AgriCulture: Shaping Land and Lives in the Tualatin Valley

Exhibition Website

Sep 27 2018 - Spring 2019

The Washington County Museum is excited to announce a new exhibit, AgriCulture: Shaping Land and Lives in the Tualatin Valley. Visitors to this dynamic, colorful exhibit will be able to touch, hear, see and learn about agriculture and the many ways it impacts our communities. Since time immemorial people in the Tualatin Valley have used their labor and technology to maximize the amount of nourishing food and valuable plant products that grow in this fertile area. Those efforts have re-formed human habits and social structures as well as the physical landscape. 

This interactive exhibit centers on eight oral histories drawn from the museum’s archive housed within Pacific University’s digital exhibits. These individuals, some historic and some contemporary, speak to the field of agriculture through their personal experiences and the experiences of their families and ancestors. Together they become a dialogue across time, culture and technology that highlights many facets of agriculture’s impact on us all. [...]

Photography, video, illustration, an interactive drawing station and historical objects from the museum’s collection surround and take inspiration from these stories. Photographer Leslie Peltz’s pensive black and white images invite the viewer into quiet moments she has encountered in her outings across Washington County to document silos. The museum also commissioned work from illustrators Allynn Carpenter and Anke Gladnick, as well as video artist Jayson Wynkoop. Gladnick’s illustration, a huge sweeping mural rich with color and details, knits together elements from all of the oral histories to give a visual overview of changing cultivation technologies over time. Wynkoop’s video nods toward alternative and future possibilities for the farming industry, and Carpenter’s tender portraits feature oral history community members and bring them together across time and space.

The drawing station invites visitors to share their visions of and experience with agriculture. These drawings will be exhibited along with the three youth contestant winners who submitted artwork answering the question, “What does agriculture mean to you?” during an open call last school year. Historic objects from the museum’s collection will be featured throughout the exhibit so that visitors can experience first-hand some of the tools that have helped shape the land around them.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website 



  • Various Media
  • American
  • Contemporary
  • Various artists

Exhibition Venues & Dates