Spring Arts 2018

The Only Spring Arts & Culture Guide You Need

Good Riddance, Winter! Our Hand-Picked Agenda for Spring Is Here!

Spring Comes Early to Director Park

Portland Tropical Gardens’ Artsy Cure for Winter

Sussing Out the Oregon Symphony’s Season Closer

They’ve Got Much More Than Rote Favorites in Store

Michelle McNamara Used True Crime for Good

Revisiting the I’ll Be Gone in the Dark Author’s Online Investigations

Shaun Scott on the Brokest Generation

Millennials Are Killing Lots of Things. Hopefully Capitalism Is Next.

Syde-Ide Collaborations Puts Marginalized Voices Front and Center

The New Theater Company Is Here to Shake Up Portland’s Performance Scene

Fresh Art at Grapefruits

It’s an Exhibition Space Where Anything Can Happen

Shelley McLendon’s Growing Empire

The Siren Theater Makes Space for Sketch Comedy

Those of us on the Mercury ’s crack team of arts writers are ready for winter to be over, but if we have to sit through six more weeks of this shit, at least we’ll be entertained—and so will you. From comedy to true crime, the Mercury’s Spring Arts & Culture Guide has you covered, with all of the city’s essential arts and culture to get you through the end of winter. We sorted through the Oregon Symphony’s spring performances so you know which ones to see and which ones to ignore. We chatted with Shelley McLendon, queen of Portland sketch comedy (long may she reign) about what’s in store to make you laugh during the spring and summer months. We sifted through the long-running true crime investigations of writer Michelle McNamara, whose book on a California serial killer will be published posthumously this spring. We talked with arts scene up-and-comers, including winning defender of millennial culture Shaun Scott, a promising new group changing the face and voice of Portland theater, and the curators of a gallery named after fruit (and Yoko Ono). We even found an art installation in Director Park that may help treat your seasonal affective disorder. Spring can’t come soon enough. Let us distract you while you wait.