Rachael Griffin

I have chosen to honor curator emeritus of the Portland Art Museum, Rachael Griffin. She was a teacher, broadcaster, lecturer, promoter, and artist. Most importantly, she was known for her efforts to publicize and encourage Oregon artists, particularly the younger ones.

Mrs. Griffin had been associated with the Portland Art Museum for nearly twenty-five years (from 1950 until her retirement as curator in 1974) and became curator emeritus. However, she continued to be active in tasks for the museum and other art projects, includes the compilation of a mailing list of Portland arts organizations, with support from the Oregon Arts Commission and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

Her achievements include, but are not limited to the following: she was a member of the Oregon Committee for Art in Public Places and was chairman of the art committee set up by the Friends of Timberline and participated as co-editor of a book on Timberline Lodge and its art. She organized an OMSI art show for a symposium on the sun.

A sculptor and painter in her own right, she also became known for her collection of Northwest art. She also helped develop an “Understanding of Art” course for the Portland Public Schools under a Ford Foundation grant.

Her teaching career spanned working with children and young adults at St. Helen’s Hall, Reed College, Catlin Gabel School, the Museum Art School, Pacific University, and Portland Extension Center.

At the Portland Art Museum, Rachael began as an information assistant in 1948, which also included the preparation of the museum’s radio and television series. Her Sunday morning program, “At the Art Museum,” broadcast on radio station KOIN, ran for twenty years and was credited with increasing awareness of the museum and of art and artists. During her long career with the museum, she held a number of positions: instructor in sculpture and supervisor of the Children’s Class program at the museum art school, editor and publicity director of education and finally curator from 1960 until her retirement in 1974. Her vital and expansive personality brought her into contact with every element of the institution. She was able to give a special distinction to its exhibition program, its publication, its programs, and its educational offerings. She made herself felt in nearly every aspect of its operation.

In communicating her own excitement, wonder, and respect for the arts, Rachael was able to bring a diverse public into active involvements with creative forces, inside of themselves and others. She knew that art lives more truly in the human mind and spirit than in the vaults and buildings that house its artifacts. Through her extraordinary warmth, articulate intelligence, and enlightened sensibility she was able to keep it alive and meaningful in the lives of many people. Rachael Griffin had been a longtime force in the encouragement of art in the Northwest and even when compromised by failing health, she continued to be active in art promotion and appreciation until her death at the age of seventy-seven.

I, myself, was involved in the museum at the time Rachael was education director of the docent program. I am grateful to have the opportunity to honor her as she had given with so much vigor. I feel privileged to have had her as a mentor even though more than fifty years have passed. I miss her insightful lectures, the capes she wore, and how she walked to work everyday.

Written by Luwayne Sammons