'Off the Wall' Exhibition
2018-01-18 11:00 - 2018-02-23 17:00 (America/New_York) | ME
Off the Wall
On view from January 18 - February 23, 2018
Exhibition Reception: Thursday, January 18, 2018, 5:00–7:00pm
In 1966, German-born American sculptor Eva Hesse attached a seemingly simple long metal cord to a canvas that dramatically transformed a painting into a sculpture. Such a simple act revolutionized our understanding of what a painting could be. By privileging the painting’s marginal feature—the frame, its structural support — Hang Up transcends the medium’s inherent two-dimensionality.
Rosy Keyser, 'Skeleton'
Off the Wall pays homage to Hesse’s groundbreaking work and investigates how contemporary artists continue to explore this liminal space between painting and sculpture. At times, a painting’s skin slides onto the floor or creeps onto the ceiling. In others, structural components protrude outward into the gallery space. As our spatial relationship with such works is reconfigured, objects on view in Off the Wall permeate into space and challenge our comprehension of both painting and sculpture. To provide an intimate perspective on this topic, Off the Wall will feature a range of works by two Brooklyn-based artists, Rosy Keyser and Ryan Wallace. A representative sampling of work will be presented by each artist to provoke thought about the shifting dynamics between painting and sculpture or sculpture and painting as well as their collision. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog with an essay by guest curator Jaime DeSimone.
Artist Biographies
Rosy Keyser (born 1974, Baltimore, MD) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and Medusa, NY. Keyser received a BFA from Cornell University and an MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent solo exhibitions include Maccarone, NY/LA, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Lora Reynolds, Austin TX, Freddy, Baltimore, Karma, New York and Peter Blum, New York. Keyser has been included in exhibitions at Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlabaek Denmark, Hauser and Wirth, New York, NY, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, and The Chianti Foundation, Marfa TX. Her work is in the permanent Collection of The Portland Art Museum, Portland ME, The Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlabaek DK, The Zabludowicz Collection, London UK, and The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN.
Ryan Wallace was born in 1977 in New York City, and lives and works in Brooklyn and East Hampton, New York. He received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Recent solo exhibitions include Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC; 56 Henry, NYC; Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto; Romer Young Gallery, San Francisco; and the Window on Broad, Rosenwald Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia. His work has been exhibited at The Elaine de Kooning House, East Hampton, Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, University of Nevada Las Vegas; BAM, Brooklyn; Albada Jelgersma, Amsterdam; Jerome Pauchant Gallery, Paris; and Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles among others. Wallace’s works can be found in the collections of the RISD Museum, Providence; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Marjorie Barrick Museum, Las Vegas, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, among others.
Guest Curator
Jaime DeSimone
With over twelve years of curatorial experience in contemporary art, Curator Jaime DeSimone conceives and implements the exhibition program and manages the Permanent Collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville. Most recently, DeSimone has curated Project Atrium: Gabriel Dawe, Synthesize: Art + Music, and Confronting the Canvas: Women of Abstraction, the first museum show to focus on contemporary female abstract painters. She was previously the exhibitions project manager at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, where she managed a portfolio of exhibitions, including Calder and Abstraction and FreePort No. 008: Celeste Boursier-Mougenot . From 2005 to 2012, DeSimone served as the assistant curator at the Addison Gallery of American Art, located on the campus of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where she curated a number of exhibitions, including Flash Back: November 23, 1963 (2013), The Civil War: Unfolding Dialogues (2011), and Kara Walker: Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) (2008). She holds a master's degree in American contemporary art from American University (2005) and a bachelor's degree in art history from Bates College (2001).
For more information or to request an interview, please contact MECA&D’s Director of Exhibitions and Special Projects, Erin Hutton, at 207.699.5025 or ehutton@meca.edu.
The ICA at Maine College of Art & Design is free and open to the public. Wednesday–Sunday 11:00am–5:00pm, Thursday 11:00am–7:00pm, and First Fridays 11:00am–8:00pm.
Masthead Image: Ryan Wallace, Dragnalus, 2016

Meet the Residencies: New date
2018-01-23 17:30 - 19:00 | ICA at MECA&D, 522 Congress St., Portland, Maine, 04101, United States
Meet the Residencies
Representatives from Maine artist residencies will offer an overview of their various programs. Meet the Residencies will be held at Maine College of Art & Design on Tuesday, January 23 from 5:30pm–7:00pm in the ICA at MECA&D.
Presenters include the Hewnoaks Artist Colony, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Monhegan Artist Residency, MECA&D Residencies, Celebration Barn, Kismet Foundation, Watershed Center for the Arts, and the Joseph A. Fiore Art Center.
Administrators will discuss the specifics of their residency, who is a good fit, and what makes for a successful application.
*Admission is free. To reserve a seat, contact artistsatwork@meca.edu or 207.699.5016.
Header Image: Meg Hahn, 2017 MECA&D alum, was accepted into two residency programs last summer, the Monhegan Artist Residency and Hewnoaks (pictured). Image credit: Alban Maino.
RSVP on Facebook here.

STILL STANDING: The Abyssinian Meeting House Story Archive
2018-01-24 09:00 - 2018-02-24 17:00 | ICA at MECA&D, 522 Congress St., Portland, Maine, 04101, United States
STILL STANDING, The Abyssinian Meeting House Story Archive
Opens Friday (Artwalk), February 2, 2018
On view January 24—February 24, 2018
Artists at Work Project Space
SALT Program in Documentary Studies will be conducting live interviews and audio recording on first Friday, February 2 and there will be a Story Circle event on Saturday, February 3 from 3-6PM. All events are free and open to the public.

The Public Engagement Program at Maine College of Art & Design presents the exhibition STILL STANDING, The Abyssinian Meeting House Story Archive, to be held at Maine College of Art & Design. The show is a culmination of a three year oral history and storytelling project with elders and community leaders from Portland and students at MECA&D.
The Abyssinian Meeting House is full of great stories. In 1866 it survived The Great Fire when fireman and member William Wilberforce Ruby saved it by covering it in wet blankets courtesy of spring running through the building’s basement. The Abyssinian Meeting House functioned as a cultural center and a leading contributor to The Underground Railroad. After years of vacancy, this cultural center was almost lost again in the 1970’s when it was slated for demolition by the city. Deborah Cummings Khadraoui rediscovered this important cultural center and catalyzed its restoration. As the third oldest African American meeting house in the country, The Abyssinian Meeting House is an important American cultural landmark.
For the past three years, students in the Public Engagement class Storytelling 101 have collaborated with The Abyssinian Meeting House to celebrate its story. For this project, students interviewed African American elders in Maine, to create an archive of stories to be housed at The Abyssinian Meeting House. By documenting these stories, the partnership aimed to honor the contribution and experience of African American elders by creating an archive of stories for future generations. Still Standing is the culminating event to celebrate the importance of African American experiences in Portland and communicate the significance of this history in the state of Maine.
The exhibition features audio, text and photographs from all three years of the project. The exhibition opens on first Friday, February 2, 2018 and runs from January 24, 2018–February 24, 2018 in the Artists at Work Gallery at 522 Congress Street, Portland. Students from the SALT Program in Documentary Studies will be conducting live interviews and audio recording on first Friday, February 2 and there will be a Story Circle event on Saturday, February 3 from 3:00-6:00PM. All events are free and open to the public.
Header
Lelia DeAndrade at the 2016 Still Standing event in the ICA. (Photography by Kyle Dubay '18)
For more information contact
Elizabeth A. Jabar, Associate Dean + Director of Public Engagement, ejabar@meca.edu
Quote from one of the interviews:
Because the true story of the black community, the African Americans in Maine, in Portland, they’ve done an awful lot of good. History books have not been kind to the African Americans here in Maine, or in Portland. But we’re changing that. We’re the Abyssinian, we’re changing that. Make sure the history books at least tell part of the story, the true story. At least from this point on, if anybody beat the drum I think we beat the drum, we helped make Portland a better place to live for the people that were here as well as for my family. — Leonard Cummings

ME Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition
2018-01-27 09:00 - 2018-02-10 17:00 | ME
Maine Region Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition at Maine College of Art & Design
January 27–February 10, 2018
Porteous, First Floor
The Maine Region Scholastic Art Award Exhibition features juried work submitted by 7th to 12th graders who are attending schools in Maine. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition initiative for creative teens. Maine’s regional Gold Key, Silver Key, Honorable Mention, and American Visions & Voices Nomination recipients are honored locally through community ceremonies and exhibitions.
Page Header Credit: Caitlyn Duffy, Mantra, Grade 12, Art Teacher: Chris Crosby, Gorham High School

The Peoples State of the Union Story Circle
2018-02-03 15:00 - 18:00 | Artists at Work Project Space, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
The Peoples State of the Union Story Circle, in conjunction with the exhibition Still Standing: The Abyssinian Meeting House Story Archive.
The Peoples State of the Union Story Circle
February 3, 2018 from 3pm–6pm
Opens Friday (Artwalk), February 2, 2018
On view January 24—February 24, 2018
Artists at Work Project Space, 522 Congress Stress
Free and open to the public
MECA&D and the Abyssinian Meeting House invite community members to share stories that reflect on the current state of our union and hopes for the future.

About

On Saturday, February 3, the Public Engagement Program and The Abyssinian Meeting House along with the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC.us) and organizations across the country, will invite the public to participate in the People’s State of the Union #PSOTU2018. Community members will take part in Story Circles, sharing personal experiences that reveal the state of our union. This event coincides with the exhibit Still Standing: The Abyssinian Meeting House Story Archive on view at Maine College of Art & Design. In addition to participants engaging in Story Circles, the event will feature an introduction and performances from the Abyssinian Meeting House community and art-making activities from local socially engaged printmakers the Ears and Hands Collective.
In January of most years, the President delivers a State of the Union Address highlighting the past year and suggesting priorities for the coming year. It’s a broadcast from one to many. But democracy is a conversation, not a monologue. Understanding the state of our union takes We the People reflecting in our own communities on our challenges and opportunities locally, nationally, and globally.
Since 2015, the USDAC has hosted the People’s State of the Union as an invitation to supplement the President’s stories by coming together in our own homes, schools, houses of worship, and community organizations to share our own take on the state of our union. Thousands of people in more than 350 communities have taken part over the last three years, and this year between January 25-February 4, 2018, individuals and organizations will again host Story Circles across the U.S.
Maine College of Art & Design, Public Engagement Program and The Abyssinian Meeting House will be hosting Story Circles to reflect on the current state of our union and share brief stories of hope, belonging or not belonging from the past year. The free event will take place from 3pm to 6pm.
After the Story Circles, participants who wish can upload their stories and images to an online platform, yielding a body of stories that can be searched and shared, inspiring new ideas and new actions. This repository of stories will also provide the source material for the Poetic Address to the Nation, collaboratively composed and performed by poets from across the country that will be performed live on April 15th from the Public Theater in NYC and live-streamed with poetry, theater, music, and more.
The Abyssinian Meeting House is a historic church building at 73–75 Newbury Street, in the Munjoy Hill neighborhood of Portland, Maine. Built 1828-1831 by free African-Americans, it is Maine's oldest African-American church building, and the third oldest in the nation. The Public Engagement Minor at Maine College of Art & Design is a four year curricular pathway that integrates art, real-world problems and community partners. Students work with a range of partners in a variety of public contexts to address and solve complex issues in our project and problem-based courses. The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC) is not an official government agency. It is a people-powered movement dedicated to cultivating empathy, equity, and social imagination. For more information visit usdac.us/psotu.

Visiting Artist Lecture: Mary Murray
2018-02-08 13:00 - 14:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
BFA Spring 2018 Visiting Artist Lecture Series

MECA&D’s Visiting Artist & Guest Lecturer Series invites professional artists, educators, curators, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs to present on topics of interest and importance to the MECA&D community.
All lectures in this series are hosted in Osher Hall and are open to the public at no charge. Seating is limited. Supported in part by the Gene R. Cohen Charitable Foundation, the Isabel K. Pease Trust, and friends of the College through the Osher Chair Naming Program. Call 207.699.5010 for more information.
Mary Murray
Thursday, February 8, 12–1pm
Mary Murray has been curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at MWPAI since September 1991. At MWPAI, she has organized more than forty exhibitions, including four collections-based touring shows with scholarly catalogs: Life Lines: American Master Drawings, 1788-1962 with Paul Schweizer; American 20th-Century Watercolors at the MWPAI; Collecting Modernism: European Masterworks from the MWPAI; and Auspicious Vision: Edward W. Root and American Modernism, with Paul D. Schweizer and Michael Somple. Recent contemporary exhibitions include "Substance and Light: Ten Sculptors Use Cameras," (2006), with Gina Murtagh; "Dimensional Line: Recent Work by Sharon Louden and Creighton Michael," (2004); "Resplendent: An Installation by Lynne Yamamoto," (2003); and "Patrick Dougherty: Full Court Press," (2001).
Mary has written about and lectured extensively on 20th- and 21st-century American art, recently presenting "Unlikely Provocateur: Edward W. Root, American Modernism and The Metropolitan Museum of Art" at the 2008 Southeast College Art Conference and "American and Modern: Edward W. Root and the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute" at the 2007 College Art Association annual conference.

Navigating Ad Land: Stephanie Shore, CMO of Moo
2018-02-15 17:00 - 19:00 | ME
Navigating Ad Land with Stephanie Shore, CMO of Moo
Thursday, February 15, 2018, 5–7pm
Where:Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland
Ad Club of Maine; Tickets required

Join host Lisa DeSisto, CEO of the Portland Press Herald, as she sits down with top CMOs in New England to discuss the current landscape of marketing and advertising. From industry trends and consumer insights to breakthrough creative and thoughtful leadership, the series gives us a personalized look at the art of building a modern brand.
On February 15, the Ad Club of Maine welcomes Stephanie Shore of Moo.com.
Learn more & purchase tickets
*Students, faculty, and alumnae allowed discounted price
MOO is an award-winning online print and design company. Moo prints millions of cards a month and has hundreds of thousands of customers in more than 190 countries.
Stephanie Shore is the CMO at MOO, an award-winning print and design company specializing in premium business stationery and promotional materials since 2006. MOO helps its customers create, share or promote their professional identity and has subsequently become one of the fastest-growing print businesses in the world, with over a million businesses served in more than 190 countries in the last year alone. She oversees Creative, Brand, PR and Customer Marketing Teams in the US and UK, and is known for delivering results under a brand’s umbrella.
Prior to MOO, Stephanie spent six years at Zipcar, where she helped grow a little car-sharing company into the world’s leading car-sharing network as their Vice President of Marketing and Global Brand.
When she’s not working, she enjoys hanging with her family, long walks on the beach and a fierce game of Scrabble.
View Poster for more information

Language taken from Ad Club of Maine's event page.

Matthew Day Jackson: Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-02-15 17:30 - 19:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
BFA Spring 2018 Visiting Artist Lecture Series

MECA&D’s Visiting Artist & Guest Lecturer Series invites professional artists, educators, curators, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs to present on topics of interest and importance to the MECA&D community.
All lectures in this series are hosted in Osher Hall and are open to the public at no charge. Seating is limited. Supported in part by the Gene R. Cohen Charitable Foundation, the Isabel K. Pease Trust, and friends of the College through the Osher Chair Naming Program. Call 207.699.5010 for more information.
Matthew Day Jackson
Thursday, February 15, 5:30–7pm
Matthew Day Jackson’s multifaceted practice encompasses sculpture, painting, collage, photography, drawing, video, performance and installation. Since graduating with an MFA from Rutgers University in 2001, following his BFA from the University of Washington in Seattle, Jackson has had numerous solo exhibitions and his work has been shown at MAMbo Museo d'Arte Moderna in Bologna, Italy; the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Boulder, Colorado; the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA; the Portland Museum of Art Biennial in Portland, Maine; and the Whitney Biennial Day for Night in New York.
Installation View, Matthew Day Jackson, HauserWirth 2011 (2)

Performance: 'The Poets and the Assassin'
2018-02-16 19:00 - 21:00 | ME
The Poets and the Assassin, a play written by Reza Jalali, will be performed at Maine College of Art & Design.
Friday, February 16
7–9pm, Osher Hall
Porteous, second floor
'Refuge' by Niyaz Azadikhah for Reza Jalali’s play about Iranian women, 'The Poets and the Assassin'.
"The story of Iranian women, including their century-old battle for rights, remains with the few exceptions, untold. Though they have been in the forefront of the national struggle for independence, liberty and democracy in Iran, and have been among the most educated and most independent women in the Middle East-they entered universities in 1936 and gained the right to vote in 1963-to those in the West, their lives stay, for most part, in purdah, hidden and veiled in mystery. Ironically, their tale is one of courage, resistance, sacrifice, and survival in an intensely traditional and patriarchal society, for unlike some of their sisters, in countries near and far, they have actively participated in the public sphere to protest, ask for rights, and demand equality. A myth-buster, the play helps us see them for who they are: fearless shir-zan, fighting oppressionand tyranny-a battle that can be ours, as well."

Funding provided in part by the Maine Humanities Council.

Linda Casbon: Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-02-19 12:00 - 13:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Linda Casbon
Monday, February 19, 12-1pm
Osher Hall, Second Floor, Porteous
Free, Open to the Public
Linda Casbon, Columns (side view), 2015, clay, glaze, wax, each approximately 28"x10"x75". Installation view of work at the Roger Williams Botanical Center, Providence, RI.
Brooklyn artist Linda Casbon constructs functional clay objects and large-scale ceramic sculpture. She studied design at the University of Colorado (BENVD) and ceramics and sculpture at Kent State University (MFA). Linda has participated in artist's residencies throughout the United States and Canada including the Bemis Foundation in Omaha, Nebraska, the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, and the John Michael Kohler Company in Wisconsin. Linda was awarded a NYFA fellowship in 1997. She is currently teaching at Hofstra University and Kingsborough Community College.
"My work translates forms into a language of metaphoric associations. It hints at meanings without using literal descriptions. Objects are the visual sounds of this language. When placed together these words form a sentence, a poem, and a kind of narrative with its own internal logic. The pieces look like . . . feel like . . . sound like . . . but cannot be consciously identified or named. With this work I am striving for a sense of unnameable familiarity."
This lecture is funded by a grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation. All lectures in this series are hosted in Osher Hall and are open to the public at no charge. Seating is limited.

Linda Casbon, Columns, 2015, clay, glaze, wax, each approximately 28"x10"x75". Installation view of work at the Roger Williams Botanical Center, Providence, RI.

Rebecca Hannon: Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-02-22 12:00 - 13:00 | ME
Rebecca Hannon
Thursday, February 22, 12–1pm
Osher Hall, Second Floor, Porteous
Free, Open to the Public
“I work in series and find each new grouping a challenge to create tension between the story, and the right medium to evoke meaning. Materials are endless; one must search and then concentrate to find the subtle message found in an object.”
Rebecca Hannon graduated from Rhode Island School of Design and then worked as a goldsmith for five years in New York City before attending the Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste in Munich, Germany on a Fulbright scholarship. Five years later she returned to North America and currently teaches, lectures and has her own workshop.
Her work can be found in public and private collections internationally. In her work, she strives to create evocative objects that double as fine souvenirs. Place and time are documented through the process of making. A fleeting memory, a lost bauble or an everyday object are refashioned to create a small celebratory ornament.
Header Image: Rebecca Hannon, Long, (20'), 2010, laminate, cable.

This lecture is funded by a grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation. All lectures in this series are hosted in Osher Hall and are open to the public at no charge. Seating is limited.

Rollin Leonard: Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-03-01 12:00 - 13:00 | ME
BFA Spring 2018 Visiting Artist Lecture Series

MECA&D’s Visiting Artist & Guest Lecturer Series invites professional artists, educators, curators, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs to present on topics of interest and importance to the MECA&D community.
All lectures in this series are hosted in Osher Hall and are open to the public at no charge. Seating is limited. Supported in part by the Gene R. Cohen Charitable Foundation, the Isabel K. Pease Trust, and friends of the College through the Osher Chair Naming Program. Call 207.699.5010 for more information.
Rollin Leonard
Thursday, March 1, 12–1pm
A Portland, Maine and Los Angeles based photographer and video artist, Rollin Leonard uses arcane and idiosyncratic techniques and materials to create offbeat and provocative portraits and images of the human figure. The work pushes the boundaries of the photographic medium and engages the viewer in a dialogue about representation, data, and individuality.
Rollin Leonard, Mud Puddle, Animation of two faces rotating below a interlocked liquid frames

Helen Carnac: Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-03-22 12:00 - 13:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Windgate Lecture Series: Helen Carnac
Thursday, March 22, 12–1pm, Osher Hall
Helen Carnac is a maker and curator who lives and works in London. Drawing, mark-making, the explicit connections between material, process and maker and an emphasis on deliberation and reflection are all central to her practice as a maker and thinker.Helen Carnac is a maker and curator who lives and works in London. Drawing, mark-making, the explicit connections between material, process and maker and an emphasis on deliberation and reflection are all central to her practice as a maker and thinker.
Running an environmentally grounded practice, Helen develops projects using design methodologies that are rooted in an acute awareness of physical location, place and working practices. The populated environment is of key importance and through her practice and projects she aims to bring people together in order to create social and creative engagement and collaboration in an open-ended design process.
Helen often works in interdisciplinary environments and is currently working with various designers and artists on projects, including a DJ, textile artists, scientists, fine artists, choreographers, a performance artist, furniture designer and silversmith. She has worked extensively in the UK and USA, and in 2011 ran a 4 month walking project as a guest Professor in Berlin. She is a member of the collaborative making project Intelligent Trouble and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Admitted Student Day
2018-03-31 10:00 - 15:00 | ME

Eric Anang: Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-04-02 12:00 - 13:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Windgate Visiting Artist: Eric Anang
Monday, April 2, 12–1pm, Osher Hall
Eric Anang is a Ghanaian sculptor and fantasy coffin carpenter. He was born in Teshie, Ghana, where he lives and runs the Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop. The story of the fantasy coffin begins in 1950s colonial Ghana.
In Ghana, chiefs are often transported via palaquins (also known as sedan chairs) during traditional festivals. In the 1950s, Seth Kane Kwei, a young carpenter, made a palaquin in the shape of a cocoa pod for one such chief. Unfortunately, the chief died unexpectedly before the festival, so he was buried in the palanquin instead. At his funeral, the unique coffin drew many admirers. Within a few weeks, local people began to request unique coffins.
The coffins, also popularly known as abebuu adekai or "proverb boxes," quickly became one of Ghana's most unique traditions.

Diversity Discussion Group #3
2018-04-03 16:00 - 17:00 | ME
Diversity Committee Hosts Open Discussion
April 3, 4:00pm, Joanne Waxman Library
Members of MECA&D's Diversity Committee and our guest facilitators will be hosting informal discussions around issues pertaining to diversity, inclusion, and equity.

Edgar Mosa: Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-04-05 12:00 - 13:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
BFA Spring 2018 Visiting Artist Lecture Series

MECA&D’s Visiting Artist & Guest Lecturer Series invites professional artists, educators, curators, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs to present on topics of interest and importance to the MECA&D community.
All lectures in this series are hosted in Osher Hall and are open to the public at no charge. Seating is limited. Supported in part by the Gene R. Cohen Charitable Foundation, the Isabel K. Pease Trust, and friends of the College through the Osher Chair Naming Program. Call 207.699.5010 for more information.
Edgar Mosa
Thursday, April 5, 12–1pm
Edgar Mosa is an artist born in Lisbon, Portugal where he was trained as a goldsmith at the age of 14. His work is grounded in material and method while exploring temporal symbolism, his environment, and fashion. His studio in New York City has become a secret hideout for underground stars, designers and artists of all types. Mosa always has people coming and going, “sketching” pieces directly on their bodies, which can plant the seed for an entire collection. All the content is made, produced and overviewed by Edgar Mosa himself. He holds a Bachelor of Design from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in The Netherlands and a Master of Fine Art from Cranbrook Academy of Art in the United States.
Edgar Mosa, Salt. Photo by Joseph McShea

Diversity Discussion Group #4
2018-04-17 16:00 - 17:00 | Joanne Waxman Library
Diversity Committee Hosts Open Discussion
Tuesday, 4:00pm, Joanne Waxman Library
April 17

Members of MECA&D's Diversity Committee and our guest facilitators will be hosting informal discussions around issues pertaining to diversity, inclusion, and equity.

2018 MECA&D Film Festival
2018-04-27 18:00 - 19:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
MECA&D Film Fest
Friday, April 27, 2018 at 6:00pm
Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design
*Not open to the public
A juried showing of fiction, nonfiction, and experimental student films. A winner will be picked from each genre. Free admission.

MECA&Dmorphosis Runway Fashion Show 2018
2018-05-04 19:00 - 21:00 | ME

2018 Commencement for BFA, MFA, MAT
2018-05-12 10:00 - 12:00 | ME
Commencement will be held on Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 10:00am at the State Theatre located at 609 Congress Street, Portland, Maine. More information will be coming soon.
Schedule

Doors open to the public at 9:15am. No tickets are required.
The commencement ceremony typically lasts two hours.
A reception will immediately follow the commencement ceremony at Maine College of Art & Design at 522 Congress Street, Portland, Maine.
Parking information is below. Plan to arrive early to allow time to find parking.
Any additional announcements for families and guests will be posted on this page. Questions may be directed to studentlife@meca.edu.

View the 2018 Commencement Digital Invitation

Lodging Options

Hotels in Portland and Surrounding Area
Bed & Breakfasts in Portland and Surrounding Area

Directions
Directions to Maine College of Art & Design, Porteous Building:
Portland Map
From the North
Take Interstate 295 to Exit 7, Franklin Street
From the South
Take the Maine Turnpike northbound to Exit 44, Interstate 295. Follow Interstate 295 to Exit 7, Franklin Street
Directions to the Porteous Building at 522 Congress Street:
Stay on Franklin Street until you hit the top of the hill and take a right onto Congress Street.
You will pass City Hall on your right; continue on Congress several more blocks, past Monument Square. Porteous is the large building on the left with a brown awning.

Parking
There is a public parking garage at 45 Spring Street, on the right just past the Cumberland County Civic Center. To go to the Porteous Building from the parking garage, leave the parking garage through its rear exit, onto Free Street; the Porteous Building will be immediately across the street from you.
On-street 2-hour parking is available on Congress, Casco (directly across from the Porteous Building entrance) and surrounding streets.
Portland Parking Garages and Lots

One City Center Parking Garage, Monument Square, 773.2761
Midtown Parking Lot, 44 Fore St.
Top of the Old Port Parking Lot, 119 Pearl & Congress Sts., 828.1212
Temple Street Parking Garage, 11 Temple St., 772.5762
Cumberland County Parking Garage, Newbury St., 871.8275
Custom House Sq. Parking Garage, Pearl & Fore Sts.
Fore Street Parking Garage, 439 Fore St., 772.7738
Casco Bay Parking Garage, Commercial St. at Maine State Pier, 774.8653
Cotton & Center Parking Lot, 57 Center St., 879.8983
Public Market Parking Garage, 315 Cumberland Ave, 774.2829
Spring St. Parking Garage, 45 Spring St., 874.2842
Gateway Parking Garage, 181 High St., 761.1568
Harbor Plaza Parking Garage, Union St., 775.3788
Monument Square Parking Garage, Cumberland and Brown Sts.

Sterling Allen: MFA Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-06-18 17:30 - 18:30 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Sterling Allen
Sterling Allen, Frozen Sculptures (in situ), 2017, Wood, paint, found object
Monday, June 18, 5:30pm
Sterling Allen holds an MFA in Sculpture from the Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts at Bard College. He is a co-founder and co-director of Okay Mountain, an artist collective and former gallery based in Austin, Texas. As a solo artist and in collaboration with the group, he has exhibited, organized, and completed projects at venues throughout the United States and received several residencies including the Artpace International Artist-In-Residence Program in San Antonio, Texas. He has exhibited at numerous venues including the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC, and VOLTA NY. He has been twice nominated for an Art Matters Grant and was recently awarded a Rauschenberg Foundation Residency for 2019. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Texas State University. Maine College of Art & Design’s MFA in Studio Art Program is pleased to announce our 2018 Summer Visiting Artist Series. The MFA program brings a national and international roster of artists, curators, and scholars to deliver public lectures, attend critiques, and conduct studio visits with graduate candidates during their week-long stays in Portland, Maine.
All lectures in this series are hosted in Osher Hall and are open to the public at no charge. Seating is limited. Call 207.699.5010 for more information.

Media Sponsor

"BOMB Magazine has been publishing conversations between artists of all disciplines since 1981. BOMB’s founders—New York City based artists and writers—created BOMB because they saw a disparity between the way artists talked about their work among themselves and the way critics described it."

Faythe Levine: MFA Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-06-25 17:30 - 18:30 | ME
Faythe Levine
Faythe Levine; photo courtesy of Jacob Jennings, 2016
Monday, June 25, 5:30pm
Faythe Levine is the assistant curator at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Her curatorial vision and creative practice are focused on themes of community, creativity, awareness, process, empowerment and documentation. She has made it a priority that her projects stay approachable and accessible to a large audience, interacting with people in a way that establishes creativity as a vehicle towards personal independence.
Maine College of Art & Design’s MFA in Studio Art Program is pleased to announce our 2018 Summer Visiting Artist Series. The MFA program brings a national and international roster of artists, curators, and scholars to deliver public lectures, attend critiques, and conduct studio visits with graduate candidates during their week-long stays in Portland, Maine.
All lectures in this series are hosted in Osher Hall and are open to the public at no charge. Seating is limited. Call 207.699.5010 for more information.
Media Sponsor

"BOMB Magazine has been publishing conversations between artists of all disciplines since 1981. BOMB’s founders—New York City based artists and writers—created BOMB because they saw a disparity between the way artists talked about their work among themselves and the way critics described it."

Collect: Summer Art Sale
2018-06-28 10:00 - 18:00, 2018-06-29 10:00 - 18:00, 2018-06-30 10:00 - 18:00 | ME

Kris Grey: MFA Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-07-02 17:30 - 18:30 | ME
Kris Grey
Kris Grey, Untitled (performance with torso cast from 2009), 2012, image courtesy theartist and Loise O’Rourke
Monday, July 2, 5:30pm
Kris Grey is a New York City based gender-queer artist whose cultural work includes curatorial projects, performance, writing, and studio production. Grey earned a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a Masters Degree in Fine Art from Ohio University. They perform, teach, and exhibit work internationally. Grey was a Fire Island Artist Residency recipient, a resident artist for the ANTI Festival for Contemporary Art in Kupoio, Finland, and a teaching artist at The International Centre for Training in the Performing Arts in Brussels, Belgium. In addition to their individual practice, Grey collaborates with Maya Ciarrocchi under the moniker Gender/Power. Gender/Power has been awarded a Baryshnikov Art Center residency, a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council residency, a Franklin Furnace grant, and a MAP Fund Grant. Recent curatorial projects include Queer Objectivity at the University of Maryland, MIX NYC Experimental Film and Performance Festival, and the Queer Culture Performance and Lecture Series at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Grey's writing has been published in print and on the web for Huffington Post and Original Plumbing. Their latest writing, Trans*feminism: fragmenting and re-reading the history of art through a trans* perspective, written in collaboration with Jennie Klein, was published in Otherwise: Imagining Queer Feminist Art Histories.
Header: Kris Grey, Scene from Body Dialectic, 2017, performance documentation, image courtesy the artist and Jacob Tekiela, Warehouse9-IPAF17
Maine College of Art & Design’s MFA in Studio Art Program is pleased to announce our 2018 Summer Visiting Artist Series. The MFA program brings a national and international roster of artists, curators, and scholars to deliver public lectures, attend critiques, and conduct studio visits with graduate candidates during their week-long stays in Portland, Maine.
All lectures in this series are hosted in Osher Hall and are open to the public at no charge. Seating is limited. Call 207.699.5010 for more information.
Media Sponsor

"BOMB Magazine has been publishing conversations between artists of all disciplines since 1981. BOMB’s founders—New York City based artists and writers—created BOMB because they saw a disparity between the way artists talked about their work among themselves and the way critics described it."

Tad Beck: MFA Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-07-09 17:30 - 18:30 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Tad Beck
Tad Beck, 042417, 2017, 36x36", Archival Pigment Prints
Monday, July 9, 5:30pm
Tad Beck received a B.F.A. in Photography from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in 1991, and an M.F.A. in Fine Art from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California, in 2003. He lives and works in Vinalhaven, Maine.
Beck’s solo exhibitions include: the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; The Fisher Center at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Samuel Freeman Gallery, Santa Monica; Marisa Del Re Gallery, New York; Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York; the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland; and Grant Wahlquist Gallery. Recent two-person exhibitions include collaborative works made with the artist Jennifer Locke at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, California, and an exhibition with Diana Cherbuliez at Theodore: Art, Brooklyn. Group exhibitions include: Fotofest International, Houston; CFHILL Art Space, Stockholm; Spritmuseum, Stockholm; the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts; the Portland Museum of Art, Maine; the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts; the Ogunquit Museum of Art, Maine; Apex Art, New York; Rupert Goldsworthy Gallery, New York; Debs & Co., New York; Castelli Gallery, New York; Jancar Gallery, Los Angeles; and Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles. His work is in the collections of the Addison Gallery of American Art, LACMA, the Portland Museum of Art (Maine), the Worcester Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and Emily Fisher Landau.
Maine College of Art & Design’s MFA in Studio Art Program is pleased to announce our 2018 Summer Visiting Artist Series. The MFA program brings a national and international roster of artists, curators, and scholars to deliver public lectures, attend critiques, and conduct studio visits with graduate candidates during their week-long stays in Portland, Maine.
All lectures in this series are hosted in Osher Hall and are open to the public at no charge. Seating is limited. Call 207.699.5010 for more information.
Media Sponsor

"BOMB Magazine has been publishing conversations between artists of all disciplines since 1981. BOMB’s founders—New York City based artists and writers—created BOMB because they saw a disparity between the way artists talked about their work among themselves and the way critics described it."

Kathy Bradford: MFA Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-07-16 17:30 - 18:30 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Kathy Bradford
Kathy Bradford, Fathers, 2013-2016, acrylic on drop cloth, 70x96"
Monday, July 16, 5:30pm
Painter Katherine Bradford's cast of characters–ships, swimmers, superheroes–are often caught mid-motion, floating, flying and drifting against bold brushstrokes and luminous fields of color. Bradford conjures her symbolic imagery including red skies and archetypal figures from an economy of intuitive and primitive marks. Her lush, painterly surfaces merge abstraction with figuration in a highly personal way to describe, not form, but feeling. The paintings flicker and glow with a strange phosphorescent light that suggest deep, dark dreams and a hazy space between reality and imagination. Consistent throughout the work is the suggestion of new frontiers and failed journeys. Humanistic and intense, Bradford's paintings explore the infinite through color, shape, and symbol and are, in turns, humorous, epic, emotional and vulnerable.
Her works have been exhibited at MoMA PS 1 in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, the Portland Museum of Art, the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, the Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, and Philadelphia's University of the Arts. She has been honored with an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Text courtesy of Adams and Ollman.
Maine College of Art & Design’s MFA in Studio Art Program is pleased to announce our 2018 Summer Visiting Artist Series. The MFA program brings a national and international roster of artists, curators, and scholars to deliver public lectures, attend critiques, and conduct studio visits with graduate candidates during their week-long stays in Portland, Maine.
All lectures in this series are hosted in Osher Hall and are open to the public at no charge. Seating is limited. Call 207.699.5010 for more information.
Media Sponsor

"BOMB Magazine has been publishing conversations between artists of all disciplines since 1981. BOMB’s founders—New York City based artists and writers—created BOMB because they saw a disparity between the way artists talked about their work among themselves and the way critics described it."

Caroline Wells Chandler: MFA Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-07-18 17:30 - 18:30 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Caroline Wells Chandler
Caroline Wells Chandler, The Best Little Whore House in Texas, 2015-2016, Roberto Paradise, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Wednesday, July 18, 5:30pm
Caroline Wells Chandler’s brightly colored hand-crocheted works explore notions of queerness and sexuality as well as the art historical canon. His characters are radically queer, and his representations of gender declare queerness as the normative state. Chandler completed his foundation studies at the Rhode Island School of Design and received his BFA cum laude from Southern Methodist University in 2007. He has shown at numerous institutions including: Roberto Paradise (San Juan, Puerto Rico), Lord Ludd (PA), Art League Houston (TX), Zurcher Studio (NY), Field Projects (NY), Vox Populi (PA), Sanctuary (PA), N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art (MI), Open Gallery (TN), and the Stieglitz Museum (‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands) among others. Chandler is a 2011 MFA recipient in painting at the Yale School of Art where he was awarded the Ralph Mayer Prize for proficiency in materials and techniques. He lives and works in New York. Text courtesy of MaakeMagazine.
Maine College of Art & Design’s MFA in Studio Art Program is pleased to announce our 2018 Summer Visiting Artist Series. The MFA program brings a national and international roster of artists, curators, and scholars to deliver public lectures, attend critiques, and conduct studio visits with graduate candidates during their week-long stays in Portland, Maine.
All lectures in this series are hosted in Osher Hall and are open to the public at no charge. Seating is limited. Call 207.699.5010 for more information.
Media Sponsor

"BOMB Magazine has been publishing conversations between artists of all disciplines since 1981. BOMB’s founders—New York City based artists and writers—created BOMB because they saw a disparity between the way artists talked about their work among themselves and the way critics described it."
