PORTLAND, Maine — The Portland Museum of Art is ready to embark on its most extensive expansion since it built its flagship building overlooking Congress Square four decades ago.
The plan is to construct a new building next door on Free Street on the site previously occupied by the Children’s Museum of Maine. After spending the last two years evaluating its wants and needs, the museum has developed a detailed outline — but not yet a specific design — for what it hopes to create.
“The first floors [will be] much more like a community arts center than a museum,” museum director Mark Bessire said, ticking off what the building likely will contain. “Community galleries, classrooms on the second floor, photo center, auditorium on the ground floor, and we hope the possibility of having other nonprofits in our community have their offices on one floor and even utilize the classrooms for their programs.”
The expansion is an ambitious undertaking, and it won’t be done on the cheap. The museum hopes to raise $85 million to pay for it.
Bessire said he loves the museum’s existing three buildings, but this new space will give patrons a chance to experience art, not just view it. Another goal is to design the building to be environmentally friendly.
While the groundbreaking for the building is likely three to four years away, it represents more than just adding space. It’s really about taking the museum in a new direction and opening it up.
“We have served our community well, but there are members of our community who don’t come to the museum,” Bessire said. “We want to be thinking about those who don’t come. Why do they not come? What are we not doing to attract other people to come? And this new model, we think, is going to expand our footprint, as well as the potential for different audiences to be much more interested in participating and having [a] dialogue with art.”