UPDATE: On Sunday morning, Oct. 5, California Gov. Gavin Newsom reported that after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on President Trump’s attempt to call up 200 members of the Oregon National Guard, the president plans to send 300 California National Guard members to Oregon. The White House, Defense Department, and California National Guard made no comment, but the Associated Press quoted Newsom as saying that the California contingent was on its way to Oregon on Sunday and that he called the deployment “a breathtaking abuse of the law and power.” Newsom pledged to fight the move in court.

Meanwhile, The Oregonian/Oregon Live quotes Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek as saying some of the California troops have already arrived: “101 federalized California National Guard members arrived in Oregon last night via plane, and it is our understanding that there are more on the way today,” Kotek said in a statement Sunday morning. Kotek continued: “There is no need for military intervention in Oregon. There is no insurrection in Portland. No threat to national security.”

Oregon Capital Chronicle reported that “Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield signaled Sunday that the state is ready to sue again to prevent the deployment of troops from California or anywhere else.”

And late Sunday, The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported that U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut, who had ruled earlier against the federal calling-up of Oregon National Guard personnel, “issued a new broader order barring any National Guard members from being relocated from any state for federal service in the state of Oregon.” Later yet Sunday evening, The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported that “Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek was informed Sunday that the Texas National Guard is preparing a deployment to Oregon and other states, a move supported by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.”

***

Directors and managers of Portland art and cultural institutions are among those pushing back against President Donald Trump’s claims that the city is “war-ravaged” and “a hellhole.” They point to years of increased attendance as proof that downtown is recovering from the lows of the pandemic and lengthy protests that upended the economy during much of 2020 and 2021. Recent figures for the downtown city-owned arts venues document that more and more people are coming downtown for concerts, plays, dance performances and other art-related events.

Portland Opera Artistic Director Alfrelynn Roberts decries the accusations, saying her organization is attracting new fans eager to support the arts and culture.

Sponsor

“The only way we can stand up to this is to pull together and fight the power,” Roberts said.

Trump’s attempted deployment of 200 Oregon National Guard troops to patrol Portland streets was placed on hold on Saturday afternoon, Oct. 4, after a federal judge upheld a legal challenge by the State of Oregon and the City of Portland against it. U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut ruled that Trump illegally seized control of the National Guard troops, and directed him to return control to the command of Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek under a temporary restraining order that expires Oct. 18. The U.S Department of Justice said it would appeal the ruling.

Elected officials and business leaders have repeatedly and loudly objected to the federal incursion, pointing out that the only ongoing demonstrations are at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the South Waterfront neighborhood, approximately two miles away from the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in downtown that was the epicenter of lengthy protests more than four years ago.

“The number of troops we want is zero. … The justification for their presence in our cities is either a misunderstanding, or a lie. I hope it is only a misunderstanding we can soon resolve,” Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said during a Sept. 29 press conference with other mayors in the region who also oppose the deployment.

The Portland Metro Chamber that represents area businesses also opposes the deployment, arguing that the region’s economy is successfully recovering.

“Portland and the region’s turnaround speaks for itself, with private sector investment of almost $11 billion in just the past few months and rapidly growing foot traffic this year,” the Chamber’s President and CEO Andrew Hoan said in a Sept. 28 letter co-signed by 110 elected and community leaders. His organization recently released a report that documented six consecutive months of downtown foot traffic growth over 2024, a milestone in the recovery.

Wilson and Hoan could have also pointed to the increasing number of people coming downtown for museum visits, gallery openings, literary events, and theater, music, and dance performances. All artistic and cultural institutions were forced by government mandates to close their doors during the early stages of the pandemic. Many reopenings were complicated by the lengthy protests. But ticket sales figures and first-person accounts show that patrons have been returning in growing numbers in recent years.

Sponsor

Downtown attendance is up, not down

President Trump’s threat comes at a fraught time for many art and cultural organizations. His administration has been accused of waging war on them by cancelling previously approved grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Although federal justices have blocked many of the cancelations, much of the money has not yet been released as the cases work their way through the U.S. court system. And Oct. 1 marked the beginning of the federal government’s new fiscal year, for which Republican majorities in Congress have reduced their funding levels and eliminated support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Despite that, audiences are continuing to return to local art and cultural offerings. Take the Portland’5 Centers for the Arts, the three city-owned downtown buildings that include the Keller Auditorium, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, and the Antoinette Hatfield Hall, which houses the Brunish, Newmark and Winningstad theaters. Although the number of events and the amount of ticket sales have not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels, they have increased significantly since the facilities reopened and are now getting close to pre-2020 levels.

According to Metro, the regional government that manages Portland’5, attendance peaked in fiscal year 2018 at 960,573 when 947 performances were hosted. That plunged to 672,246 attendees at 648 performances in 2020, after COVID-19 shut the facilities down about nine months into the fiscal year. No performance or attendance figures were recorded for the entire 2021 fiscal year. The numbers started shooting up after the 2022 reopening, reaching 790 performances and 802,714 attendees in 2024 before falling slightly in 2025 – a fluctuation that also occurred before the pandemic.

The Portland Art Museum is experiencing a similar rebound. The 133-year-old institution first closed its doors to the public on March 13, 2020, then began slowly reopening in stages starting in July of that year. By April 2021, exhibitions were available to be viewed by only a limited number of patrons, with timed-entry tickets, mandatory face masks, and physical distances. It did not fully reopen until May of that year, more than a year after first closing.

Today, the public is once again flocking to the museum. Attendance for the fiscal year that ended on June 30 was up 31% compared to the previous fiscal year. Memberships are up 8% and projected to increase 16% in the current fiscal year.

“The public is hungry for a museum experience,” said Ian Gillingham, head of press and publications for the museum.

Sponsor

The growth is especially impressive because much of the museum has been shut down for the past few years for construction of the Mark Rothko Pavilion, which will connect its two buildings along the South Park Blocks. The $111 million project will add 100,000 square feet of new or upgraded public and gallery space, providing increased access to exhibitions and programs. The expanded campus will include a new bistro, Coquelico, in partnership with well-known local culinary marketplace Providore Fine Foods.

The grand opening is scheduled for Nov. 20. The expansion is expected to draw even more people downtown in coming years.

“People understand now how important the arts are as a driver of our economic health,” Gillingham said.

Portland Center Stage, the city’s largest theater company, has also seen crowds return in recent years. It closed for 18 months in March 2020, canceling its entire season, student programs, and popular classes for adults. But since reopening, it has drawn 60,000 to 100,000 people a year to its iconic Gerding Theater at the Armory at the southern edge of the Pearl District.

“I heard from some people who were nervous about coming downtown when we first reopened, which was understandable because it was such a transformation,” said Artistic Director Marissa Wolf. “But I haven’t heard anything like that since then. Our programming helps keep the neighborhood safe because it increases foot traffic and engagement.”

According to Wolf, Portland Center Stage is poised to increase attendance even more this year. The shutdown created financial difficulties that threatened to close the company, distracting attention from greater public outreach. But a fundraising drive launched in May of this year eased the crisis, raising $3.6 million by August, far more than its initial goal of $2.5 million.

“We are very grateful for the support that will allow us to continue bringing audiences downtown,” Wolf said.

Sponsor

Portland Opera has recently made a big commitment to downtown. After selling its former headquarters across the Willamette River near OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, it is now based in the World Trade Center near Tom McCall Waterfront Park, where it has a theater. Public performances will start as soon as this December. Subscription sales have increased since the end of the pandemic, with three of the last season’s four performances selling out.

“Every successive season (since the pandemic ended) has seen subscriptions increase,” said Christina Post, Director of Marketing and Communications.

Recovery includes smaller organizations

Smaller institutions are also steadily recovering. That includes the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University.

“The museum has experienced substantial growth in attendance since its opening in 2019, and our numbers have continued to increase steadily since reopening in 2021. We don’t have attendance numbers before 2019, so we can only compare attendance from that year onwards. However, the numbers indicate growth throughout the recovery period from the pandemic,” said Assistant Director of Operations Kathleen Murney.

According to Murney, on Sept. 18, more than 400 people came to the gallery for an event that included an exhibition of prints by multimedia artist Marie Watt, a member of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nation of Indians, that included a conversation with founder Jordan Schnitzer and a performance by Acosia Red Elk, a jingle dress dancer from the Umatilla people of Oregon. 

The Japanese American Museum of Oregon, at 411 N.W. Flanders St., is also seeing attendance continuing to recover since the end of the pandemic.

“We’ve seen increases over the last three years,” said Marketing and Communications Manager Erin Schmith, who nevertheless notes that the Old Town livability problems that increased during the pandemic have not been completely overcome.

Sponsor

The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education at 724 N.W. Davis has also seen an increase in visits, although attendance has fluctuated from month to month, in part because of the lingering Old Town problems.

“Some months are on par with that month in previous years, and some months more, and some less,” said Executive Director Rebekah Sobel. “I have heard that some people are reluctant to come downtown, sometimes as a result of increased houseless people in the Pearl and Old Town, and lack of retail businesses, and a little also due to increased security concerns about being in a Jewish space after 10/7 (the 2023 Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians). We are also seeing an increase in new businesses nearby, like restaurants and hotels. Not really that much different than other urban small-midsize museums nationwide.”

The Northwest Children’s Theater and School was not downtown when the pandemic started. It had been based for decades in the Northwest Service Center in Northwest Portland. But after failing to acquire the church-turned-community center, it was looking for a new home and found one in the former Broadway Theater across the street from the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

After extensive renovations, The Judy opened in April 2023 as a theater with educational programs for children. Managing Director Nick Fenster said the classes filled up almost immediately because so many parents were looking for such opportunities for their children after the pandemic.

“Thousands of families started coming downtown. There have been no issues in the neighborhood to be worried about,” Fenster said.

The plays took longer to draw audiences, in large part because families had gotten used to events being cancelled when participants caught COVID. But attendance increased every year until this summer finally felt normal. 

“This is easily going to be our best season since the pandemic. It’s better than last summer, which was better than the summer before that. More and more people are on the streets. It feels normal again,” Fenster said.

Sponsor

Fenster’s advice to anyone frightened by Trump’s rhetoric is to come downtown and see for themselves.

“Pick an event. Come downtown. Look around,” he said. “You’ll experience it and realize you don’t need to be afraid.”