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August 4, 2025

Portland's Arts District to get a bold splash of color

Three art banners Images / Courtesy of Creative Portland New art banners in Portland's Art District will feature works by Maine artists including N.C. Wyeth, Daniel Minter and Marguerite Thompson Zorach.
By Renee Cordes

Portland's downtown Arts District is about to get a whole new look from dozens of colorful banners set to line Congress Street starting next week.

More than 70 banners inspired by works from the Portland Museum of Art's permanent collection and touting the city's cultural organizations aim to bring new vibrancy to a downtown neighborhood in transition.

“We’re not just celebrating great art — we’re elevating the visibility of the local organizations that fuel our creative economy and enrich life in our city every day,” said Dinah Minot, executive director of Creative Portland and an entertainment-industry veteran who helped produce the "Wayne's World" films in the early '90s. 

"The arts community is a bright light that we collectively need to nurture and sustain," she added.

The “Art is the Heart” initiative, part of Creative Portland's mission to promote the creative economy and expand access to the city's cultural assets, is being funded by the PMA with planning by Creative Portland and backing from the city of Portland, according to Minot.

She said the first 60 banners will be rolled out next week.

Banners will feature works by renowned Maine artists including Winslow Homer, Daniel Minter and Marguerite Thompson Zorach, as well as celebrated international figures including Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Auguste Rodin. Other banners will feature logos of local arts and cultural organizations outside their locations along Congress Street.

Arts banners
Image / Courtesy of Creative Portland
Examples of signs that will be displayed outside some of the city's unique cultural gems.

The initiative is part of a larger public storytelling and cultural tourism strategy led by Creative Portland, which will include the installation of scannable building markers across the Arts District that link to historical and cultural information via the group’s free digital app.

'Escape, wonder or inspiration'

Heidi Dikeman, director of design at the PMA, designed the banners. 

Out of the museum’s permanent collection 22,000-plus works, she said it was a challenge to represent a range of works. 

“A common reaction in our galleries is surprise at the collection’s diversity,” she told Mainebiz. “These simple, art-focused designs are meant to capture the feeling you might experience while visiting the museum — whether it's a sense of escape, wonder or inspiration.”

The designs aim to help people find their way and bring a consistent palette to the busy urban streets of Portland’s Arts District, she explained.

“The solid colors offer visual markers, like trail blazes, along Congress, Free and a few streets linking the two,” she said.

Similar to the museum’s "Art Outside and on the Trail" project, “the art-focused banners bring our galleries outdoors and offer visitors and residents a quick interruption to life’s daily focus on what’s next,” Dikeman noted.

Cary Tyson, executive director of Portland Downtown, has high hopes for the banners.

“I’m glad to see a banner rotation highlighting our arts district and particularly thrilled that our local, smaller arts partners are being highlighted,” he said. “It's our local arts community that really sets Portland apart, showing we're someplace, not [just] anyplace.”

And what might the stars of "Wayne's World" think of the new banners?

"In 2025, Wayne and Garth might say, 'That's so fly,'" Minot quipped.
 

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