Miller Family Community Free Day

Join us at the Portland Art Museum for a special Miller Family Free Day celebrating artist Lisa Jarrett’s exhibition Tenderhead! Enjoy free admission for the whole family as we explore themes of identity, Black hair culture, care, and community. Program Highlights 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Hairspiracy Engagement & Showcase. Step into Hairspiracy, a dynamic organization dedicated to exploring the history, art, and rituals of Black hair care and culture. Celebrate hair as a medium of self-expression, memory, and art through their lens with engaging activities, installations, and a lively conversation for all ages. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Tenderhead Self Portraits. Delve into creative expression, community art-making, and collaborative storytelling while exploring the theme of The Next 250: Youth voices imagining “Black Futures” in collaboration with 1803. 12 – 3 p.m. Look With Me: 20 minute guided slow looking session with a single artwork, every 30 mins, look for signs in the galleries 3 – 4 p.m. Panel talk with Lisa Jarrett, Domenic Toliver (Chop It Up Shop), Hairspiracy, and Angie Parker, moderated by Dr. Kiara Hill Lisa Jarrett (she/her) works at (and from) the intersections of social and visual forms. Her art practice considers the politics of difference within a variety of settings including: schools, landscapes, fictions, racial imaginaries, studios, communities, museums, galleries, walls, mountains, mirrors, floors, rivers, and prisms. She recently discovered that her primary medium is questions; the most urgent of which is: What will set you free? She is co-founder/director of projects like KSMoCA (Dr MLK Jr School Museum of Contemporary Art); the Harriet Tubman Middle School Center for Expanded Curatorial Practice in NE Portland, OR; and the collective Art 25: Art in the 25th Century. Lisa exists and makes work within the African Diaspora. She lives in Portland, Oregon where she co-authors social practice projects and continues her 17+ year art investigation into Black hair and its care in various forms. She is Professor of Community and Context Arts at Portland State University’s Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design where she leads the Art + Social Practice MFA program. Kiara Hill is the James DePriest Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History in the Schnitzer School of Art + Art + History + Design at Portland State University. She teaches courses on African American art and socially engaged art in the Art + Social Practice MFA Program. Hill earned her B.A. in Mass Communications at Sacramento State University, her M.A. in Women’s Studies at the University of Alabama, and her Ph.D. in Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts. Her research focuses on the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s with an emphasis on Black women artists and cultural workers. Hill is also a curator of African American visual art and culture, and currently serves as curator-in-residence at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMoCA). Domenic Toliver is a Portland-based, socially engaged artist and storyteller. He develops projects alongside people, letting conversations shape the ideas, decisions, and direction of the work. Working within and outside institutions, he questions dominant systems of knowledge and power by creating conditions for shared learning and authorship. His projects often explore how people can reshape the systems they navigate, developing new possibilities. HairSpiracy is a Portland-based initiative founded by Hanna Steigman to celebrate textured hair, culture, identity, and belonging. Inspired by her experience as a Black transracial adoptee, Hanna created HairSpiracy to make hair education and community connection more accessible, including for adoptive and foster families. Through workshops, storytelling, art, and events, HairSpiracy brings people together to share knowledge, build confidence, and honor the histories carried in our hair. HairSpiracy previously collaborated with PAM CUT at the Tomorrow Theater for a film screening and panel conversation. Angie Parker, a master cosmetologist with more than 30 years of experience, joined HairSpiracy in July 2025 and has served as its educator. Hanna leads HairSpiracy as its founder, while Angie provides hands-on instruction and expertise in textured hair care. Together, they connect personal storytelling, education, and creative expression to help participants build confidence and celebrate their hair. Hanna Steigman is the founder of HairSpiracy, a Portland-based initiative that celebrates textured hair, culture, and identity through education and community events. A graduate of Arizona State University with a degree in English, Hanna brings both personal and professional experience to her work. As an adoptee, she understands how important it is for people and families to have access to textured-hair knowledge and representation. Her early experience working in beauty supply stores helped inspire her commitment to making hair-care education welcoming and accessible. Through HairSpiracy, she creates engaging experiences that help young people and families build confidence and celebrate their hair. With over 35 years of experience in the beauty industry, Angie Parker is a Master Cosmetologist and former traveling hairstylist who expanded her passion into education, becoming a Master Cosmetology Educator in Georgia, specializing in natural hair care. Today, Angie is also a certified life coach, mentor, speaker, and author who is passionate about empowering others through her knowledge and life experiences. As a HairSpiracy Educator and Beauty Coordinator, she is committed to inspiring, mentoring, and pouring into the next generation of hairstylists and young women, helping them recognize their worth, embrace their gifts, and reach their fullest potential. Tickets coming soon! Miller Family Free Days are generously supported by Sharon L. Miller and Family. Additional funding is provided by The Lamb Baldwin Foundation.This free day is also made possible by generous support from 1803 Fund.