December 9 - 10, 2004 Calais Calais On Sunday, September 19, "Un/Coverings: Contemporary Maine Fiber Art" opened at the Farnsworth Museum. The exhibition is one of the central events of this year's celebration "Maine Fiberarts: State of Fiber 2004." The exhibition examines the ways in which fiber can both protect, conceal and reveal the physical and spiritual self, and overturns conventional ideas about fabric as functional craft. Artists represented in the show include Catherine Draper, Emily Freeman, Richard Lee, Susan Barrett Merrill, Jeannie Mooney, Arlene Morris, Anne Nemrow, Margaret Schwarcz, Donald Talbot, Patricia Wheeler and Susan Winn. The exhibition runs through February 20, 2005. The Farnsworth Museum is located at 16 Museum Street in Rockland. Call 596-6457 for more information.

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"John Walker: A Winter in Maine" opened on Friday, September 24 at the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor. Walker's paintings are in the collections of the most distinguished art institutions in the world, including the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. Until this summer's highly acclaimed show at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland, only a handful of his paintings had been seen in Maine. The exhibition runs through January 28, 2005 at the Museum's Norumbega Hall in downtown Bangor. For more information, please call 561-3350.

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Opening on October 14 at the Saco Museum, "Out of the Shadows" is an exhibition presented by Creative Work Systems of Portland. The purpose of the exhibition is twofold: historical records will portray the experiences of people with disabilities as perceived by other people, while works by adults who are enrolled in the art program at Creative Work Systems will demonstrate what people with disabilities can create. Visit the Saco Museum at 371 Main Street in Saco (call 283-3861 for hours). The exhibit closes on January 16, 2005, after which the art by Creative Work Systems clients will be displayed at other venues.

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Choreographer Louis Gervais is serving as artist-in-residence at Adams Elementary School in Portland from December 6 - 21, 2004. Gervais will help third and fourth-graders create a performance piece that coincides with their comprehensive study of oceans. This unit includes not only the science of oceans, but also the impact of the ocean on the culture and history of Portland, and on Maine writers such as Longfellow. Gervais' work with students on dance, art, and poetry will culminate in a performance on the evening of December 22. The performance will be videotaped and shown on Portland's local access cable channel.

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"Threatened and Endangered," the traveling exhibition of artist's books by Rebecca Goodale featured in our Spring 2004 newsletter, is on view at Bowdoin's Hawthorne-Longfellow Library through December 15. The show features items combining silkscreen, painting techniques and cutouts with a variety of book structures. In January, the exhibition opens at the Blum Gallery at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor.

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"The Spirit of Evangeline" opens at the Saco Museum on January 4, 2005. In anticipation of this exhibition, students at Biddeford Middle School are participating in public readings of the poem and preparing a coloring book with text appropriate for young readers.

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A discretionary grant has been approved for WMPG, Portland's community radio station, to produce and air a 60-minute radio version of Ellen Vincent's award-winning oral history of South Bristol, Down on the Island, Up on the Main. Like Vincent's book (Tilbury House, 2003), the program will present the culture and history of Maine's mid-coast region through the voices of South Bristol's citizens. The MHC is proud to renew support for the ongoing Down on the Island project, which we funded in a previous incarnation as an exhibit at the South Bristol Historical Society. Listen for three broadcasts of the finished radio program on WMPG during the winter of 2005.

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Over the past decade, Claudia Updike has brought over 100 Maine children's book writers and illustrators to York County schools. As director of the K-6 library program in SAD #60, Updike recognizes the inspirational impact that meeting a working author or illustrator can have on young writers and artists in elementary schools. She started the Maine Authors in Our Schools program in 1993, and has kept the program running in spite of limited school budgets and rising author fees. With the help of the Maine Humanities Council, Updike will bring Kevin Hawkes to the North Berwick Primary School on Tuesday, March 8, 2005. Hawkes, an illustrator of national renown, lives in Gorham. In one whirlwind day, he will give four presentations to accommodate every student in the school (and many parents). He will also appear at a luncheon with teachers, school librarians, and other local children's literature enthusiasts.

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The Maine Jewish Film Festival celebrates its tenth anniversary this spring. A long-standing highlight of the Festival has been its Women Filmmakers Forum, which showcases the work of female directors and screenwriters from around the world. In 2005, the Forum will include two films and a guest speaker. The films, lecture, and discussion will take place at the Portland Museum of Art on March 13, 2005. The 2005 Festival schedule, including the Forum details, will be posted shortly on the festival website, www.mjff.org.

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"Réveil-Waking Up French" is a documentary film that explores the struggle for cultural survival among the Franco-American communities of New England. Filmmaker Ben Levine has been based in Maine for over twenty-five years. His film reveals the importance of language preservation and reacquisition for personal and cultural renewal. To increase the utility of the documentary as an educational resource, Levine and co-sponsors from the Penobscot School, the Franco-American Heritage Center, and the University of Maine are adapting it into a short film that will be distributed on DVD to schools and libraries. Look for this version to air on PBS in the spring.

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"Barn Again! Celebrating an American Icon" will be on display in the Mason House Exhibit Hall at the Bethel Historical Society from August 19 through October 22, 2005. "Barn Again!" is a traveling exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the National Building Museum, with assistance from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and presented by the Maine Humanities Council. To strengthen the local impact of the exhibit, the Bethel Historical Society has planned two public programs. On September 9, architectural historian Christi Mitchell, of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, will give an overview of the history of Maine barns. On October 8, a lecture by William Bunting will precede a festive barn dance. Bunting is the author of A Day's Work, a two-volume collection of historic Maine photographs (Tilbury House). Both programs are free and open to the public; contact the Bethel Historical Society at 824-2908 for more information.

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