Arts and Culture

Arts and culture

Youth Rock Orchestra Pairs Maine Musicians With Touring Bands

By Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler • Aug 3, 2017
Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler / Maine Public

There’s an old joke: “What do you call a viola player with a beeper? An optimist.” The idea is that classically trained musicians may have a harder time getting gigs than rock or folk artists. But there’s a project in Maine that’s designed to put young orchestra musicians on a live stage to give them a sense of what it’s like, and for some young players, it’s renewing their interest in music.

EB White’s Onetime Maine Home Is For Sale For $3.7 Million

By • Aug 2, 2017
Mark Fleming / Yankee Magazine

For just $3.7 million, you can now buy a historic 44 1/2-acre saltwater farm in North Brooklin, Maine, with a guesthouse, ponds and lovingly maintained gardens.

There has been something of a spider issue. But for potential buyers of this house, that’s a selling point.

Maine International Film Festival Getting New Exec Director

By • Jul 31, 2017

WATERVILLE, Maine - There's a change in leadership at the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville.
 
Mike Perreault is taking over the top post from Shannon Haines, who's served as festival director for 15 years.
 
Haines will remain involved with the festival in her role as president and chief executive officer of Waterville Creates!
 
The Maine International Film Festival has made a name for itself by drawing big names from Hollywood for the "Mid-Life Achievement Award.''
 

Falmouth Woman Who Released Album As 12-Year-Old Helps Kids Find Their Voice

By Jonathan Woodward • Jul 25, 2017
Issa Oppenheim-Pressman

When Chandra Oppenheim’s debut album, “Transportation,” came out in 1980, it was quickly embraced by the tastemakers of the day. She played gigs at CBGB in New York and sold out shows in Berkeley, California, and she was only 12 years old.

Lauren Hutton Thrilled to Get 'Mid-Life Achievement Award'

By • Jul 21, 2017

WATERVILLE, Maine - Lauren Hutton has been honored with a Maine film festival's "Mid-Life Achievement Award.''
 
The 73-year-old model and actress tells the Morning Sentinel that she was thrilled to receive the award, which means she has a lot to look forward to and accomplish.
 
The organizers of the Maine International Film Festival decided to honor her for her work in films like "Paper Lion'' and "A Wedding.''
 

Portland Art Gallery Names Philadelphia Artist as Director

By • Jul 13, 2017

PORTLAND, Maine - A contemporary art gallery in Portland, Maine, has hired an interdisciplinary artist from Philadelphia as its new executive director.
 
Thirty-one-year-old Kelsey Johnson is currently a curator in photography and new media at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The Portland Press Herald reports that she is also a recipient of a Pew Center grant for a survey of women artists in the 1970s, and she begins work at the SPACE Gallery in August.
 

Postage Stamps Commemorate Centennial of Artist Andrew Wyeth

By • Jul 13, 2017
Matt Slocum / Associated Press

CHADDS FORD, Pa. - The U.S. Postal Service is issuing stamps commemorating the centennial of artist Andrew Wyeth.
 
The Postal service says Wyeth "found endless inspiration'' in his hometown of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and in rural Maine. It said Wednesday each one of the dozen Andrew Wyeth Forever stamps will feature a detail from one of his paintings, including perhaps his most famous painting, 1948's "Christina's World.''
 

Longtime Magazine Focusing on Aroostook County Publishes Last Issue

By • Jul 5, 2017
Paul Cyr / Paul Cyr Photography

Echoes, a quarterly magazine published in - and about - Aroostook County, has put out its last issue. 

On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, back in 2013, Editor Kathy Olmstead, a retired journalism professor from the University of Maine, told Maine Public's Morning Edition host Irwin Gratz that Echoes was the creation of two people "from away" with "compatible dreams."

For disclosure, Kathy Olmstead serves on Maine Public's board of trustees.

Adult Horn Players Hone Their Skills at Grown-Up Summer Camp

By • Jun 28, 2017
Patty Wight / Maine Public

Summertime is camp time, and it’s not just for kids anymore. Adults are signing up for camps that focus on everything from wine tasting to bird watching and playing the horn — what’s often called the French horn.

Study: Mainers Spent $150 Million on Arts in 2015

By • Jun 21, 2017

Maine arts and cultural organizations and their audiences spent more than $150 million in the 2015 fiscal year — and supported the equivalent of almost 4,200 jobs, according to a new study from the national group Americans for the Arts.

In Waterville, one of five Maine communities highlighted in the report, total spending by the nonprofit arts and culture industry was almost $6.3 million.

UMaine Hosting "Art of Climate Science" Exhibit

By • Jun 16, 2017

BELFAST, Maine - The University of Maine is hosting an art exhibit called "The Art of Climate Science'' featuring works by faculty, staff and students at its Climate Change Institute.
 

Food Comes Alive for Charity in 'The Night Kitchen'

By • Jun 9, 2017
Jessica Burstein

Americans of a certain age will remember Slim Goodbody, a man in a unitard painted with internal organs who appeared on Captain Kangaroo and other programs as an advocate for good nutrition.

The man in the costume is John Burstein, who now lives in Lincolnville and still takes the character on tour promoting good health. Burstein has also created a new musical comedy currently running at Portland Stage.

In “The Night Kitchen,” the pots and pans, wine and cheese, and knives and spatulas come alive after the chefs have left for the evening.

Maine's Capital Endeavors to Create Public Art for City

By • May 30, 2017

AUGUSTA, Maine - Art students in Maine are planning to liven up the downtown area of their capital city with a series of murals, with support from community organizations.

The Kennebec Journal reports that Augusta officials hope the diverse slate of artwork will bring vibrancy to a downtown area in order to help stimulate economic development through arts and culture.

Experts were invited to Augusta in 2013 to critique what was needed to spur economic and community development. They noted that downtown lacked public art.

‘It’s Kind of Rooted in Race’ — Concerts Tell Story of America Using Spirituals

By • May 19, 2017

The spiritual, as a musical form, was born in America. It emerged from pain and despair, but over time would become a gift to the nation. This weekend in Falmouth and Brunswick, a Maine-based chorale will accompany a world-renowned countertenor in a concert production called “Amazing Grace: The American Spiritual.” The multimedia performances are designed to convey how the music helps to tell the story of the nation itself.

If you listen carefully to a recorded performance of the spiritual “Precious Lord,” it might surprise you that the singer would be a guy like Reginald Mobley.

Audio Postcard: Racing is Back at Oxford Plains Speedway

By Matt Roberts • May 3, 2017
Wikimedia Commons

The sounds of spring. Peepers, songbirds, revving engines.

Producer Matt Roberts stopped by opening day at Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine, recently and filed this audio postcard.

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