The museum’s largest collecting focus is on art created in the American Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana), with an emphasis on the Pacific Northwest. The Northwest Collection traces the history of modern and contemporary art in the region and includes works by Oregon modernists C.S. Price, Charles Heaney, Amanda Snyder, Carl Hall, and Jan Zach. Contemporary artists include Fay Jones, Michael Spafford, Michael Dailey, Gaylen Hansen, and Dan Webb of Washington, and Oregon artists Frank Boyden, Michael Brophy, George Johanson, Lucinda Parker, and Mel Katz, among others.
This collection also includes work by contemporary Native American artists from the Pacific Northwest, including work by Rick Bartow, Joe Feddersen, James Lavadour, Marie Watt, and Lillian Pitt, among others.
Willamette University’s Pacific Northwest Art and Artists Archive is a resource for research on regional artists.