Portland Silver comprises objects of varying uses and materials that were collected from staff and visitors during a one-night event at the Portland Art Museum in Fall 2009. The collection grew mostly from the random contents of people’s pockets, bags and wallets, as many visitor’s had no prior knowledge of the project before that night’s event. After items were accepted, donation contracts filled out, catalogue and accession numbers assigned, the unique contributions were transformed through a “silvering” process into precious metal objects—of sorts.