Portland Museum of Art hangs its future on fate of neighboring building [Video]

At the start of 2020, the Portland Museum of Art was looking forward to a good year.

More than 175,000 people came through the doors in 2019. The staff was preparing for a traveling exhibition of works by Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington in partnership with museums in Colorado and Texas. They hoped the museum would surpass 200,000 visitors and set a new attendance record.

We all know what happened next.

“We really have been working since that moment to get back to that new threshold. … We are increasing attendance each year, but nowhere to the level that we’d like to see or what actually is sustainable for our economic plan,” museum director Mark Bessire said this month. “If we’re going to do that, we’ve got to have folks in the building.”

He’s not just talking about the existing buildings.

The Portland Museum of Art has been planning to expand its downtown campus for years. In the wake of COVID-19, that project has …