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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 15, 2025 visibility 12 link 10 artists

This Gallery Has Championed Photography as Art for 50 Years

Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon, is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a nonprofit champion of photography as fine art. Founded in 1975 as the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts by a collective of five co-founders—Ann Hughes, Bob DiFranco, Craig Hickman, Terry Toedtemeier, and Chris Rauschenberg—the gallery opened in a small storefront on Lovejoy Street when photography was not yet widely recognized in institutional spaces. It has never charged admission or application fees, relying on volunteer labor and a philosophy of free access. Over five decades, the gallery moved through three locations before settling in Portland's historic DeSoto Building, which it now owns.

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Blue Sky Gallery Celebrates 50 Years of Photography in Portland

Blue Sky Gallery, a cornerstone of Portland’s photography scene, is celebrating its 50th anniversary throughout 2025. Founded in 1975 by five artists who pooled their unemployment checks to open a tiny storefront, the non-profit collective has since showcased over 1,000 photographers and expanded into a major space in the city's Pearl District. The milestone year includes a series of decade-focused exhibitions and a rooftop gala to honor its history as one of the oldest artist-run photography galleries in the United States.