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September 2, 2016

A wild Wyeth appears! PMA launches its own spin on Pokemon Go

Courtesy/ Portland Museum of Art PMA Go is a web-based game launched in partnership between the Portland Museum of Art and The VIA Agency.

While the Portland Museum of Art has been inundated with hopeful Pokemon Masters since the launch of Pokemon Go — both the museum and the McLellan-Sweat Mansion are Pokestops — the PMA, in partnership with The VIA Agency, have launched their very own take on the mobile game with PMA Go.

But trainers won’t be scouring the streets of Portland in search of rare Pokemon. Instead when they use the web-based PMA Go, they’ll be beefing-up their digital art collection with Homers, Renoirs and Wyeths, with real world rewards.

As players amass their art collection by catching works of art in the streets of Portland, they’ll receive rewards from the downtown Portland museum, including free admission, free PMA Films tickets for members and if they find all 18 works, a free copy of “The Collection: Highlights From The Portland Museum of Art.”

“It’s a perfect way to get people out and about in our city, while discovering incredible works of art,” PMA Director Mark Bessire said in a statement. “We’ve been looking for unique opportunities to share our collection beyond the bricks of our campus, reimagining what art can do and the role it can play in our day to day lives. PMA Go is a fun, lighthearted way to make connections between the PMA collection and our community.”

While other museums across the country, like the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Whitney Museum of American Art, have used their status as Pokestops to lure potential art lovers into the institutions, PMA is the first art museum in the country to use the premise of Pokémon Go to get its art collection out into the community, according to the museum.

“It’s just fun,” Bessire said in a release. “And museums could always use a little more fun.”

PMA Go is available online now — just watch your step in your hunt for a wild Renoir.

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