMA imagines an inclusive and iconic Landmark for the Future.
About the Organizer
Mission
Art for All. The Portland Museum of Art seeks to create an inclusive space that champions open expression and makes art accessible to all.
Vision
To be a central gathering place where a strong artistic vision and the collection drive conversation, creativity, cultural vitality, and economic impact.
Competition Website: https://www.portlandmuseum.org/competition
Submission / Key Dates
Stage I: Request for Qualifications
June 1, 2022: RFQ Release
June 1-June 24, 2022: Q+A Period
July 1, 2022: Qualifications Due
Early August, 2022: Shortlist Announced
Stage II: Design Competition (for invited Shortlist only)
Early August, 2022: Design Brief Release
August 15, 2022: Site Tour and Informational Meeting
September 12, 2022: Interim Report Due
September 19, 2022: Interim Presentations and Review (via teleconference)
October 28, 2022: Concept Design Due
Nov. 18-Dec. 9, 2022: Public Display and Public Comment Period
Early December, 2022: Presentations to Public and Jury
Late December, 2022: Winning Team Announced
