Author: bhmsalem

We’re Preparing for an Exciting New Visitor Experience

Posted on by bhmsalem in Special tours and events, Uncategorized

September 30, 2026

We know many of you are excited to see the next chapter of Bush House Museum—and we are too!

The restoration of the Servants’ Quarters is nearing completion, and we can’t wait to share this newly restored space with you. This important addition will offer a closer look at the lives, work, and stories of the people whose contributions helped shape life at Bush House and in the Salem community.

Thank you for your patience and enthusiasm as we bring this new chapter of Bush House history to life. Stay tuned for the announcement of the opening date—we look forward to welcoming you inside soon!

June 30, 2026

Beginning immediately, guided tours and specialty tours at Bush House Museum are temporarily suspended until further notice as we prepare for the opening of the restored Servants’ Quarters this fall.

This temporary closure allows us to safely complete restoration work in the historic home while protecting our visitors, volunteers, and staff. During this time, crews are repainting the space using historically appropriate colors and reclaiming original flooring to create an authentic interpretation of this important area of the museum.

A New Chapter of Bush House History

The restoration of the Servants’ Quarters will introduce visitors to a fascinating and often overlooked part of life at Bush House. Through thoughtfully recreated spaces and historic artifacts, the new exhibit will explore the daily lives of the women and men whose work supported the Bush household at the turn of the twentieth century.

When the exhibit opens this fall, visitors will discover:

  • A recreated servant’s bedroom
  • Historic tools, utensils, and household equipment used in daily work
  • Stories of the individuals whose labor kept the household running
  • Insights into the lives of domestic workers and their connections to the Salem community

This new experience offers a richer, more complete understanding of the people whose contributions were essential to the Bush family and to Salem’s history.

We appreciate your patience as we complete this exciting restoration project. We look forward to welcoming you back early September to explore the newly restored Servants’ Quarters and experience a new perspective on Bush House Museum.

HERITAGE TALK – ELIZABETH MEHREN

Posted on by bhmsalem in Current shows in our new America Waldo Bogle Gallery, Events, Special tours and events

Sunday, November 15, 2026 from 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Come to hear stories of the lives of immigrants to Oregon from around the world and the important item they brought with them.  

I Lived to Tell the World presents thirteen inspiring profiles of men and women who have endured unthinkable cruelty, only to resume productive lives in their new homes in Oregon. They come from Rwanda, Myanmar, Bosnia, Syria, and more—different stories, different conflicts, but similar paths through loss and violence to a new, not always easy, life in the United States.

The in-depth profiles are drawn from hours of interviews and oral histories. Journalist Elizabeth Mehren worked collaboratively with the survivors to honor the complexity of their experiences and to ensure that the stories are told with, and not just about, them. Mehren also weaves in historical, cultural, and political context alongside these personal stories of resilience.

About the presenter:

Elizabeth Mehren is a Portland-based writer, editor and educator. After working at The Washington Post, she became a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. Mehren, who earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at UC-Berkeley, spent a decade on the faculty at Boston University. She has earned several prestigious fellowships, and has written for national magazines, appeared on television and radio and received awards for teaching and journalism. “I Lived To Tell the World,” her fifth book, was selected in 2025 as the adult title for the Oregon Center for the Book.

This talk is capped at 25 guests, so please be sure to register to hold your spot! 

Register


In order to plan for our talk, please register by Friday, November 13 at 4pm; we will close the registration page after that time and we can not accommodate walk-ups for this talk.

The general public ticket price is $20; $18 for SAA-members, and $10 for students.
Our ticket fees directly support the work we are doing at Bush House Museum. Please consider adding an additional donation in support.

*At the Salem Art Association, we prioritize inclusivity. To ensure that our arts and culture events remain accessible to all, we have set aside a limited number of free tickets. Please reach out to laura@salemart.org if you would like a promo code to waive the admission fee.

See the exhibit The Immigrant Story: I Lived to Tell the World in the America Waldo Bogle Gallery at the Bush House Museum September 24, 2026 -January 4, 2027 by Photographer Jim Lommasson.

THE IMMIGRANT STORY: I LIVED TO TELL THE WORLD | JIM LOMMASSON

THE IMMIGRANT STORY: I LIVED TO TELL THE WORLD | JIM LOMMASSON

Posted on by bhmsalem in Current shows in our new America Waldo Bogle Gallery, Special tours and events

SEPTEMBER 24, 2026 -December 19, 2026 | AMERICA WALDO BOGLE GALLERY

Photographs from Jim Lommasson. His work focuses on photographs and objects of immigrants and objects they were able to bring with them on their perilous Journeys.

Website: http://www.lommassonpictures.com/ 

Video interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ2q_Tcs9mo 

Art Lover’s Tour of the Bush House Museum

Posted on by bhmsalem in Events

Sunday, July 12, 2026 from 1:30 P.M. to 2:30 P.M. | Bush House Museum

There’s never enough time on the standard tour to do justice to the Bush family art collection. Here’s your chance to satisfy your curiosity and fundraise for Bush House Museum.

Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to experience a private tour with a focus on the Bush family art collection in the historic Bush House Museum.

Date: Sunday, July 12, 2026

This tour is capped at 12 guests, so please be sure to register to hold your spot! Registration will close on Friday, July 10.

Tour Sign-ups

This tour is capped at 12 guests, so please be sure to register to hold your spot! 

Date: Sunday, July 12, 2026

Time: The tour will begin promptly at 1:30pm and will conclude at 2:30pm.

Location: Bush House Museum, Mission Street Southeast, Salem, OR, USA

BLACK ARCHIVE | NIKESHA BREEZE

Posted on by bhmsalem in Past show and installations

JULY 11-October 30, 2025 | THE AMERICA WALDO BOGLE GALLERY AT THE BUSH HOUSE MUSEUM

RECEPTION AT THE BUSH BARN ART CENTER: FRIDAY, JULY 11, FROM 5:30 – 7:30 P.M.

“Pictures, like songs, should be left to make their own way in the world. All they can reasonably ask of us is that we place them on the wall, in the best light, and for the rest allow them to speak for themselves.”  ~ Frederick Douglass from Pictures and Progress

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Nikesha Breeze is an international artist working across a diverse range of media—including oil painting, clay and bronze sculpture, installation, performance art, and film. Grounded in a global African diasporic and Afro-Futurist perspective, her layered, immersive works draw on African diasporic research, reclamation, and memorial, forging otherworldly spaces rich with storytelling and historical education. Her practice employs multiple materials and methodologies that call upon ancestral memory and archival resurrection to revive stories long erased from the global narrative, engaging directly with themes of grief, sanctuary, power and presence, visibility, and erasure.

Breeze’s innovative approach has garnered national acclaim. In 2021, her expansive 5,000-square-foot solo exhibition “Four Sites Of Return” was featured in American Art Collector, Hyperallergic, Metalsmith Magazine, and The New York Times. Her collaborative work, “Stages of Tectonic Blackness,” earned her the National Performance Network Creative Fund and Development Fund Grant. Earlier, at the 2018 International ARTPRIZE exhibition, she received the juried 3D Grand Prize Award and the Contemporary Black Arts Award for her sculptural installation, 108 Death Masks: A Communal Prayer for Peace and Justice—a work that in 2024 was included in the permanent collection of the Equal Justice Initiative’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery, Alabama, honoring the six million lives lost in enslavement in the United States.

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Nikesha Breeze now lives and works in the high desert of Taos, New Mexico, on the unceded land of the Taos Pueblo People. As an African American descendant of the Mende People of Sierra Leone and Assyrian American immigrants from Iran, her multicultural heritage infuses her work with a dynamic range of perspectives. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions such as MoCADA Museum, The Albuquerque Museum, University Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, and the NkinKyim Museum of Ghana, as well as at fine art galleries and art fairs around the globe.

https://nikeshabreeze.com

https://www.instagram.com/nikeshabreeze

The Groundbreaking Women of Salem Walking Tour

Posted on by bhmsalem in Events

The Groundbreaking Women of Salem Walking Tour

Saturday, May 16, 2026 through Sunday, May 17, 2026

Time:

2:00pm – 3:30pm

Get Tickets

Description:

Take a trip back in time during this special tour where we learn about the women of Salem who were devoted wives, mothers, teachers, gardeners, and philanthropists.

The tour starts at Deepwood on Saturday, May 16th at 2pm, where we will get a glimpse of the lives of Willie Bingham and Alice “Alla” Bretherton Brown Powell and tour through their house and gardens.

At 2:30pm, we tour the living legacy of sisters Sally and Eugenia Bush at Bush House, where they will be talking about the beloved community members and lifelong gardeners of Bush’s Pasture Park.

On Sunday, May 17th, the tour begins at 2pm at Salem Pioneer Cemetery, where we delve into the lives of Chloe Willson, a teacher and landowner; Mary Kinney, Oregon Legislator and suffragist; Charlotte Dickinson, teacher and ministry; and Tabitha Brown, teacher and co-founder of Pacific University. 

From there, we will see where the Bush family was laid to rest at Pioneer. We will conclude at City View, where the women of Deepwood were laid to rest.

Tickets are $30 each. Pre-registration is required to help us prepare for the event.



Get Tickets

Cost:

$30 per person. Pre-registration required.

All proceeds benefit the care, preservation and programs of both Deepwood Museum & Gardens and Bush House Museum.

Location:

Deepwood Museum & Gardens, 1116 Mission Street SE, Salem, OR 97302 (Free parking located off of 12th & Lee streets.)
Bush House Museum, 600 Mission St SE, Salem, OR 97302 (Free parking is available next to the museum in the lot off of High Street. Additional parking is available off of Mission Street.)
Salem Pioneer Cemetery, 2201 Commercial St SE, Salem, OR 97302 (Parking along Hoyt Street).
City View Cemetery, 390 Hoyt St SE, Salem, OR 97302

During this special tour as we will be visiting various locations, please be prepared to walk on uneven surfaces, grass, and gravel paths. Please dress accordingly. The tour will go on rain or shine.

Contact:

Call us at 503-363-1825 with any questions.

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BUSH HOUSE MUSEUM EXTENDED 90 MINUTES TOUR

Posted on by bhmsalem in Uncategorized

Sunday June 7, 2026 From 1:30 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. | Bush House Museum

tickets

But Wait! There’s More!
During the standard Bush House Museum (BHM) tour, we run out of time before we run out of stories. What to do? An extended, 90 minute tour, of course. Let’s snoop in some closets, whisper some rumors and might there be a scandal? And how does that contraption work?

Date: Sunday, June 7, 2026

Time: The tour will begin promptly at 1:30 pm and will conclude at 3:00 pm.
Please meet your tour guide, Robin Cunningham, outside on the front porch before heading into the Museum as a group. 

Location: Bush House Museum, Mission Street Southeast, Salem, OR, USA

Tickets

We plan to schedule more tours in the future. To be notified of future tours, please join the waitlist!

Bush House Museum Architecture Tour: History and Mysteries

Posted on by bhmsalem in Events

Sunday May 17, 2026 From 1:30 P.M. to 2:30 P.M. | Bush House Museum

tickets

Back by popular demand!  Please join us for the Bush House Museum historic architecture tour.

Feel the magic as we explore the Bush House Museum inside and out. What is its style of architecture and where did it originate? What’s the love story behind why Asahel Bush II insisted upon this style? 

Discover the stories of fascinating people who contributed to the house design and construction.  Admire the work of a family that fled religious persecution in Bohemia and became the most sought-after marble craftsmen in 19th century New York. 

Join us for an enlightening tour of the beauty and magic of the Bush House – with a few mysteries and oddities for good measure!

Date: Sunday, May 17, 2026

Please meet your tour guide, Kathy, outside on the east side of the House to view the exterior architecture before heading into the Museum as a group. 

Location: Bush House Museum, Mission Street Southeast, Salem, OR, USA

Tour guide:  Kathy Lingo is a retired architect and a docent at the Bush House Museum. She enjoys discovering the stories that historic buildings can tell.

This tour is limited to 12 attendees. Register earlier rather than later, registration closes on Friday, May 15 and we can not accommodate walk-ups.

Tickets

HERITAGE TALK – A WILLOW TREE BECOMES A FOREST

Posted on by bhmsalem in Events

HERITAGE TALK – A WILLOW TREE BECOMES A FOREST

Friday, April 3, 2026 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. | BUSH HOUSE MUSEUM

We are excited to continue our lecture series, Heritage Talks. This series offers a deeper look into the rich history of the Bush House Museum. Dr. Russell Low‘s talk will explore the struggles of Low’s family to establish roots and pursue their dreams in a world of Chinese Exclusion.

The little-known, decades-long partnership between the Hop Lee and Bush families in Salem reveals a powerful story of friendship and cooperation—one that honors the immigrant spirit that helped build America.

Date: Friday, April 3, 2026

Time: The talk will begin promptly at 6:00pm and will conclude at 8:00pm.

Location: Bush House Museum, Mission Street Southeast, Salem, OR, USA

Tickets
About the presenter:

Russell Low is a California-born, fourth-generation Chinese American physician and the great-grandson of a Transcontinental Railroad worker and a rescued child slave. His family’s story—celebrating connections to the past and the valor of the World War II generation—has been featured by the History Channel, BBC Radio, NPR, the Voice of America, and major museums, including the Smithsonian. Low brings his passion for research and storytelling to his books, including Three Coins, The All-American Crew, Avengers, Wildcats, & Crickets, and A Willow Tree Becomes a Forest.

https://events.humanitix.com/scripts/widgets/popup.js
Tickets

This talk is capped at 25 guests, so please be sure to register to hold your spot! 

In order to plan for our talk, please register by Friday, February 27 at 4pm; we will close the registration page after that time and we can not accommodate walk-ups for this talk.

The recommended ticket price is $20. Our ticket fees directly support the work we are doing at Bush House Museum. Please consider adding an additional donation in support.

*At the Salem Art Association, we prioritize inclusivity. To ensure that our arts and culture events remain accessible to all, we have set aside a limited number of free tickets. Please reach out to laura@salemart.org if you would like a promo code to waive the admission fee.

Heritage Talk – 1863 Salem Scandal: When White Elites Defied Custom to Attend a Black Wedding

Posted on by bhmsalem in Events

Sunday, June 14, 2026 from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
| Bush House Museum

We are excited to continue our lecture series, Heritage Talks. This series offers a deeper look into the rich history of the Bush House Museum. Brian Waldo Johnson will talk about the 1863 Salem Scandal.

African Americans Richard Bogle and America Waldo were married in Salem on January 1, 1863—the same day the Emancipation Proclamation took effect.

The wedding quickly became notorious across the West Coast due to the unprecedented attendance of prominent members of White society at a Black wedding. This presentation will explore the backgrounds of those in attendance, the circumstances that made the event so extraordinary, and the hostile reaction from much of the press, which viewed the wedding as a bold assertion of equality.

Date: Sunday, June 14, 2026

Time: The talk will begin promptly at 2:30pm and will conclude at 3:30pm.

Location: Bush House Museum, Mission Street Southeast, Salem, OR, USA

About the presenter:

Tickets
About the presenter:

Throughout his professional career Brian Waldo Johnson has focused on the collection and analysis of research data in both the biological and social sciences, most recently as Associate Research Fellow at Western Oregon University. Since retiring in 2018 he has turned his research skills to family genealogy and Oregon history, with a main focus on members of the Daniel Waldo family and their relatives, including America Waldo Bogle. Brian also regularly provides historic research on early Oregonians for his daughter’s archaeological company.

Tickets

This talk is capped at 25 guests, so please be sure to register to hold your spot! 


The recommended ticket price is $20. Our ticket fees directly support the work we are doing at Bush House Museum. Please consider adding an additional donation in support.

*At the Salem Art Association, we prioritize inclusivity. To ensure that our arts and culture events remain accessible to all, we have set aside a limited number of free tickets. Please reach out to laura@salemart.org if you would like a promo code to waive the admission fee.