Events at Member Institutions

Tate House Museum is pleased to announce our participation in Re-Site 2024 in partnership with SPACE. This Mellon Foundation-funded program is the second edition of a site-specific temporary public art and Portland history-telling initiative first launched in 2020 as part of Maine’s Bicentennial. Re-Site 2024 offers five new artistic projects in partnership with diverse public organizations and spaces that will help expand community knowledge of local histories and their impacts today as well as generate dialogue about what we carry with us into the future. Re-Site 2024 projects come with site histories, artist statements, bibliographies for further reading, and recorded conversations with the artists and other key participants. FMI about Re-Site 2024, visit space538.org.

Tate House Museum will host an Opening Night Reception with Re-Site 2024 Artist Ashley Page on Friday May 10 from 5:30-7:30 pm. This event is free and open to the public, and will include viewing of Ashley’s art installation titled Imagining Freedom in the context of the historic 1755 Tate House. Her artwork will be on display through June 30 and can be viewed as part of Tate House Museum’s regular house tours, opening for the season on June 5, Wednesdays - Saturdays, 10 am - 4 pm, through mid-October.

Ashley Page (ashleypagestudio.com), interdisciplinary artist and Studio and Programs Manager at Indigo Arts Alliance, describes her project as follows: Reconciling Portland, Maine’s history of industrialization and colonization while contending with the global reverberations of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Imagining Freedom, asks the viewer to step into the shoes of an enslaved Black individual, Bet. Her age, appearance, homelands, and quality of life are all unknown, lost to the unraveling nature of time. Only appearing in court records, we know nothing about Bet other than that she was a servant living and working in the Tate House in the 1770s for an indeterminate amount of time. Researching the social, political, and economic landscape of Maine during this period and reviewing archival documents, Page makes an intentional departure from the archive as she asks the guiding question: What did freedom look like for Bet? What did her daydreams look like, sound like, taste like? This historical recovery project grapples with the ways enslaved peoples were excluded from historical records and navigates new ways we tell our stories.

Stay tuned for more information about an upcoming workshop by Ashley Page on Juneteenth (June 19 th ) that will highlight her artistic process. Join us for this unique and provocative viewing and more inclusive telling of Tate House and colonial Portland history.

FMI: contact Director Holly K. Hurd

hkhurd@tatehouse.org

207-774-6177

Northern Nightmares; Monsters in Inuit Art

On May 7, gather up your courage and join Arctic Museum staff as they open their newest exhibit, Northern Nightmares: Monsters in Inuit Art, opening at 7 pm, in the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum’s new home, the John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies on the Bowdoin College campus.

The exhibit will open with an informal reception with light refreshments on the main floor of the Gibbons Center from 7 – 9 PM on Tuesday, May 7. Museum staff will be on hand to answer questions and point out their favorite monsters.

The museum is located in the John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies, 10 Polar Loop. Regular museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday 10 AM- 5 PM and Sunday 1-5 PM, closed Mondays and national holidays. For more information visit our website at Bowdoin.edu/arctic-museum or call 207-725-3416.

Dr. Lydia Moland, Colby College professor, will talk about her new book, Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life, on Tuesday, April 9th at 6 pm at the Margaret Chase Smith Library, 56 Norridgewock Ave, Skowhegan. 

The program takes place in person and on Zoom.

To register for the Zoom link, visit: www.msad54.maineadulted.org

A prominent abolitionist, Lydia Maria Child’s philosophical thinking and moral courage made her one of the most important voices among white Americans fighting to end slavery. Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) was also a women’s rights activist, Native American rights activist, novelist, and journalist. Despite her activism, she may be most remembered for her poem “Over the River and Through the Wood”.

Dr. Moland’s biography was published by the University of Chicago Press in fall 2022. The book has been reviewed in the New York Review of Books, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal, The Nation, and other venues. You can find some of Moland’s writing and speaking about Child in the Wall Street Journal, The Paris Review, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, The American Scholar, Aeon, and on National Public Radio, on her webpage here: https://web.colby.edu/lmoland/198-2/media/

Dr. Moland is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Philosophy at Colby College where she teaches courses on moral philosophy, aesthetics, and the history of modern philosophy. She has written on nineteenth-century German philosophy, including two books on G.W.F. Hegel and an edited volume on the philosophy of humor in the nineteenth century.

Books will be available for sale.

To attend this program via Zoom, please register in advance at www.msad54.maineadulted.org 

Sponsored by the Skowhegan History House Museum & Research Center

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Stuart Kestenbaum,  Maine’s poet laureate from 2016-2021, will present a series of poems and talk about the process of making his work. He will also delve into the comparisons to other creative processes he uses. This 30 minute presentation will be followed by a 30 minute Q&A session. 

A Zoom link to the lecture will be sent the Monday prior to the lecture. 

Tickets are free with a suggested donation. Get your tickets here. 

Polly Forcier will present a virtual lecture on Historic Stencils from  1790-1840+. Beginning with “Border Wall Stencils” from c.1790-c.1820, she will then discuss all-over wall stencils in imitation of wallpaper. She will go on to discuss the stencils used in the Rufus Porter School of Wall Stencil Murals. She will end with a brief "how to" on stenciling. Tickets are free with a suggested donation. Get your tickets here!

Poland Maine - The Poland Spring Preservation Society will hold the annual "Maine Day" Open House on Saturday May 25th from 9-3pm at the Maine State Building, 37 Preservation Way, Poland Maine. 

Join us as we open the doors for the 129th anniversary of the Maine State Building at Poland Spring! See the new exhibits, play games related to the World's Fair, learn about the heritage of the Maine State Building and the 1893 Columbian Exposition, and visit the gift shop with local Maine made crafts and more. "Maine Day", May 24th, 1893 at the World's Fair served as the official dedication of the Maine State Building in Chicago, Illinois. A reception was held in the rotunda led by Governor Henry B. Cleaves and other prominent Mainers. At noon, an address was made detailing the work of the board and its efforts to showcase the materials, work and design of Maine craftsmanship. The building was then declared open to the public. At the end of the fair, the building was purchased by the Ricker family of Poland Spring, dismantled and rebuilt at Poland Spring Resort for use as a library and art gallery. It is 1 of just 5 buildings that remain from the 1893 World's Fair, and the only state building that remains. Admission is free, and all are welcome to attend! 

FMI https://www.facebook.com/events/433483299142769/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A%5B%5D%7D or call 207-998-4142

CANTON, Maine—The Canton Historical Society will hold a Chili and Chowder Cook-off on
Saturday, April 6, 12-2 p.m., at their historic grange building, 25 Turner St., Canton

Local chefs will prepare their favorite chili or chowder for the contest. The public will sample and vote for the best in each category. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children under 12. The admission fee includes bread, beverages, and dessert as well as all the chili and chowder samples you can eat! 

The museum and gift shop will be open to the public during this event. Housed in the back of the recently restored 1897 Grange building, the museum exhibits furniture, artifacts, photographs and documents related to the history of Canton and the region.

See you there and bring your appetite!

Saturday, September 7: Hidden Legacies: A Walking Tour of Castine’s African American History, 10:00 a.m. Join Georgia Zildjian and Lisa Lutts for an hour-long walking tour on Castine’s African American history. Reservations required and limited to 15 people. Rain date September 8.

https://www.castinehistoricalsociety.org/events/hidden-legacies-a-walking-tour-of-castines-african-american-history-2/

Thursday, August 8: The 15^th Annual Deborah Pulliam Memorial Lecture, 7:00 p.m. Hans D. Strauch, Boston architect, will give a talk entitled "Rising from the Ashes: Building on Restituted Family Property in Post-Nazi Berlin, Germany.”  Delano Auditorium, Leavitt Hall, Maine Maritime Academy, Castine. No reservations for in-person. Reservations required to receive YouTube link.

https://www.castinehistoricalsociety.org/events/pulliam-lecture-with-hans-strauch/

Join us on Thursday, July 18th at 7:00 p.m. for an illustrated talk by Castine Historical Society Executive Director, Lisa Simpson Lutts entitled, “A History of Castine in 40 Objects.” The talk will be held in-person in the Mitchell Room of the Castine Historical Society, 17 School St., Castine, as well as livestreamed on the CHS YouTube channel. Due to limited seating, reservations are required for the in-person lecture.

Lutts’ talk will explore objects in the Castine Historical Society’s permanent collection that tell unexpected and compelling stories about the town’s 400-year history. Based on research conducted for the Historical Society’s current exhibit, also titled “A History of Castine in 40 Objects,” Lutts will highlight some of the exciting discoveries made by the staff and exhibits committee while researching the CHS permanent collection.

Visit castinehistoricalsociety.org to register or to find the YouTube link.