Love Our Arts & Culture Coverage?
You can help fund it!

Give now
Avatar photo

Lindsay Costello

Lindsay is the Portland Mercury's staff writer, covering all things arts and culture. Send arts tips and pictures of birds to lindsay@portlandmercury.com.
Posted inDo This, Do That

The Mercury’s Do This, Do That: Your Top Events for December 29-January 4

Nothing says “2026” like a cowboy prom and a very ’80s vampire flick.
Avatar photoAvatar photo Lindsay Costello and Mercury Staff

It’s the last week of 2025, and all those other Do This, Do That events are so last year. Here’s a fresh roundup to round out your week, including events featuring complicated comedians, hot vampires, and honky tonk opportunities. Plus, New Year’s matcha and a journaling session set you up for self-actualized success in 2026—but […]

Posted inCalendar

Happy New Year’s Eve! What to Do on December 31

Do This, Do That and Mercury Music Picks join forces, guiding you into 2026.
Avatar photoAvatar photoAvatar photo Nolan Parker, Lindsay Costello, and Mercury Staff

As 2025 comes to a close, let us reflect on what a wild year it has been. 2025 blew the doors off all of our expectations clocking in at 525,600 minutes, 365 calendar days, and 12 distinct months. Can you even believe it? It’ll be hard for 2026 to keep up, but hopes are high […]

Posted inVisual Art

The Mercury’s Favorite Visual Art Shows of 2025: Calligraphy, a Lettuce Lamp, and a Salmon Cannon

New artists and art spaces made Portland feel like its old self.
Avatar photo Lindsay Costello

The most memorable exhibitions this year made a mess, rejecting pristine gallery walls in favor of fish skin, plastic bags, and lived-in spaces like a mall corridor and a home garage. Artists viewed art itself as inhabitable—Ginny Sims turned walls into spaces for dimensional scenes, and Lydia Rosenberg’s experimental lamps gave Society a chaotic, yet […]

Posted inDo This, Do That

The Mercury’s Do This, Do That: Your Top Events for December 22-28

There’s more to do this week than open presents.
Avatar photoAvatar photo Lindsay Costello and Mercury Staff

Whatever holiday(s) you celebrate, this week likely presents some interesting challenges—there’s lots to “do,” but also some unfilled hours during which your family will be antsy and all your typical haunts will be closed and/or packed. We’ve got you covered with out-of-the-house ideas to fill the next seven days with more than balled-up wrapping paper—the […]

Posted inTheater & Performance

Portland Opera’s New Theater Opens With an Animated Show

Everest tells a harrowing true story of three mountaineers who climbed Earth’s highest mountain.
Avatar photo Lindsay Costello

“This building gets us closer to the people,” says Portland Opera artistic director Alfrelynn Roberts. She’s showing off the organization’s new location, occupying three floors in downtown Portland’s World Trade Center complex. After the 2024 sale of its longtime southeast home base, Portland Opera announced a strategic decision to move across the river in early […]

Posted inDo This, Do That

The Mercury’s Do This, Do That: Your Top Events for December 15-21

Did somebody say “gay folk art”?
Avatar photoAvatar photo Lindsay Costello and Mercury Staff

You’re already busy this week, but you just got busier: Earl Sweatshirt, Yves Tumor, and a few key members of the Twin Peaks cast are in town. And not that there’s anything wrong with Portland holiday standards (trudging down Peacock Lane, looking for a bar with a fireplace), but we’ve got some solid suggestions for […]

Posted inDo This, Do That

The Mercury’s Do This, Do That: Your Top Events for December 8-14

This week: eggnog cocktails, Scandinavian pastries, and topical humor.
Avatar photoAvatar photo Lindsay Costello and Mercury Staff

It’s that time of the year when all of your holiday obligations might be catching up to you—parties, presents, navigating family dynamics—and if you’re like, “I don’t wanna Do This, Do That,” we understand. But then again, you did click the link to read this article, so you have to be at least a little […]

Posted inVisual Art

Seeing Ursula K. Le Guin’s Many Sides

Oregon Contemporary’s tribute to the novelist and multi-practice artist gets in the weeds in the best way possible.
Avatar photo Lindsay Costello

A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin isn’t a typical exhibition. Ursula Kroeber Le Guin wasn’t a typical artist. Curated by her son, Theo Downes-Le Guin, the new show installed at Oregon Contemporary is, by his definition, “nonobjective”—a sprawling love note unembarrassed by its devotion. Braiding her personal and creative worlds, the exhibition pulls together interactive […]

Posted inDo This, Do That

The Mercury’s Do This, Do That: Your Top Events for November 24-30

This week: Indigenous foodways, absurdist comedy, and a film screening benefiting Gaza.
Avatar photoAvatar photo Lindsay Costello and Mercury Staff

It’s Thanksgiving week, which translates differently for everyone: Some will be stoked for the time off work, others dreading the family dynamics, and a whole lot of us angry about the holiday’s connection to colonial violence and white supremacy. This week, you’ll find ways to lean into all of those Big Feelings: Ogala Lakota Sioux […]

Gift this article