
On "Ursa Major" by Rick Bartow: “Rick was one of our incredible Northwest artists, a Native American artist, who used his Native American heritage to make some really strong, meaningful, playful, sometimes political sculpture. This is a wonderfully carved, pegged-together raven on top of a bear, with some Native American masks on it and some wings. It’s just this wonderful piece that weds traditional Northwest carving to a kind of contemporary sculptural idiom. I love it.”
Aaron Scott / OPB
When Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson started as a 17-year-old student at the Museum Art School at the Portland Art Museum in 1970, there wasn't much of a Northwest art collection.
Laing-Malcolmson graduated and pursued a career in arts administration. She eventually served as the director of academic affairs at the Pacific Northwest College of Art and then the president of the Oregon College of Arts and Craft, where she spearheaded a nearly $15 million expansion.
By the time Laing-Malcolmson returned to the Portland Art Museum in 2010, this time as the Curator of Northwest Art, a major gift from Arlene and Harold Schnitzer had transformed the two floors that used to house the Museum School into the Center for Northwest Art. And fittingly enough, artists Malcolmson had once gone to school with, or later admitted to schools, filled its collection.
This week, Laing-Malcolmson retired. But not after rehanging the Center for Northwest Art one last time. She talked with our producer, Aaron Scott, about seismic changes over the course of her career.