By Alex Serrano

On the first Friday of February, as is customary, hundreds of Portlanders flooded the streets for the monthly Art Walk. What makes this Art Walk different? The unveiling of the newly renovated Portland Museum of Art, accompanied in grand fashion by a projection art piece. Two huge scaffolding towers were erected across from the museum on Congress Square to hold the projectors.

What a show! With one projection at six-thirty and the next at eight o’clock, the Portland Museum of Art was illuminated by a solid ten minutes of very interesting animation technology. With art styles ranging from cartoonish simplicity to complex 3-D renders, the experience was invigorating and surreal, as in one segment the projected bricks of the building seemed to fall away, and shapes morphed from faces to wine glasses to Rube Goldberg machines.

If there is one complaint to be lobbed at this presentation, it is the impersonal quality of the projections. While the animation was attention-grabbing and certainly a technical masterpiece, the presentation lacked character. Nowhere to be seen was the home-grown, twice burned down, independent-coffeeshop-strewn, handmade moxy of Portand.

Inside, visitors are greeted with many of the familiar sights and sounds of the Portland Museum of Art. The large echoing hall sports wall-sized paintings and invites visitors to explore featured traveling exhibits as well as the historic wings of the PMA. A gift shop sporting (per the PMA website) “Maine’s largest selection of art books” and a small cafe grace the interior of the museum and make the entire establishment a bustling hive of activity.

With more art in more places, the museum is now not divided by medium, but by era. In a statement published in the Portland Press Herald, Mark Bessire, museum director, said, “It’s not sculpture in one room, paintings in another and glass in another location. We’re trying to present it all in context to create richer and better experiences for our visitors.”

This is exciting for veteran museum-goers for the added explorative value of finding old favorites and newly added marvels mixed around in these hallowed halls.

Along with frequent film showings and rotating features, the Portland Museum of Art continues its proud tradition of free admissions on Fridays. As a frequenter of the PMA for at least a year, I would highly recommend the museum to Portlanders, tourists, and art freaks alike.