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washington county arts guide
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december 2012 – february 2013
By AP KRYZA
S
pace, as one Captain
James T. Kirk would
say, is widely
considered the final frontier.
For Samuel Shogren, it’s
simply the first step in
creating new frontiers in
Washington County.
Shogren, the executive director of
the Washington County Museum, is
understandably tired these days. His
mind has been splitting its time
between Earth and the heavens: He’s
spent two years planning and
overseeing the expansion of his
museum from a small, rustic space on
the Portland Community College
Rock Creek Campus to a sprawling,
13,000-square-foot spot in the
Hillsboro Civic Center.
For the grand opening, he reached
for the stars and pulled down the
Hubble Space Telescope.
Well, a replica of it, at any rate.
When the museum swung open its
doors to 435 visitors on Nov. 17, it
boasted its most high-profile exhibit
ever: a 2,500-square-foot display
created in conjunction with the
Smithsonian and NASA
featuring a scale model of
the famous telescope, the
images its captured, space
tools, interactive elements,
the James Webb Space
Telescope (Hubble’s
successor) and more.
Paired with an original
exhibit about the Braceros
– the World War II-era
Mexican guest workers
program – the museum
has two ambitious exhibits
timed for a high-profile
expansion, and according
to Shogren, it’s just the beginning of
the evolution of the museum from an
important, yet largely overlooked
archival historical society into a
cultural powerhouse for the region.
The Hubble can supposedly peer
billions of years into the past.
Shogren, on the other hand, is
looking squarely at the future.
“My interest in bringing (the
exhibit) is to try to clearly state to the
community the changes
that have been taking place
at the museum over the
past four years,” says
Shogren. “Think of us at
our core as a history
museum. But also think of
us, as we grow, as a place
to come to get a little
science education, a little
bit of technology education,
a little bit of art education,
a little bit of diversity
appreciation.”
The expansion is the
result of a concise strategic
plan that aims to make the museum
more accessible to the people of
Washington County. The move allows
for a larger number of permanent
exhibits, frees up the Rock Creek
location as a research center and
library, and makes access via MAX
and other public transportation much
easier.
The museum also made a
seemingly small change that has big
implications: it dropped “Historical
Society” from its name.
“We have been operating as a
county historical society, or as some
call it a ‘hysterical society,’” Shogren
says. “There’s national documentation
that shows historical societies are
among the worst-attended museums,”
says Shogren.
Those data were particularly
troubling in Washington County,
which is the fastest-growing and most
ethnically diverse population in the
state. “Being that the historical
society doesn’t really speak to the
community that we have now in
Washington County, we needed to
broaden our mission to represent and
document the changes that have
taken place here and share the story
of the Silicon Forest and the stories of
different ethnic groups that have
settled in Washington County and be
able to offer a broader range of
exhibits.”
The expansion to downtown
Hillsboro also increases the public’s
ability to access the resource. In its
Rock Creek location, the museum was
not only transit-challenged, but also
forced to adhere to the college’s
hours.
“When the campus was closed, we
couldn’t be open,” says Barbara
Mason, a longtime museum volunteer
who also works with the Cultural
Coalition of Washington County. “So
we were closed on Sundays. We were
closed on all major holidays. That’s a
crazy thing for a museum. How can
we be a museum for the county if
nobody can come here on days when
they had time?”
Mason, who was a key player in
securing the Hubble exhibit, says the
Space: The Latest Frontier
In moving its exhibition space to downtown Hillsboro, museum staffers hope to make it easier for families and school groups to visit.
Museum
continued on page 14
Chase Allgood
Washington County Museum’s expansion signals big ambitions to go where no one’s gone before
“We needed to
broaden our
mission and
document the
changes that
have taken
place”
Museum director
Sam Shogren