Free Friday Night at the Museum
By Caitlin Brooke
Marketing and Public Relations Assistant
Friday night the Museum was bustling with activities. Movies at the Museum screened Joffery: Mavericks of Amercian Dance, the McLellan House’s parlor featured Parlor Talk: Collaboration with design agency Might & Main, and the Payson building was taken over with Artist Interventions, designed by artist Karen Gelardi.
Artist Interventions gave Free Friday night visitors the opportunity to collect a series of custom botanical prints created by artist Karen Gelardi. The first stop was the Information Desk where everyone received an instructional portfolio and from there visitors explored the galleries to find uniquely designed printing kiosks. A volunteer was stationed at each kiosk to assist in the printing of a botanical design. Visitors left with their very own mini art collection!
Mark your calendar for the next Artist Intervention on June 15 with John Knight.
*A special thank you to our printing kiosk operators Lara Gibson, Scott Peterman, and Colin Sullivan-Stevens!
During Parlor Talk: Collaboration Might & Main, a Portland-based design and branding agency, and Museum Store manager Sally Struever spoke about the collaboration between them in the creation of products, logos, and designs surrounding the opening of the Winslow Homer Studio and the exhibition Weatherbeaten: Winslow Homer and Maine. The team premiered, for the first time publicly, a variety of products including handkerchiefs, prints by Strong Arm Bindery, bags by Black Point Mercantile, and even a Winslow Homer bobble head doll. They spoke of the challenges in developing a product line that appealed to every appetite while staying true to the legacy of Winslow Homer and his iconic works of art. The items will soon be available in the Museum Store!
On the Winslow Homer bobble head doll:
“If I was six, I would want it. If I was 60, I would want it. I just want it.” –Graeme Kennedy, Might & Main
Interview with Margaret Burgess and Earle Shettleworth Jr.
Co-curators of the current exhibition “From Portland to Paris: Mildred Burrage’s Years in France,” Margaret E. Burgess, The Susan Donnell and Harry W. Konkel Associate Curator of European Art, and Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., Maine State Historian discuss the exhibition, how it came to be, and the young artist’s adventures in France.
Artist Intervention: Shoshannh White
By Julia Einstein
Coordinator of Youth and Family Programs
On Friday, April 27, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Shoshannah White will host the fourth installment of Artist Interventions, a series of events planned by PMA’s new team of Maine artists. Portraits Re-presented is Shoshannah’s way of getting to know the Museum’s entire collection of portraits—to study and find relationships between them. She has designed a way to bring us all on a virtual trip through the Museum’s archives. Her look into what the Museum has collected over time will be projected on the Museum walls for visitors to see and discuss! I recently had the pleasure of talking with the artist.
Please introduce yourself and your art.
I’m a photographer and I work in many media. My personal work involves painting with encaustic over photographs and my public work tends to incorporate photography into a more sculptural form. I’m currently working on a series of portraits—something that’s been on the back burner and now coming to the forefront.
What you are planning for your Artist Intervention?
I am going through the Museum’s collection of portraits, acquired over time to make selections of what’s currently not on exhibit, to pull out some works that are unexpected and present them to the public for one evening. As sort of a behind the scenes look at “the vault.”
What is the inspiration—the goal—behind the design of your Artist Intervention?
It’s really just educational and exploratory—to get to know the collection and to see what the Museum has been interested over time. The discussion aspect came about by the guessing game that I’ve been going through with images that are only titled by acquisition date. I’ve been more and more curious about the story behind each portrait and it’s brought up more questions about what the nature of a portrait is and why we connect with certain portraits over others. What are the stories we make up about images or people without any solid information?
What is your favorite work at the PMA?
That’s a really hard question! I mean, I love the Sargent; I think about it outside the Museum. And, also, the Greg Parker piece. The Anselm Keifer was my favorite for a long time. I also love the Steichen painting, it’s pretty gorgeous.
Shoshannah White has a studio in the Artist’s Studio Building on Congress Street in Portland, Maine and keeps a blog about her most current work.
Mark your calendars for upcoming Artist Interventions:
May 11: Karen Gelardi
June 15: John Knight
