The Newsletter of the Maine Humanities Council | Winter 07–08
Selected Grants: Fiscal Year 2007
BELFAST
America Awakening
$500: The Game Loft is a youth center in Belfast that provides a refuge from electronic games and entertainment. In January 2007, the center began a partnership with Belfast’s Senior College for a role-playing program called “America Awakening.” This interactive history lesson gives each participant a character from a different region and culture in the U.S. Participants use background reading and research to follow their characters from 1870 through 1945. A similar role-playing game called “Pax Britannica” began in March. For more information, call (207) 338-6447 or visit www.thegameloft.org.
LOVELL
Making Oral History and Folklore Accessible on the Web
$950: In the past two decades, folklorists Peter Lenz and Jo Radner have conducted several oral history projects in the Oxford Hills area. With the resources of Lake Region TV, the Western Maine Cultural Alliance has converted selections from these projects to digital audio files. These files are now available for easy download from their website, www.westernmaineculture.org on the page entitled “Enjoy a Taste of Western Maine Folklore.” This new format will make the material accessible to a broader audience and help to preserve it for future generations.
LUBEC
McCurdy’s Smokehouse Through the Eyes of Frank Van Riper
$500: Lubec Landmarks continues its restoration of McCurdy’s Smokehouse Packing Sheds, with new exhibits this summer providing glimpses of life and work in the last operating herring smokehouse in the United States. The new exhibits, which opened on June 30, are located in the Skinning and Packing Sheds. The smokehouse process and the dramatic extent of the marketing network that supported the industry are revealed through artifacts, ethnographic materials, and photographs taken by Frank Van Riper during the smokehouse’s last year of operation. A third new exhibit on the development of the industry from 1880 to 1990, revealing its significance for Washington County communities, opened on August 4. Van Riper presented a talk on his photographs during the summer, and consulting curator Edward Hawes gave another informative talk. For details on the exhibit, please call (207) 733-1095.
NORRIDGEWOCK
Norridgewock Corn Festival
$500: The Norridgewock Historical Society hosted a Corn Festival in August, 2007. The festival featured a jewelry demonstration, corn crafts, a homemade electric car, and a poster presentation by local farmers. Speakers included Dr. Paul Frederic, author of Canning Gold, addressing the history of the crop; and Cooperative Extension agent Kathryn Hopkins speaking about modern corn production. To contact the historical society, please call (207) 634-5032.
NORWAY
Barn Story: Saving the Barn on Stearns Hill Farm
$997: New to the Oxford County Fair in the fall of 2007 was a Farm Life Center, intended to promote small, diversified farms and the foods they produce with interactive exhibits and ongoing demonstrations of the rural arts. With input from historians, the Oxford County Agricultural Society produced a video to be shown at the Farm Life Center about the restoration of the barn at Stearns Hill Farm in West Paris. The restoration, funded in part by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, uncovered decades of agricultural history, and this video documents that history as well as the restoration process. For details about the Fair, which ran September 12-15, 2007, call (207) 743-9594 or visit www.oxfordcountyfair.com.
OLD TOWN
Musical Exchange
$499: On June 26, 2007, youth drumming groups from all Maine Native American communities gathered at the Penobscot Boys & Girls Club on Indian Island for a musical exchange with Iranian drummer Shamou. Through their drumming traditions, the Middle Eastern and Native American cultures shared songs, stories, and lessons. This event was a collaboration between the River Coalition, the Warrior Project, and the Native American Boys & Girls Clubs. To learn more, please contact Sherri Mitchell at (207) 827-8744.
PORTLAND
The Portland Co.: An Introduction
$500: The first formal exhibit of the Trust for the Preservation of Maine Industrial History and Technology (familiarly known as the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. & Museum) opened June 15, 2007. This quasi-permanent exhibit tells the story of the Portland Company, founded in 1846 by John Poor. The company built boilers and engines for over 300 vessels, including steamships, tugboats, ferries, and fireboats. It also built locomotives and created the first railroad connector line between Portland and Canada (later known as The Grand Trunk). For information on viewing the exhibit at 58 Fore Street in Portland, please call (207) 828-0814 or visit www.mngrr.org.
Portland Freedom Trail
$500: The Portland Freedom Trail links significant sites connected to the Underground Railroad and the anti-slavery movement with permanent granite pedestals in a walking route through the peninsula. Portland’s trail will eventually be joined with national routes, with an emphasis on linking the trail from New Hampshire to Canada. The trail project also aims to engage the community in the ongoing research and advance public discourse on social and economic justice. The first pedestal and brass marker (with artwork by Daniel Minter) was installed in a ceremony at the Eastern Cemetery on November 9, 2006. A gala event took place February 17, 2007; tour information, a brochure, and related educational materials will be available in June. For more information, call (207) 591-9980 or visit www.portlandfreedomtrail.org.
Welcome to the Classics: Wild About Wilde
$1,000: Audiences at free outdoor performances of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, presented by The Stage at Fort Preble in South Portland, enjoyed pre-show presentation called “Welcome to the Classics: Wild about Wilde.” The presentations introduced audiences to Oscar Wilde, Victorian theatre, and the workings of verbal comedy through a monologue written and performed by Equity actor Harlan Baker. Baker researched the period, drawing on the expertise of director Janet Ross. The Importance of Being Earnest ran July 13-28, 2007. “Wild about Wilde” was presented prior to every show except for the first. For details, please call The Stage at (207) 828-0128 or visit www.thestagemaine.org.
ROCKLAND
Maine Gardens: Nature and Design
$1,000: “Maine Gardens: Nature and Design” was a four-day symposium, July 12-15, 2007, on the history and beauty of Maine’s varied landscapes. Participants discovered writers and artists who have imagined these landscapes and heard from those who continue to do so. They became acquainted with the work of both the eminent landscape architects and the ordinary people who have shaped and softened the wild terrain of Maine. The symposium was held at various locations in Rockland; to learn more, please call (207) 230-0142.
SKOWHEGAN
South Solon Meeting House Living History Project
$5,000: More than 50 years ago, the walls of the South Solon Meeting House were covered with fresco mural paintings by members of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. On July 21, 2007, four of the thirteen mural artists—John Wallace, Ashley Bryan, Sigmund Abeles and Sidney Hurwitz—returned to the meeting house to take part in a panel discussion. Following the panel, Ashley Bryan gave a presentation on his art, teaching, and children’s book illustration. “Fresco is a wonderful material to work with,” Bryan told the Bangor Daily News. “I learned a lot but I have never carried it further. It allowed us to give them art in a structure that was used by the community. It was such an honor to be part of a community that would be using this building.” The day’s events were digitally recorded and added to the Skowhegan School’s lecture archive, which is available to researchers at world-renowned art institutions including the Tate, the Getty, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
