Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) was founded in 1995 by Kristy Edmunds, a respected young artist and curator of the museum's former Art on the Edge program. At that moment in PortlandÕs cultural landscape, Edmunds identified a clear need for contemporary art programming that would cross disciplines and engage a national group of artists with the existing regional and local artistic dialogue. The previous contemporary art organizations in Portland had each closed their doors, and a gap was steadily growing between the established traditional institutions and emerging alternative spaces. Without a dedicated exhibition or performance facility, Edmunds established PICA and quickly initiated an itinerant art program, installing visual art exhibitions in vacant warehouses and presenting performing artists in makeshift venues throughout the city.
In 2000, PICA partnered with Portland-based advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, to develop offices and a multimedia resource library and education center in the nationally acclaimed W+K Building.
PICA presented its first Time-Based Art (TBA) Festival in 2003, inspired by various European and Australian-modeled Festivals, including the renowned Edinburgh and Adelaide Festivals. As a multi-disciplinary platform that provided opportunities for the creation and presentation of new work, TBA has come to embody the creative vitality of the region and the state, while showcasing emerging and master artists from around the world. TBAÕs innovative programming has exposed audiences, artists, and our community to emerging directions in theater, dance, media, music, and multi-disciplinary works, and audiences have increased from 7,500 in 2003 to over 23,500 in 2010.
In 2006, Edmunds departed Portland and PICA for the Melbourne International Arts Festival, and PICA pioneered a new model of inviting Guest Artistic Directors to curate the TBA Festival. From 2006-2008, Mark Russell--Artistic Director of the Under the Radar Festival and formerly of PS122 in New York--organized the performance program, inviting such artists as Laurie Anderson, Antony & the Johnsons, Mike Daisey, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, and more. With films by Marina Abramovic, a residency by Matthew Day Jackson, and projects by a selection of other visual artists U nder the guidance of Visual Art Curator Kristan Kennedy, 2006 also saw the integration of PICA's ON SIGHT Visual Art Program into the Festival, . Since 2009, Cathy EdwardsÑ-Director of Programming for the Festival of Art and Ideas in New Haven, Connecticut, and previously the Artistic Director at Dance Theater Workshop, New York--has served as Guest Artistic Director for TBA. 2011 will mark her third and final year curating the Festival.
PICA has gained recognition locally, nationally, and internationally, for presenting a compelling program of contemporary performing and visual art and was one of the first organizations in the United States to embrace the paradigm shift of presenting contemporary art across disciplines, operating our Performing Program in conjunction with the Visual Program. Never swerving from a necessary challenge, and often predicting shifts in the art climate, PICA continues to re-invent new ways of delivering its programs to artists and the public.