In the spring and summer of 2020, the PMA presented Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe: Tabernacles for Trying Times, an exhibition that reimagines a familiar form of religious furniture—the tabernacle—as a symbolic location for cultural values such as justice, equality, and knowledge. Painter Carrie Moyer and sculptor Sheila Pepe have achieved international acclaim through abstract works that are rich with color and materiality and informed by feminist politics and queer activism. Throughout their decades-long careers, sculptor Sheila Pepe and painter Carrie Moyer have achieved international acclaim through abstract works that are rich with color and materiality, incorporating diverse themes of craft, feminism, and queer activism.

22,350 museum visitors

2.3M digital reach

Related Programs and Events 

Dream Action Factory

Dream Action Factory was a series of online happenings in conjunction with the PMA exhibition Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe: Tabernacles for Trying Times. Artists, scholars, and social organizations delved into a wide variety of topics, challenging us to come together with renewed urgency, make time and space for dialogue, and rediscover, amongst our many threads of identity, our common social fabric.

More than 550 people attended Dream Action Factory programs onsite and virtually, including:

• 3/4/20: Dream Actions Factory Kickoff Party hosted by Candy’s

• 3/5/20: Panel Discussion hosted by The Chart with Jenna Crowder, Julien Langevin, Lareese Hall, and Marcia Minter

• 3/7/20: Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon with The Chart

• 3/12/20: Drop-In Knit and Crochet Workshop

• 5/14/20: Nelson Social Justice Lecture: In Conversation with Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe

• 5/21/20: Lessons from the Feminist Movement: A Community Conversation About Where We Go from Here with Maine Women’s Lobby

• 6/4/20: Cultivating Empathy with Liz Leuthner, USM, and Beacon Sober Living 

• 6/8/20: What’s In Your Tabernacle? Journeys through Time, Space, and Community (series) hosted by Cynthia Baker. 

• 6/11/20: A Conversation with Nancy Princenthal and Jaime DeSimone: Unspeakable Acts: Women, Art and Sexual Violence in the 1970s

• 6/25/20: People. Not Prisons: Incarceration during COVID-19 & Beyond with ACLU of Maine and Maine Inside Out 

More Virtual Programs 

In the press

Original Program Partners

Candy’s Queer Space

The Chart

MECA Knitting Club

Portland Public Schools

Professor Cynthia Baker

MaineTransNet

Portland Public Library

International Slow Art Day

Alexander Davis and Bates Dance Festival

Casco Bay High School

Nancy Princenthal

ACLU of Maine

Maine Women’s Lobby Education Fund

Nelson Social Justice Fund

Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center

Beacon Recovery Services and USM

Digital Program Partners

Nelson Social Justice Fund

Maine Women’s Lobby Education Fund

Liz Leuthner, Beacon Recovery Services, and USM

Professor Cynthia Baker

Nancy Princenthal

ACLU of Maine and Maine Inside Out

Dream Action Factory Program Sponsor

Exhibition Support

Individual Support

Cyrus Hagge
Karen L. McDonald
Christina F. Petra

Corporate Support
The Bear Bookshop, Marlboro, VT

Foundation Support
The Bob Crewe Foundation

This exhibition is part of Art for All.

Art for All is an initiative that supports the PMA’s dedication to being an open, accessible, inclusive, and welcoming museum for all, through exhibitions and programs that reflect our community and create experiences with art that strengthen our bonds and bring us together. 

Individual Support:

Anonymous (2)
Judy and John Adelman
Justin and Rachael Alfond
Louise Bessire
Sheri and Joe Boulos
Shannon C. Gordon
Cyrus Hagge
Patricia Hille Dodd Hagge
Alison and Horace Hildreth
Douglas and Sharyn Howell
John and Hilary Isacke
Karen L. McDonald
Marian Hoyt Morgan and Christopher Hawley Corbett
Anne and Vince Oliviero
Richard and Alice Spencer
Stewart and Elizabeth Strawbridge
Amy Woodhouse and Tobey Scott

Foundation Support

Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation, Inc.

Corporate Sponsors