Portland Nearly Closed the Multnomah Arts Center. This Winter, the Village Runs Through It.
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
At 6 p.m. on Thursday, October 29, the galleries at 7688 SW Capitol Hwy open for a joint reception. Lettie Jane Rennekamp's solo show is in the Front Gallery, and The Reprintery's Gardenesque is in the Center Gallery. Both hang through November 28. An hour later and a short walk east on Capitol, Annie Bloom's Books at 7834 SW Capitol Hwy hosts Caleb Dardick in conversation with Joshua Safran from 7 to 8 p.m.
Both events sit on the same stretch of road, but one of the two buildings has a much longer history in the Village than most of the businesses around it. The Multnomah Arts Center was a schoolhouse for six decades and has been an arts center for more than four. In June 2025, a city budget amendment proposed closing it. Between now and mid-December, the Village's gallery openings, its holiday crafts fair, a citywide transportation open house and a relocated neighborhood gym will all pass through that one building.
Portland Parks & Recreation's own history of the building is short and specific. Multnomah Elementary School was built in 1919 and closed in 1979. PP&R acquired and renovated it in 1980, and the arts center opened there in January 1982. The nonprofit Multnomah Arts Center Association dates its own move to 1983, so the two accounts are a year apart.
Capitol Highway has been much less steady. In September, The Headlight, the student paper at Ida B. Wells High School, listed recent Village closures. Little Big Burger, Nectar Frozen Yogurt and Village Ice Cream Factory had all closed, and Starbucks shut its Village café in September 2025 as part of national closures. The former Starbucks space at 7737 SW Capitol Hwy sat empty for almost a year. Push Pull, an independent coffee shop, opened there on August 15, the day of Multnomah Days. Push Pull now lists daily hours of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. at that address.
The Headlight quoted co-owner Mathiew Galizia on why he thinks an independent shop suits this block:
"I think people want to see independent, still privately owned businesses have a physical presence in the neighborhood."
Storefront turnover is normal for any commercial district, and the Village keeps refilling its spaces. The arts center works differently. It has no landlord deciding whether to renew, and no national chain reviewing whether to keep it open. That made it seem like the most permanent thing in the Village. Then the city council's budget process raised the question of closing it.
Portland's FY 2025–26 adopted budget amendments document, dated June 11, 2025, includes a motion labeled Novick 04. It proposed cutting $1.8 million in ongoing spending on the Community Music Center and the Multnomah Arts Center and moving that money to parks maintenance. The motion gave its reasoning in one line:
"Motion to direct Portland Parks and Recreation to close the Community Music Center and Multnomah Arts Center due to the state of the assets and likelihood they would need to close in the not-too-distant future..."
The document marks the motion "Withdrawn." It never became a closure order. The argument it made had nothing to do with whether people use the building. It was about the building's age and condition, which is the same century-old schoolhouse that makes MAC unusual.
Five months later, in November 2025, Portland voters approved the 2025 Parks Levy. According to the city, the levy starts in fiscal year 2026–27 and pays for five years of parks operations and capital maintenance. The city's page does not list projects building by building. It does show that by this fall, the citywide maintenance budget the 2025 motion wanted to shore up has a new funding source.
The building is gaining tenants. After 18 years in Hillsdale, SW Portland Martial Arts/CrossFit Hillsdale closed its Capitol Hwy storefronts there on August 28, according to the Hillsdale News business update. Owners Lara and Wally Jones reopened a few days later at the arts center as Southwest Portland Martial Arts and Multnomah Village Fitness. The gym's own announcement, dated September 1, puts the new space just off the rear parking lot off SW 31st. The Multnomah Neighborhood Association listed the gym's October open house in MAC's West Wing.
PP&R is also looking for more tenants. Its Multnomah Arts Center page has an open Request for Interest for three spaces:
PP&R began reviewing proposals on May 18, 2026, and says it will accept them until it selects a lessee. The city's page doesn't connect the gym to any of these listed spaces. The listing also describes how MAC has operated since 1982. Tenants rent at or below market rate, and "the one common thread of all tenants is that they provide services to the public." So the city is filling rooms in a building that one 2025 amendment called likely to close in the not-too-distant future, and it is filling them on the same public-service terms it has used for over 40 years.
Laid out by date, the Village's late-fall calendar falls into two parts. Some events happen in the arts center, and the rest happen along Capitol, Troy and SW 35th.
| Date | At the Multnomah Arts Center | On the street |
|---|---|---|
| Thu, Oct 29 | Gallery reception, 6–8 p.m. | Annie Bloom's author event, 7–8 p.m. |
| Sat, Oct 31 | Halloween Trick-or-Treat Costume Parade, 3:30–5:30 p.m. | |
| Tue, Nov 3 | Annie Bloom's First Tuesday storytime, 10:30 a.m. | |
| Fri, Nov 6 | November First Friday | |
| Mon, Nov 9 | District 4 Transportation System Plan open house, 5–7 p.m. | |
| Thu, Nov 19 | Winter class listings go online | |
| Fri, Nov 27 | Golden Tickets shopping program begins, runs to Dec 31 | |
| Mon, Nov 30 | MAC Showcase opens, runs to Jan 11 | |
| Tue, Dec 1 | Annie Bloom's First Tuesday storytime, 10:30 a.m. | |
| Thu–Sat, Dec 3–5 | MACA Winter Arts & Crafts Sale, per its standing schedule | |
| Fri, Dec 4 | Arts-and-crafts fair during the gala | Holiday Gala on SW 35th, 5–8 p.m. |
| Thu, Dec 10 | Winter class registration opens, 9:30 a.m. | Hanukkah celebration at The Butterfly Effect, 4–6 p.m. |
Two events tie the street and the building together. The Holiday Gala listing from the Multnomah Village Business Association pairs a tree lighting and sing-along on SW 35th, with Santa, the Grinch and live music, with an arts-and-crafts fair at the Multnomah Arts Center. The Halloween parade covers businesses along SW Capitol and SW Troy from about SW 37th to SW 30th, plus the Multnomah French Quarter. The Hanukkah celebration starts at The Butterfly Effect, 7829 SW Capitol Hwy, with pottery painting, Klezmer music and traditional foods. Candle lighting is planned at the SW 35th and Capitol traffic triangle before sundown.
The November 9 open house is the one on the list that reaches beyond the Village. According to the Multnomah Neighborhood Association, feedback gathered there will help the city prioritize roughly 275 possible transportation projects for Portland's 2045 Transportation System Plan over the next 20 years. The city is holding that 20-year planning session in the MAC auditorium.
A few dates and details are worth having on hand before the season fills up.
A 1919 schoolhouse on Capitol Highway is still in use because, decade after decade, someone has found a new use for each wing and cottage and prepared the space for it. Preparing an older Westside home for market takes the same kind of planning. If you have questions about how your own house would present this winter, Shannon Janssen is glad to walk through it with you. Let's Connect.
I work tirelessly for my clients and can be relied on to be responsive, thorough and persistent. Real Estate transactions can be stressful in any year, and that is especially true during a rapidly shifting market. By providing expert guidance, innovative marketing and results driven plans, I'm able to ease the process for every client.