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It’s true: April is Portland Photo Month.  There are amazing exhibitions, events, and happenings all over town…including a great deal on Basic Level memberships at Blue Sky. (Keep reading for details…)

Portland’s prestigious Photolucida hosts biannual in-person portfolio reviews every other April for mid-career photographers from around the world. Hundreds of artists, gallery owners, curators, critics, collectors, and publishers will converge in the city between April 14 and 17, with three special events open to the general public:

Thursday, April 14, 6:00-9:00 PM
Portfolio Walk, Sunken Ballroom, Portland Art Museum
160 photographers present their work in three shifts. Free!

Friday, April 15, 7:00 PM
Lecture with Todd Hido: “Process, Source and Influence”
Whitsell Auditorium, Portland Art Museum, $12.
Visit the Portland Art Museum to purchase tickets.

Saturday, April 16, 5:00-7:00 PM
Pearl District “Gallery Walk”
Galleries will stay open later for everyone to enjoy Portland Photo Month shows. Free!

Here at Blue Sky, we’re showing the incredible work of Michael Light, and also Mitch Dobrowner, the recipient of the Critical Mass 2010 Solo Exhibition Award presented in collaboration with Photolucida. Both exhibitions open on First Thursday, April 7.

Several galleries of the Portland Art Dealer’s Association are also featuring wonderful photography shows throughout the month. Visit them all.

And in conjunction with Portland Photo Month, Blue Sky is offering Basic Level memberships at a special 35th-anniversary price: $35! (That’s a $5 savings.)

To take advantage of this deal, visit our “Join, Renew, Donate” page and use the discount code BSG35. This offer is good only through April 30, so act now and spread the word!

If you love photography, April is a wonderful month to be in Portland. I’m sure we’ll see you out and about.

On December 1, 2010, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., removed David Wojnarowicz’s video, A Fire in My Belly (1986-87) from the exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference And Desire in American Portraiture in response to pressure from members of the U.S. Congress and Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League, who declared that the video is a form of “hate speech.”

Blue Sky remains steadfast—as it has for 35 years—in its support of artists who make art that attempts to shed light on the complexities of human experience. Curatorial decisions continue to be made jointly by the Exhibition Committee, and are done so in the spirit recently conveyed by The Washington Post’s Blake Gopnik:

“Artists have the right to express themselves. Curators have the right to choose the expression they think matters most. And the rest of us have the right to see that expression, and judge those choices for ourselves.”

A Fire in My Belly can be seen online here, courtesy of the Estate of David Wojnarowicz and P.P.O.W Gallery, New York. Visitors are also welcome to watch the video in Blue Sky’s Library & Resource Center on our public computer via this blog post.

Blue Sky is also committed to engaging in critical conversations about issues reflected in the artwork it exhibits, or responses that viewers may have to it, whether positive or negative. As an act of solidarity against censorship, we are proud to join other Portland institutions in a public discussion convened by PICA:

Art and Censorship: Portland Responds to Wojnarowicz Controversy
Friday, December 17, 2010
6:15 – 7:45 PM
Museum of Contemporary Craft: The Lab
724 NW Davis Street
Free admission

Please join us. To see how other organizations worldwide are responding, visit hideseek.org.

UPDATE: A podcast and some images from the panel are now available at the Museum of Contemporary Craft’s Web site.

Blue Sky News Flash!

We are delighted to announce that in March 2011, Blue Sky will be presenting photographer Mary Ellen Mark‘s first solo exhibition in Portland. We’re dedicating the entire gallery to her work, showing original prints from both “Falkland Road” and “Ward 81.”

It’s exciting to be able to offer this pairing during our 35th anniversary year, as both bodies of work were made during Blue Sky’s early days as an organization. And the subject matter of “Ward 81″–the former women’s security ward of the Oregon State Hospital–is particularly resonant today as the state considers how to memorialize the legacy of former patients through a significant public art project. (For more details, read the Oregon Art Commission’s Invitation to Artists.)

But wait…there’s more! Blue Sky and Mary Ellen Mark have collaborated to create an exclusive limited edition membership print. As part of our partnership with the Impossible Project, Mary Ellen took one of her cherished Polaroid Spectra cameras and some Silver Shade PZ600 film and set off for this year’s African American Day Parade in New York City. She scanned one of her favorite instant photos from the day, and created an edition of five 20″ X 24″ signed and numbered prints for Blue Sky’s Print Membership Program. Here it is, “Girl with a Big Bow”:

We’re offering this marvelous print at a new $1000 level–which includes all of our great Book Level benefits, too! There are only FIVE prints available exclusively through Blue Sky, so join today and help us celebrate Mary Ellen Mark’s amazing career. And with the holidays upon us, wouldn’t it make the perfect gift for the art-lover in your life?

Stay tuned for more details about the March 2011 exhibition.

Blue Sky opened its doors 35 years ago on October 5, 1975, at NW 23rd and Lovejoy in Portland. This is what the very first exhibition looked like:

Today, in recognition of Blue Sky’s anniversary, Portland Mayor Sam Adams issued a proclamation. This is what it looks like:

It feels good to be 35. Come celebrate with us this weekend.