The Writing’s on the Wall: Poetry & MoNA
The Museum of Northwest Art has long been enamored with poetry: from the years of partnership with the Skagit River Poetry Foundation to showcasing student poems in the Outside In Gallery to the more recent poetry open mics, poetry has resonated within the white walls of the Museum’s galleries. 

M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust Grant Awarded to MoNA
The Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA) is excited to announce the award of a major capacity building grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust of Vancouver, Washington. The grant will fund the new position of Director of Curatorial Affairs & Curator of Northwest Art at MoNA.

In September 2022, the Museum of Northwest Art published the Statement of Institutional Commitments to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) to inform our community of our commitment to DEIA principles and practices. A commitment to DEIA principles involves not only one-time actions, but a continued and sustained investment in creating and maintaining a place of belonging for all community members, visitors, volunteers and staff. Creating a more equitable organization is an ongoing process.

Leading with Drawing

Margaret Davidson: Leading with Drawing addresses the unparalleled surge that drawing as an art form has been experiencing in the art world. Today, drawing is an intense, sensitive, compelling, personal, and utterly direct art form, no longer governed by the need to be a preparatory stage for painting or sculpture.

The Trouble With Giants

Sometimes, the past catches the present’s youthful arrogance by surprise and with one picture reminds him of his lack of perspective. There is a painting in Re Building that, when taken in today’s context, is exactly that: a lesson in perspective.

The current exhibition in the Outside In Gallery, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls: Honoring Our Stolen Sisters, is the culmination of more than a year of collaboration between MoNA and the two co-curators: Patricia Christine Aqiimuk Paul, Esq. and Candice Wilson ~ Quatz’tenaut. This blog post will situate the exhibition in a larger context and illustrate the myriad ways that this project is extending beyond the gallery walls to remember, honor, and bring awareness to the thousands of Native women and girls who go missing or are murdered each year.

The Museum invites you to view Conversation with the Curator featuring Matthew Kangas as he answers the question, "What was the impetus behind curating “Arreguín: Painter from the New World”?

We are excited to share MoNA’s Statement of Institutional Commitments to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA). In May of this year, the Board of Trustees approved the statement, which lays the foundations for continuing to build a culture of equity and inclusion at MoNA.

The Museum recognizes that this task requires more than a written statement but an ongoing and intentional commitment to making diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility the values shaping all aspects of the institution.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in-person or remotely last Friday for MoNA's 30th Annual Art Auction!

The preliminary results are in and together you raised $320,000 in support of MoNA's Education and Outreach programs, Exhibitions, and Permanent Collection. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Thank you to this year's artists, art donors, volunteers, sponsors, bidders, and Fund the Future donors! We could not have done this without your support!

Thank you to everyone who submitted a selfie during the live program! Check out MoNA’s smiling supporters!

By Ellie Cross, Community Outreach Coordinator

Learn more about MoNA’s Art Lesson Archives, a free digital resource featuring an expanding collection of comprehensive lesson plans inspired by Northwest artists.

This resource has been in the making for almost two decades and is one of many legacies of our MoNA Link School Partnership Program, boasting a unique collection of 85+ lessons that fulfill Washington State Arts Learning Standards and provide educators across the globe with everything they need to guide their students on a journey of discovering artists from the Northwest!

This is the first of many letters—part journal, part bulletin—I will be sharing with you as the new Executive Director of the Museum of Northwest Art. The Director's Notes will be an opportunity for you, as a member and supporter of the museum, to hear it first from me, whether we engage in conversations about exhibitions here at the museum or in other venues in the Pacific Northwest, MoNA's outstanding collection, or the role of the museum within the community as the place where the audience becomes an experience in and for itself.