Arts and Culture

Detroit will celebrate the life of Aretha Franklin on Friday, August 31st at 10 a.m. EST. Over two dozen people -- including heads of state, a record mogul, and music legends of nearly every description -- will take the stage of the Greater Grace Temple to speak, sing and pray in honor of the gift that Franklin so readily shared with the world.

CAMDEN, Maine - More than a dozen windjammers are headed to Camden Harbor.  The 25th annual Camden Windjammer Festival kicks off Friday with the arrival of more than a dozen windjammers and an evening capped by fireworks on the waterfront.

BRUNSWICK, Maine — The founder of the Dead Poets Society of America got what he wanted Monday: His remains were laid to rest under a special tombstone he commissioned before suffering a fatal heart attack.

THOMASTON, Maine — It’s not every day that you find an original painting by Andrew Wyeth in a relative’s house that you’re helping clean out.

For the last 153 years, the University of Maine campus has occupied the traditional territory of the Penobscot Nation. 

BIDDEFORD, Maine - Some items belonging to one of the Boston Red Sox's early members are going up for auction.

The National Endowment for the Arts is planning to eliminate a rule that prohibits some noncitizens from competing in a national poetry competition.

The decision comes four months after Deering High School student Allan Monga sued the federal agency for not allowing him to compete in the national Poetry Out Loud competition.

PORTLAND, Maine - A medical examiner has been unable to determine the cause of pop artist Robert Indiana's death, but a spokesman says the death was not suspicious.
 
A spokesman told The Associated Press on Friday that the death was likely cardiac-related, but the official cause and manner of death is "undetermined.''
 
Indiana's "LOVE'' series is instantly recognizable around the world.  
 
Indiana died May 19 at age 89 at his Vinalhaven Island home 15 miles off the coast of Maine. His attorney said he died from respiratory failure.
 

A significant painting by the renowned 20th Century painter Jackson Pollock now hangs in the Colby College Museum of Art.

Director Sharon Corwin says the painting, “Composition with Masked Forms,” was purchased last month for an undisclosed sum and hung this morning. Some art historians say the painting highlights a master artist working to develop his own style.

Corwin says she hopes the acquisition inspires curiosity in Mainers and tourists alike.