The Arts in Portland- Built and sustained by the people

From the beginning, the people of Portland have revered and fought to preserve their arts venues. In fact, they built the very first one.

It all began in 1917, when Portland citizens opened the city’s first publicly owned assembly center, the Municipal Auditorium. As the need for performing and gathering spaces grew, Portland opened the Portland Publix Theatre, later renamed the Paramount Theatre.

In 1971, a prospective buyer of the Paramount proposed replacing it with a parking garage. The people stood up for the arts landmark, fighting until Portland City Council declared the Paramount a historic landmark in 1972. Three years later, Portlanders once again showed their fierce love for the arts, raising over $5,000 to keep the Paramount’s historic marble statue “Surprise” in Portland.

Portland’5 was formed in 1980, when Mayor Connie McCready appointed a Performing Arts Center Committee. The PAC Committee submitted a proposal to City Council for the purchase and renovation of the Paramount, along with the construction of two new theaters on the adjacent block. Citizens again showed their support, voting in a measure providing $19 million in initial financing for the new Portland Center for the Performing Arts (PCPA).

In 1983, groundbreaking on renovation of Paramount as a new concert hall was followed with the first of many generous donations from Harold and Arlene Schnitzer. This contribution turned the Paramount into the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and marked the first of many incredible gestures of support from other art-loving Portlanders over the years.

The following year, Norman Winningstad surprised his wife for their 39th wedding anniversary by making a $500,000 donation to the PCPA in her name, which dubbed one of the new theaters the Dolores Winningstad. By 1987, the construction of the PCPA was completed. The opening celebration was massively attended, with 25,000 people on Broadway and Main streets and an additional 300,000 viewers tuning into the live television broadcast.

Beginning in 1994, nonprofit group Friends of the Performing Arts Center raised funds for improvements within PCPA venues. Later in the ‘90s, they initiated the Walk of Stars to honor those who had contributed significantly to Portland’s arts, urban design and environment. The following years saw a bounty of generous donations that gave Portland venues the names they bear today.

In 1997, a donation of $650,000 from Herb and Jeanne Mittleman Newmark gave the Newmark Theatre its name. In 2000, Corey Brunish’s $350,000 donation in honor of his mother, Virginia, named the Brunish Hall (now Brunish Theatre). Later that year, Richard B. Keller made a $1.5 million donation that renamed the Portland Civic Auditorium the
Keller Auditorium.

Portland theatre has, from the very beginning, been made possible by contributions from the community itself. Whether it’s a group of citizens coming together to protect a historic space, or a donation from one or two generous people funding state-of-the-art renovations, local people have always been the driving force behind the arts in the Rose City.