Current Exhibitions
Gary Westford, “The Raft (evening moon rising)” (detail), 2018-2023 1992
Gary Westford: Lifeline (phases of the moon)
May 4 – November 16, 2024
Study Gallery
Gary Westford is a Salem narrative painter and conceptual artist who explores environmental, social justice, and amendment rights issues in his work.
Image GalleryRelated EventsAbout the Artist
Louis Bunce (American, 1907-1983), “Cove #2” (detail), 1947
The Artist's Eye: Selections from the Gary Westford Collection
May 4 – November 16, 2024
Print Study Gallery
Over the years, Salem artist and collector Gary Westford has donated numerous works of art to the permanent collection of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. The exhibition also includes a number of promised gifts, including works by Louis Bunce, Carl Hall, Gregory Grenon, and Carol Hausser.
Image GalleryRelated EventsAbout the Collector Gary Westford
Joe Feddersen, "Drizzle," 2018
Indie Folk: New Art and Sounds from the Pacific Northwest
September 28 – December 21, 2024
Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery
The Pacific Northwest is home to a unique artistic ecosystem involving craft traditions, pre-industrial cultures, and Indigenous and settler histories. Like folk art, the exhibition features handmade works that are unpretentious, and often blur the line between functionality and aesthetics.
Peter Voulkos (American, 1924-2002), “Gourd Shaped Vase, Vase with Leaf, and Green Swirls Vase,” 1952, glazed stoneware, Museum of Contemporary Craft collection, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Salem, OR, gifts from Dr. Francis J. Newton and Rose Fenz; and recipient of the Osmon B. Stubbs Memorial Award, 1952, photo by Dan Kvitka.
Becoming Peter Voulkos: Works from the 1950s
September 28 – December 21, 2024
The Maribeth Collins Lobby
Becoming Peter Voulkos: Works from the 1950s showcases twelve works by the legendary ceramicist Peter Voulkos, focusing on his early career in the 1950s when he became nationally recognized as a master of wheel-thrown functional stoneware. The exhibition culminates with a single piece exemplifying Voulkos’ revolutionary shift which pushed ceramics into the broader conversation taking place in contemporary art during the mid-20th century.
Upcoming Exhibitions
Nancy Floyd, "Field crew member Sydney Gastman measuring a Western Hemlock, H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest," 2023
Nancy Floyd: For the Love of Trees
December 7, 2024 – June 21, 2025
Study Gallery and Print Study Gallery
"Nancy Floyd: For the Love of Trees" features recent work by this award-winning Bend, Oregon photographer and author. In 2022, Floyd was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to embark on a multi-year project exploring the unique bond that Oregonians have with the forest and trees. The exhibition will feature a range of work from the past two years.
Brenda Mallory (Cherokee Nation), "Precession" (detail), courtesy of the Russo Lee Gallery.
Brenda Mallory: The North Star Changes
January 25 – March 22, 2025
Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery
Venture into a landscape full of sculptures and large scale installations by this Portland, Oregon mixed media artist (Cherokee Nation, born 1955). “The North Star Changes,” is based on the idea that humans perceive the North Star as permanent when, in fact, different stars have assumed the position and name over thousands of years. Permanence becomes impermanence as Mallory utilizes reclaimed and recycled objects throughout her work.Permanent Exhibitions
![Lucinda Parker: [italics]Pinkish Lenticular[/italics]](../images/exhibitions/permanent/hfma-carlhallgallery-lucinda-parker-pinkish-lenticular.jpg)
Northwest Perspectives: Selections from the Permanent Collection
On permanent view
Carl Hall Gallery
Visitors can explore new ideas of landscape, narrative, identity, form and process through a variety of paintings, sculptures and mixed media that highlight both visual and conceptual relationships between historic and contemporary art.
The gallery provides the museum with an opportunity to share many previously unviewed works that capture the rich and varied expressions that have taken place during the past century, which has been marked by rapid changes in the art world, the Northwest and its landscape.
![[italics]Tillamook Wallet Basket[/italics]](../images/exhibitions/permanent/tillamook-wallet-basket.jpg)
Ancestral Dialogues: Conversations in Native American Art
On permanent view
The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Gallery
Featuring works from the museum’s permanent collection of American Indian art, this exhibition is organized around the concept of dialogue. The focus is on native art history as a dynamic, rich legacy from which contemporary arts grow today. Art works are placed in conversation, juxtaposed so that the work of many generations is in visual dialogue across time, telling stories of creation, transformation, and renewal. Historic baskets, bags, regalia, and lithics are displayed side by side with contemporary art works by artists such as Rick Bartow, James Lavadour, Bud Lane, Lillian Pitt, Pat Courtney Gold, and Joe Feddersen among many others.
![[italics]Relief of a Servant[/italics]](../images/exhibitions/permanent/relief.jpg)
Across Continents, Through Time
On permanent view
Mark and Janeth Sponenburgh Gallery
This exhibition features selections from the museum’s European, Asian, and American Collections, which span 4,500 years and encompass four continents: Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. On view are paintings, ceramics, prints, sculptures, textiles, architectural fragments, archaeological artifacts, Orthodox icons and decorative arts that will deepen visitors’ appreciation for artworks of aesthetic quality and expressive significance from cultural traditions worldwide.
Many of the works of art displayed in this gallery were generously donated to Willamette University in 1990 by Mark and Janeth Sponenburgh, and formed the basis for the creation of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art.
Print Study Center
On permanent view
Print Study Center
The museum’s collections of works on paper – prints, drawings, paintings on paper, and photographs – are stored, studied and displayed in the Print Study Center. The collection includes many contemporary American works, particularly by artists of the Pacific Northwest. Other highlights include etchings by the 17th-century Dutch artist Anthonie Waterloo, and 19th-century American expatriate artist James Abbott McNeil Whistler, as well as an early pictorial photograph by Edward Steichen. Temporary exhibitions in the Print Study Center are designed to highlight works in the permanent collection, and complement and enhance the special exhibitions on view.