The Portland Museum of Art Biennial yielded a big booty for the museum's collection, and a nice reward for Maine-born installation artist Wade Kavanaugh.

At a reception for members on Tuesday night, the museum announced four prizes for artists in the exhibition. The Purchase Prizes were awarded to three artists: Mary Aro for her three paintings, "Trailer Home on Polka Valley Road," "Microwaves" and "End of the Burn"; Julianna Swaney for her three drawings "Wolfgirl," "Beebeard" and "Central Park, March 6, 1890"; and Sean Foley for his painting "Accuser."

The Purchase Prizes are chosen by members of the museum's Collection Committee, and will become part of the permanent collection.

The William E. and Helen E. Thon Jurors' Prize of $4,000 was awarded to Kavanaugh for his piece "Falsework," a cascading collection of gypsum-board bricks, which takes over nearly the entire first gallery of the exhibition.

This year's biennial is the sixth exhibition in a series that highlights work by emerging and established artists associated with Maine. The works represent a range of media, with a heavy load of installation art.

The biennial officially opens Wednesday and will be on view through June 7.

Somebody asked noted rock and culture critic Greil Marcus on Monday night, If a big art museum puts on a rock 'n' roll photography show, is it still rock 'n' roll?

Marcus, speaking at the Osher lecture at the Holiday Inn By the Bay, barely hesitated. Of course it is, he said, and then quoted from Bob Dylan's "Visions of Johanna":

"Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial."

In this case, we are the judge and jury, he said. It's up to us to decide how we feel about the exhibition and about preserving rock for posterity on the walls of the hallowed museum.

Marcus was in town to talk about the newest show at the PMA, "Backstage Pass: Rock & Roll Photography," on view through March 22.

It's a blockbuster, all right. It's going to be a huge show for the museum, and provide a timely boost to attendance during the long, cold winter. Already, acting museum director Tom Denenberg said, attendance for the first weekend is 100 percent above attendance over for the first weekend of last year's winter show, a sculpture exhibition by Harpswell artist John Bisbee.

But don't read too much into that stat. For one thing, it's only one weekend. And for another, the museum had a series of huge opening events to mark the show. But nonetheless, it's an impressive start, and it bodes well for the exhibition.

Marcus, who began his career at Rolling Stone magazine and has written about rock 'n' roll for numerous magazines and published many books, noted that the show reflects the singular tastes and views of one collector. The entire show -- hundreds of mostly black and white images -- are culled from a single anonymous collector.

So "Backstage Pass" is hardly a comprehensive review of rock history, nor is it intended to be. Instead, it's a highly personalized view of the back-channels of rock, with candid images of performers off stage, back stage and in private moments.

We get Buddy Holly on a bus, dog tired from travels. We get Elvis backstage, stealing a kiss. We get Dylan behind the shades, hiding from camera lenses and staring past the fans.

We get the Stones, the Who, Zeppelin and the Beatles. We get the famous and the infamous.

We get mystery, aura and cool.

Better still, we know the ending to the story. What makes this exhibition compelling, Marcus said, is that many of these photos were made during the evolution of rock -- although a good number come from the 80s and 90s, as well. But regardless, the subjects of these photos had no idea what was ahead of them when the photos were taken.

Elvis was still an innocent kid. Holly had nothing if not his future. "We know how the story told in this picture turns out," Marcus said, showing a photo of Holly riding a bus, not too long before his death 50 years ago next week in a plane crash.

Dylan was the only one who evoked a sense of knowing. Referencing a 1962 image of boyish Bob, staring dead-on into the camera, Marcus said, "He sees his history ahead of him."

The Portland Museum of Art on Monday named Margaret Burgess as the new associate curator of modern and European art.

Burgess will oversee the presentation and development of the museum's collection of 19th- and 20th-century European art, including the Joan Whitney Payson Collection, the Scott M. Black Collection and the Albert Otten Collection. Burgess will join the staff in January.

"We are delighted to have Margaret Burgess join the museum's curatorial staff," acting director and chief curator Tom Denenberg said in a press release. "Meg is thoughtful, enthusiastic, and will bring great energy to the museum's European art exhibitions and programs."

Burgess has worked as a research fellow at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and as an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation curatorial fellow at the Cleveland Museum of Art. She has also held positions at Buckingham Palace, London; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy; and the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

She has contributed to several exhibitions, books and other publications, including: "Sargent and the Sea" (2009), "Barcelona & Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí" (2006), "Monet in Normandy" (2006), "Cleveland Art" (2003-05), "British Pictures, 1840-1940" (1999) and "Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946" (1996).

She earned her doctoral in British and American art and art criticism, and her master's in 19th-century French painting from the University of Oxford, England. She has an undergraduate degree in Art History from Stanford University.

Burgess joins the museum's curatorial staff, which includes: Denenberg; Susan Danly, curator of graphics, photography and contemporary art; and Sage Lewis, curatorial coordinator.

Meanwhile, the museum's search for a new executive director continues, with a handful of top candidates targeted for interviews. No timetable has been set for hiring a new executive director.