PPS Students Storm the Art Museum

K-12 Arts Showcase at the Portland Art Museum features over 100 works by local students

“Intriguing Future” by Augustus Tran, a contender for the 2026 PPS HeART of Portland poster competition

Artist Charlie Evans depicts a music-loving crab

Spin through the Portland Art Museum’s revolving doors for a free exhibit, HeART of Portland. On opening night, students and their families mobbed the lower gallery hallway to glimpse. This year’s theme is “Windows of our Future,” which befits student-artists exploring themes of identity, reflection and imagined futures.

“Brick by Brick” is a print about resilience by a Grant High School senior; there’s a T-shirt design by a McDaniel student for a segment on textiles.

The 2026 graduating class is the first to have had arts education from kindergarten through 12th grade funded by the Arts Access Fund. Otherwise known as the Arts Tax —which most of us chafe at it—this show is evidence of it working in the spirit it was intended, providing every Portland elementary school with at least one arts discipline.

Jasper O’Hanlon’s “What Once Was” won first place in this year’s HeART of Portland poster competition.

Franklin High School senior Jasper O’Hanlon imagines a room’s inhabitants long after the artist is gone.