Welcome to Artland
Everybody writes about the wine. Almost nobody writes about the fact that this valley is full of working world-class artists — painters, potters, woodworkers, and sculptors – and they are everywhere. The valley’s beauty draws creatives from far and wide as their muse and the community embraces and nurtures their talent so these aren’t hobby artists. These are painters who capture the essence of this valley, ceramic artists leading the way in wood-fired ceramics with kilns built amongst the vines, sculptors with massive pieces installed across the country, and creative people I have the honor to call my friends after six years as the gallery manager at ART Elements Gallery.
Two of the places below I know from the inside. I’d rather say that up front than have you find out at the bottom of the page.
First, the thing nobody tells you
Most of the art here is closed on Sunday (except where tasting rooms have art)
Galleries run on gallery hours, not tasting-room hours — several are closed both Sunday and Monday, and the ones that do open Sunday close by mid-afternoon.
If art is part of why you’re coming, arrive midweek, or Thursday or Friday. A Saturday morning almost always works. A Sunday afternoon mostly doesn’t — unless the gallery is inside a tasting room, like Artist Block or Trisaetum. Currents in McMinnville is the other exception; they’re open Sundays until three.
Downtown Newberg, on foot
Three of the best stops in the valley are within a few blocks of each other, and all three sit a short walk from downtown tasting rooms. This is the easiest art hour in wine country.
The orange building on First Street, and the one I know best — I worked here for six years.
Open since 2010, representing more than sixty Oregon artists across painting, ceramics, blown and fused glass, woodwork, sculpture, photography and jewelry, with one thread running through all of it: everything was made by someone living and working in this state.
The front of the gallery turns over regularly for a featured artist or group and the back rotates alongside it, which means the room is genuinely different from one visit to the next. If you came in March and you’re coming back in June, you have not seen this gallery. There are artist talks and demonstrations, and if you’re a client, you can often enjoy studio visits to the artist’s home.
Here you’ll learn about the artist and why they paint the way they do. Every person on these walls has a story attached and whoever is working knows it, and that story is the difference between owning a nice painting and owning something that means something to you. They’re excited to share it because they know you’ll share that story when it’s in your home. If you want to look at the art without any interaction, you’re welcome to. It’s free to enjoy.
When we first opened the gallery in 2010, the outpouring from the artist community was overwhelmingly joyful. Over the years I packed hundreds if not thousands of pieces of original Oregon art so they’d arrive safely by car, train, airplane, or in a crate. They’re there for you to take a piece of Oregon home and enjoy for decades.
Worth knowing: the same eye that built this gallery curated the collection at The Allison Inn & Spa down the road, which is why the two feel related when you visit both.
Go if: you want to take something home, and you’d rather it came from here than from an airport.
I ran marketing here before the Cultural Center even opened, and before that, I ran these hallways when it was a school. This beautifully restored building has been retrofitted into the beating heart of the community, and it showcases breathtaking art year-round.
It went up in the 1930s as a Depression-era WPA school project. It now holds four galleries across roughly 5,400 square feet — among the largest gallery spaces in the state — and it costs nothing to walk into.
Exhibitions rotate about every two months and range from local artists to international ones. There’s also a 214-seat theatre, a clay studio, classrooms, and a ballroom that carries most of Newberg’s festival calendar: the Truffle Festival in February, the Camellia Festival in spring, Día de los Muertos in the fall, the MLK Jr. celebration in January.
A few things while you’re there. Talk to the front desk — they’re there to inform you, and sometimes there are tours running. And make sure you take the massive staircase, or the elevator, up to see the show hung upstairs. I still forget it’s there.
If you’re here around the holidays, the town’s Christmas tree is out front alongside an exhibit of lights that looks as though Dr. Seuss hung it himself.
Go if: you have forty minutes and no plan. It’s free. There’s a donation box by the front desk if you’re up to it.
This one is different, and you need to know how before you go.
Blue Trout is Gary Buhler’s working studio and gallery. Buhler grew up in the Northwest, took an MFA in painting at Arizona, has taught at George Fox, and has been part of the Newberg art scene for three decades — he was one of four people who started the original Art Walk here in the early nineties. He paints landscapes and, increasingly, historic architecture, working out of a 1923 commercial building downtown that he’s been restoring for years.
He opens it to the public during Art Walk and by appointment, not on a posted schedule. Don’t just show up. Come on a First Friday, or contact him first.
Go if: you want to stand in a working studio and talk to the person who made what’s on the wall. That’s a different experience from a gallery and worth planning around.
The Allison sits on thirty-five acres, and the collection inside and out runs past five hundred pieces by roughly a hundred Oregon artists. Outside, sculpture is placed along walking paths through the grounds, which means you can see a serious collection without going into a single gallery.
Every guest room has a catalog of the collection, and the concierge desk will tell you about individual pieces if you ask. If you’d like a private sculpture tour, contact ART Elements Gallery to arrange one.
Be a guest of some kind. This is a working hotel, not a public park. If you’re not staying, have lunch or a drink at JORY, or book a spa treatment, and walk the grounds afterward with a glass in your hand. That’s the intended version and it’s a lovely afternoon.
Go if: you want the sculpture without the itinerary. For a preview of what’s on display, see the collection here.
Where the wine and the art are the same stop
James Frey is the immense talent behind both the wine and the art at Trisaetum. If you’re a serious collector, schedule an art tour in advance alongside a tasting with him. He’s one of my favorite people in the valley — humble, kind, and extremely knowledgeable.
He’s an abstract expressionist with more than six hundred paintings sold internationally, and the detail that makes this stop worth the drive is that vineyard dirt and vine cuttings sometimes end up in the paint. You are, fairly literally, looking at the same site you’re drinking.
There’s also a patio over the vines and a spirits tasting cottage, which doesn’t hurt.
Go if: you have one tasting in your afternoon and want the best of three worlds — wine, art, and spirits.
Founded by Anna Sweet, who came to wine by way of the art world — School of Visual Arts, then working for a fashion photographer in London — and who built the tasting room around emerging artists rather than established ones. The work is bright, pop-leaning, curated by Sweet and a gallery director, and it rotates.
Two practical notes. Fees are waived with a bottle purchase, a wine club membership, or an art purchase — an unusually civilized arrangement. And they pour a non-alcoholic flight, three alcohol-removed wines finishing with a n/a aperitif, which makes this one of the few places in the valley where someone who isn’t drinking still gets a real experience.
Go if: you’re tired of tasting rooms that all look the same, or you’ve got someone in the car who isn’t drinking.
McMinnville
Artist-owned, on Third Street, representing roughly seventy Oregon artists across painting, printmaking, ceramics, fiber, wood, glass, jewelry and photography.
The thing that makes Currents worth the stop is who’s behind the desk: one of the six artist-owners or their associates, most of the time. You can ask what a piece is about and get an answer from someone who knows the person who made it — or made it themselves.
Two insider moves. Ask to see the back storage room; there’s more art than fits on the walls and most visitors never think to ask. And if you’re a maker yourself, they run an open studio session in the Back Door Studio on Tuesday afternoons for ten dollars — bring your own project.
It’s also the coordination point for Art Harvest, which brings us to the reason to come in October.
Go if: you’re eating on Third Street anyway. It’s a fifteen-minute detour that turns into an hour.
The two weekends that matter
Art Harvest Studio Tour — The first full weekends of October
The best art thing that happens in this valley, and the one worth building a trip around.
Since 1993, Yamhill County artists have opened their private studios to the public over the first two weekends of October. Around forty artists, self-guided, spread across the county — painters, potters, sculptors, printmakers, jewelers, fiber artists. You drive the back roads, you walk into someone’s barn or garage or converted outbuilding, you watch them work, and you buy directly from the person who made the thing.
A collectible admission button, about ten dollars, gets you into as many studios as you want across all six days. Buy it at any studio on the tour or at select outlets around the county.
Two things about the timing. It’s harvest, so the valley is at its most beautiful and the wineries are at their busiest — book everything early. And a studio tour and a tasting itinerary compete for the same hours, so pick one as the spine of your day and let the other be the side trip.
This is the single best weekend of the year to visit if you care about art.
First Friday Art Walk, Newberg
The whole downtown participates. Galleries stay open late, the Cultural Center opens its exhibits, and Blue Trout — otherwise a private studio — opens its doors. Openings and artist receptions tend to land on this evening, which means you’ll be in the room with the artist rather than just the work.
It’s free, it’s walkable, and it pairs with dinner downtown without any planning at all.
If you’re only going to do one art thing on a weekend trip, make it this. It solves the Sunday problem, it solves the meet-the-artist problem, and it doesn’t cost anything.
Chehalem Cultural Center exhibits and festivals
Exhibits turn over roughly every two months and the festival calendar runs all year — the Truffle Festival in February, the Camellia Festival in spring, Día de los Muertos, the MLK Jr. celebration, live performance in the theatre year-round. Check what’s up before you come; a two-month rotation means the show you’d have loved might have four days left.
An art afternoon that actually works
Four hours, no rushing:
1:00 — Chehalem Cultural Center. Free, forty minutes, and go upstairs.
2:00 — ART Elements. Longer than you plan to stay. That’s fine.
3:15 — Walk to a downtown tasting room. You’re already on foot.
4:30 — Drive out to Trisaetum for a seated tasting in the gallery.
Or the October version: studio tour all morning, one tasting in the afternoon, dinner in McMinnville.
Buying, honestly
A few things worth knowing before you fall in love with something on a wall.
Ask about shipping. Most galleries here will crate and ship, including out of state, and it’s usually less expensive than people assume. Don’t talk yourself out of a piece because you flew.
Ask what else the artist has. What’s hanging is a fraction of what exists. Galleries have storage, artists have studios, and the piece you actually want may be one question away.
Prices are what they are. These are working artists in a small market, not a resort gift shop. Original work here costs meaningfully less than the equivalent would in Portland or Seattle, which is one of the genuine pleasures of buying art out here.
Commissions happen. If you love the style but not the piece, say so. Several of these artists take commissions and will happily talk about it.
Take home a piece of Oregon
Every piece here was made by someone living and working in Oregon. If you can’t get out to the gallery — or you saw something on the wall and thought about it the whole drive home — this is the same collection.
Before you go
Check hours, genuinely. Small galleries in small towns keep small-town hours and change them seasonally. A phone call saves a drive.
Thursday and Friday are the good days. Everything is open, nothing is crowded, and the person at the desk has time to talk.
Bring a way to carry it home. A soft bag for ceramics or glass, and space in the trunk you weren’t planning on.
Don’t do this in one day with a full tasting itinerary. Two galleries and two wineries is a good afternoon. Four of each is a blur.
FAQs
Late spring through October is the easy answer that everyone says. September and early October are harvest, which is the most interesting time to be here and also the busiest. Summer is dry and warm. November through April is quieter and our top choice for when to visit. Everything is in hibernation and the tasting rooms and restaurants are cozy and welcoming and you're more likely going to meet the people who make this valley world-renowned. About 45 minutes. Newberg is the first town you hit coming southwest on 99W, and Dundee is five minutes past that. You can be in a tasting room an hour after leaving downtown Portland, which is why so many people do this as a day trip.When is the best time to visit?
How far is Oregon wine country from Portland?
Want an art-first weekend?
Tell us when you’re coming and what you like looking at. Thirty minutes on the phone with someone who spent six years selling this work and years before that programming it — you’ll leave knowing which shows are up while you’re here, which artists to ask about by name, and where to eat between them.
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