Accessibility

The Port­land Muse­um of Art seeks to cre­ate an inclu­sive space that cham­pi­ons open expres­sion and makes art acces­si­ble to all. Please call us at (207) 775‑6148, option 1 or email rsvp@portlandmuseum.org for spe­cif­ic ques­tions regard­ing accessibility.

Access to the PMA is Barrier-Free

Park­ing and drop-off spaces are locat­ed on Free Street, direct­ly in the front of the muse­um. The wheel­chair acces­si­ble ramp is locat­ed in the front of the build­ing at the High Street side of the build­ing. The entrance of the build­ing has ADA acces­si­ble front doors.

There is an ele­va­tor in the Charles Ship­man Payson Build­ing that allows access to all floors. A lift is avail­able in the Sweat Memo­r­i­al Gal­leries to access the McLel­lan House.

Accessible Parking

Reg­is­trant vehi­cles bear­ing dis­abil­i­ty plates or plac­ards are exempt from meter fare and are enti­tled to park for twice the post­ed time lim­it at a meter or time zone.

The PMA does not have pub­lic park­ing. Paid park­ing garages are locat­ed just blocks away from the PMA, on High, Free, and Spring streets. Spring Street garage is locat­ed at 45 Spring Street ($3 per hour). The Hol­i­day Inn By the Bay park­ing lot is locat­ed at 40 Spring Street ($2.75 per hour). City street park­ing is $2 per hour and FREE after 6 p.m. and all-day Sun­day. Click here for more infor­ma­tion about pub­lic park­ing, elec­tric vehi­cle charg­ing sta­tions, bicy­cle park­ing, and more.

Free Wheelchairs

Wheel­chairs are avail­able on a first-come, first-served basis. Friends, fam­i­ly mem­bers, or atten­dants may accom­pa­ny vis­i­tors who use wheel­chairs. If you would like to reserve a wheel­chair, please call in advance of your vis­it, (207) 775‑6148, option 1.

Multilingual Resources

Labels and infor­ma­tion from select exhi­bi­tions are avail­able in Eng­lish, Span­ish, French, and Ara­bic.  Links and print­outs can be found at the Konkel Fam­i­ly Wel­come Cen­ter. Dig­i­tal ver­sions of the PMA map are avail­able in Ara­bic, Eng­lish, Span­ish, French, Por­tuguese, Soma­li, and Chinese.

Free Admission Opportunities

  • Admis­sion is FREE to all every Fri­day from 4–8 p.m., which is made pos­si­ble by the gen­er­ous sup­port of Cyrus Hagge and Anne and Vince Oliviero. Foun­da­tion sup­port pro­vid­ed by: Ban­gor Sav­ings Bank Foun­da­tion, Franklin P. and Arthur W. Per­due Foun­da­tion, Inc. Cor­po­rate sup­port pro­vid­ed by:  Ever­green Cred­it Union, L.L. Bean, Inc., The Via Agency. Free Fri­days are sup­port­ed in part by Art for All. 
  • Every­one age 21 and under is always free, through the gen­eros­i­ty of Susie Konkel.
  • The PMA is proud to par­tic­i­pate in Muse­ums on Us, a pro­gram pro­vid­ing Bank of Amer­i­ca and Mer­rill Lynch cred­it and deb­it card hold­ers free muse­um admis­sion on the first full week­end of every month.
  • The PMA is a Blue Star Muse­ums mem­ber, offer­ing free admis­sion to the nation’s active-duty mil­i­tary per­son­nel and their fam­i­lies, includ­ing Nation­al Guard and Reserve. (Pro­gram begins Armed Forces Day, the third Sat­ur­day in May, and ends on Labor Day.)
  • The PMA par­tic­i­pates in Muse­ums for All, offer­ing free admis­sion to those who have SNAP benefits/EBT card.
  • The PMA cur­rent­ly belongs to The North Amer­i­can Rec­i­p­ro­cal Muse­um (NARM) Asso­ci­a­tion, Muse­um Alliance Rec­i­p­ro­cal Pro­gram (MARP), and Art Muse­um Rec­i­p­ro­cal Net­work (AMRN). Find par­tic­i­pat­ing muse­ums here.

Public Restrooms

Restrooms are avail­able on the Low­er Ground Floor of the Charles Ship­man Payson build­ing, which have baby-chang­ing sta­tions. An ADA-acces­si­ble, gen­der-neu­tral restroom is avail­able in the cor­ri­dor of the McLel­lan House.

Low Vision

Labels and infor­ma­tion from select exhi­bi­tions are avail­able as a large for­mat print­outs in Eng­lish, Span­ish, French, and Ara­bic at the Konkel Fam­i­ly Wel­come Center.

The PMA also offers an audio guide to the col­lec­tion with por­tions avail­able in French. All audio con­tent is ful­ly tran­scribed and the web­site for the audio guide is screen-read­er friendly.

PMAGuide (Eng­lish)

Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Live ASL inter­pre­ta­tion is avail­able for most online pro­gram­ming, and can be pro­vid­ed upon request for vis­its, tours, and in per­son pro­gram­ming.
Cap­tion­ing is avail­able for all online pro­gram­ming and select videos on the PMA Vimeo.

The PMAGuide is ful­ly tran­scribed and avail­able in Eng­lish and French.

PMAGuide (Eng­lish)

Assist­ed lis­ten­ing devices are avail­able to use for PMA Film screen­ings. Inquire at the Konkel Fam­i­ly Wel­come Cen­ter.

For more infor­ma­tion or to make a request, please email tours@portlandmuseum.org or call (207) 699‑4985.

Gallery Seating

Bench­es are avail­able in sev­er­al gal­leries. Free, light­weight gallery stools are avail­able in the coa­t­room to take around the muse­um dur­ing your vis­it on a first-come, first-served basis. Please return stools when you are fin­ished with them.

Free Coatroom and Lockers 

The coa­t­room is locat­ed next to the Konkel Fam­i­ly Wel­come Cen­ter in the Sel­ma Wolf Black Great Hall. Self-check lock­ers are avail­able. Bags over 11 x 15 inch­es, pack­ages, umbrel­las, and back­packs must be checked.

Free Strollers

There are a lim­it­ed num­ber of free strollers avail­able in the coa­t­room to use dur­ing your vis­it. Click here for more infor­ma­tion about activ­i­ties and ameni­ties for families.

Service Animal Policy

The PMA wel­comes vis­i­tors accom­pa­nied by ser­vice animals.

Additional Resources

WiFi

Con­nect to the PMA’s WiFi dur­ing your vis­it. The net­work is PMA­Pub­lic and the pass­word is join­to­day.

Lost and Found

Inquire at the Secu­ri­ty Kiosk in the Sel­ma Wolf Black Great Hall or call (207) 775‑6148, option 1.

First Aid


If you require first aid dur­ing your vis­it, inform the near­est Gallery Ambas­sador or check in with the Secu­ri­ty Offi­cer at the kiosk in the Sel­ma Wolf Black Great Hall.

Pho­tog­ra­phy Policy

We wel­come vis­i­tors to take pho­tographs for per­son­al use. Please do not use flash pho­tog­ra­phy or tripods.

There are select art­works and exhi­bi­tions where pho­tog­ra­phy may be lim­it­ed. These are indi­cat­ed by the sym­bol of a cam­era with a strike through it on some labels. Thank you for your coop­er­a­tion in observ­ing these restric­tions.

Please note: While vis­it­ing the PMA, you may be pho­tographed or filmed. The footage may be used in pro­mo­tion­al mate­ri­als, includ­ing adver­tise­ments, brochures, social media, and on portlandmuseum.org. 
Sketch­ing Policy

Sketch­ing Policy

All works of art in the gal­leries may be sketched for non-com­mer­cial pur­pos­es, pro­vid­ing these rules are fol­lowed:

Indi­vid­u­als wish­ing to sketch must first obtain per­mis­sion from the Secu­ri­ty Desk, locat­ed by the Konkel Fam­i­ly Wel­come Cen­ter, to be cer­tain they will not obstruct the flow of traf­fic. Should a Secu­ri­ty Offi­cer deter­mine the gal­leries are too busy, sketch­ing will not be per­mit­ted. A rea­son­able dis­tance must be main­tained from the work to allow a clear view for oth­ers. Please refrain from point­ing at an art­work using your pen­cil or any oth­er object, and do not touch the art­work for any reason.

  • Only pen­cil may be used to sketch.
  • Size of sketch­pad may not exceed 16 x 20 inches.
  • No port­fo­lios, con­tain­ers, or bags may be tak­en into the galleries.

After sketch­ing in the gal­leries, indi­vid­u­als should expect to have their sketch­pads and draw­ing sup­plies searched by the Secu­ri­ty Office before they leave the building.

Groups and class­es must make appoint­ments for sketch­ing in advance through Learn­ing and Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lab­o­ra­tion by email­ing tours@portlandmuseum.org or call­ing (207) 699‑4985.