Visiting Artist Lecture: Seth Goldenberg MFA '05, Designer
2016-06-23 17:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Seth Goldenberg, CEO of The Epic Decade
Seth Goldenberg is the Founder & CEO of The Epic Decade, a design think tank group propelled by the essential question "How will we Live, Learn, Work, Play, and Sustain ourselves in the 21st century?" The studio works with clients, sponsors, and partners to convene thought leaders, develop intellectual property, forge stakeholder and business partnership collaborations, and launch complex demonstration projects that represent breakthrough business and cultural models. Participants in The Epic Decade's IDEAS Salons have included executives from Google, Apple, GE, Mercedes Benz, Microsoft, Harvard University, American Express, the Gap, MIT Media Lab, the Guggenheim Museum, Genentech, University of Toronto, IBM, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, NASA, and more. The Epic Decade takes on some of the most complex, wicked, and inextricable challenges of our time.
RSVP on Facebook here.
About the MFA Visiting Artist Summer Lecture Series
MECA&D’s Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art Program is pleased to announce the 2016 MFA Lecture Series, which brings a national and international roster of visiting artists, curators, and scholars to Portland, Maine. These Visiting Artists intersect with the MFA Summer Intensive Residency Program, deliver a public lecture, attend critiques, and conduct studio visits with graduate candidates.
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

Down East Enterprise, Inc., is a multimedia company based in Camden, Maine. The company’s flagship publication, Down East Magazine, is the largest paid-circulation magazine dedicated to the Pine Tree State. For nearly six decades, Down East has been the authority on Maine, and today continues to capture the reader’s attention with an insider look at contemporary life in Maine. People who love Maine love Down East.
Header credit
Photo courtesy of Epic Decade.

Visiting Artist Lecture: Hrag Vartanian, Editor-in-Chief of Hyperallergic
2016-06-27 17:30 - 19:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Hrag Vartanian, Editor-in-Chief of Hyperallergic
Hrag Vartanian is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Hyperallergic, the winning art blogazine based in Brooklyn, NY. His art criticism explores the evolving status of art, its audience, and its transmission and reception. His words and images have appeared in countless publications, and he has been invited as a guest commentator on Al Jazeera, CBC, ABC, WNYC, KCRW, and other national and international media outlets. In addition to his writing and commentary, he has curated numerous exhibitions, including #TheSocialGraph, which was the first exploration of the evolving landscape of social media art back in 2010, and The Arch of my Eye's Orbit at BAM in 2016. He maintains an extensive Flickr archive of art-related images (10,000+) under a Creative Commons license.
RSVP on Facebook here.
About the MFA Visiting Artist Summer Lecture Series
MECA&D’s Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art Program is pleased to announce the 2016 MFA Lecture Series, which brings a national and international roster of visiting artists, curators, and scholars to Portland, Maine. These Visiting Artists intersect with the MFA Summer Intensive Residency Program, deliver a public lecture, attend critiques, and conduct studio visits with graduate candidates.
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

Down East Enterprise, Inc., is a multimedia company based in Camden, Maine. The company’s flagship publication, Down East Magazine, is the largest paid-circulation magazine dedicated to the Pine Tree State. For nearly six decades, Down East has been the authority on Maine, and today continues to capture the reader’s attention with an insider look at contemporary life in Maine. People who love Maine love Down East.
Header credit
Photo by Veken Gueyikian.

Visiting Artist Lecture: Huma Bhabha, Sculptor
2016-07-05 17:30 - 19:00 | ME
Huma Bhabha, Sculptor
Huma Bhabha is known for her engagement with the human figure and her use of found materials. Often tending towards the grotesque, Bhabha's sculptural works and photo-based drawings feature bodies that appear dissected and dismembered, but one can likewise view them as monuments to human life reclaimed from the detritus of a post-apocalyptic landscape. Incorporating materials like Styrofoam, animal bones and clay, Bhabha creates figures that feel unstable and ephemeral. Insistently contemporary, they nevertheless recall classical figurative traditions across a range of cultures and historical periods. Huma Bhabha’s selected solo and group exhibitions include Wages of Fear, C L E A R I N G, Brussels, Belgium; Salon 94, New York, NY; VW (VeneKlasen Werner), Berlin, Germany; Unnatural Histories, MoMA PS1, L.I.C., NY; All The Worlds Futures, 56TH La Biennale di Venezia 2015, Venice, Italy; Wild Noise: Artwork from The Bronx Museum of the Arts, El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba; and America is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art Inaugural exhibition, New York, NY.
RSVP on Facebook here.
About the MFA Visiting Artist Summer Lecture Series
MECA&D’s Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art Program is pleased to announce the 2016 MFA Lecture Series, which brings a national and international roster of visiting artists, curators, and scholars to Portland, Maine. These Visiting Artists intersect with the MFA Summer Intensive Residency Program, deliver a public lecture, attend critiques, and conduct studio visits with graduate candidates.
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

Down East Enterprise, Inc., is a multimedia company based in Camden, Maine. The company’s flagship publication, Down East Magazine, is the largest paid-circulation magazine dedicated to the Pine Tree State. For nearly six decades, Down East has been the authority on Maine, and today continues to capture the reader’s attention with an insider look at contemporary life in Maine. People who love Maine love Down East.
Artwork Credit
Detail of Against What? Against Whom?, 2014, Cork, Styrofoam, wood, acrylic paint, oilstick
Sculpture Dimensions: 95 x 36 1/8 x 24 inches (241.3 x 91.8 x 61 cm)
Base Dimensions: 56 x 44 x 4 inches (142.2 x 111.8 x 10.2 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York

Visiting Artist Lecture: Lori Nix, Photographer
2016-07-11 17:30 - 19:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Lori Nix, Photographer
Lori Nix was born in the late 1960’s and raised in the American Midwest. Her early exposure to the destructive powers of Mother Nature and Hollywood dystopian stories fueled her young imagination. For the last 20+ years she has constructed small scale dioramas and photographed them. Beginning with retelling the tall tales of her youth in her Accidentally Kansas series, she has progressed to imagining urban scenes of the apocalypse. Her last series, The City, spanned 10 years and imagined a future mysteriously devoid of mankind. Intensely detailed and rich in color, her photographs offer up a possible future for modern society. A small selection of Nix’s solo and group exhibition venues include The Museum Schloss Moyland, Bedburg-Hau, Germany; Galerie Klüser, Munich, Germany; Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA; ClampArt Gallery, New York, NY; George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; and Apex Art, New York, NY. Her solo exhibition at the Nerman Museum of Art, Kansas Focus Gallery, Overland Park, KS, is upcoming.
RSVP on Facebook here.
About the MFA Visiting Artist Summer Lecture Series
MECA&D’s Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art Program is pleased to announce the 2016 MFA Lecture Series, which brings a national and international roster of visiting artists, curators, and scholars to Portland, Maine. These Visiting Artists intersect with the MFA Summer Intensive Residency Program, deliver a public lecture, attend critiques, and conduct studio visits with graduate candidates.
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

Down East Enterprise, Inc., is a multimedia company based in Camden, Maine. The company’s flagship publication, Down East Magazine, is the largest paid-circulation magazine dedicated to the Pine Tree State. For nearly six decades, Down East has been the authority on Maine, and today continues to capture the reader’s attention with an insider look at contemporary life in Maine. People who love Maine love Down East.
Artwork Credit
Lori Nix, Fountain, from the series The City, C-print, 2008

Visiting Artist Lecture: Keith Edmier, Sculptor
2016-07-18 17:30 - 19:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Keith Edmier, Sculptor
Keith Edmier has evolved his artistic process into one that intertwines his own personal narrative with historical personalities, architectural simulations, and botanical wonders. He has directly collaborated with many iconic figures such as Farrah Fawcett, Evel Knievel, and Frank Veteran (the doctor who attended to John Lennon the night Lennon was shot), among others. His use of materials such as casting his childhood crush in white Crayola crayon, the recreation of his childhood home, or masterfully executed botanical specimens in otherworldly synthetic materials add to the presence of his work when one encounters his ghostly creations. Keith Edmier has been the focus of numerous exhibitions including Keith Edmier: 1991—2007, CCS Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Crystaline Wombs and Pregnant Hearts, neugerriemschneider, Berlin; and Keith Edmier, Die Hallen Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum Haarlem, The Netherlands. His upcoming solo exhibition, Brementowne, opens at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis in 2017.
RSVP on Facebook here.
About the MFA Visiting Artist Summer Lecture Series
MECA&D’s Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art Program is pleased to announce the 2016 MFA Lecture Series, which brings a national and international roster of visiting artists, curators, and scholars to Portland, Maine. These Visiting Artists intersect with the MFA Summer Intensive Residency Program, deliver a public lecture, attend critiques, and conduct studio visits with graduate candidates.
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

Down East Enterprise, Inc., is a multimedia company based in Camden, Maine. The company’s flagship publication, Down East Magazine, is the largest paid-circulation magazine dedicated to the Pine Tree State. For nearly six decades, Down East has been the authority on Maine, and today continues to capture the reader’s attention with an insider look at contemporary life in Maine. People who love Maine love Down East.
Artwork Credit
Keith Edmier, Victoria Regia (First Night Bloom), Polyester resin, silicon rubber, acrylic, polyurethane, pollen, steel, 285 x 325 x 338 cm, 1998. Courtesy of the Akzo Nobel Art Foundation Collection.

Visiting Artist Lecture: Jim Shaw, Artist
2016-08-01 17:30 - 19:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Jim Shaw, Illustrator
Since the 1970s, Jim Shaw has created a vast body of work spanning diverse media and reference points. Shaw’s work mines the essentials of American cultural detritus, from comic books, pulp novels, and album covers, to vintage advertisements, movie posters, and noise rock. Originating from these sources, the work often features recurring characters, including himself, his friends, fictional superheroes, politicians, and film stars. Combining text and the painted figure with objects and drawings from his unconscious, Shaw’s works consistently illustrate purposely bad puns, while twisting politics, religion, and belief into one long dream sequence. Jim Shaw’s most recent solo exhibitions include Jim Shaw, Simon Lee Gallery, London, UK; The End is Here, New Museum, New York, NY; and Entertaining Doubts, MASS MoCA, West Adams, MA. His work will be the focus of two upcoming solo exhibitions: Realisms, at The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia, and Rather Fear God, at Praz Delevallade & Vedovi, Brussels, Belgium.
RSVP on Facebook here.
About the MFA Visiting Artist Summer Lecture Series
MECA&D’s Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art Program is pleased to announce the 2016 MFA Lecture Series, which brings a national and international roster of visiting artists, curators, and scholars to Portland, Maine. These Visiting Artists intersect with the MFA Summer Intensive Residency Program, deliver a public lecture, attend critiques, and conduct studio visits with graduate candidates.
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

Down East Enterprise, Inc., is a multimedia company based in Camden, Maine. The company’s flagship publication, Down East Magazine, is the largest paid-circulation magazine dedicated to the Pine Tree State. For nearly six decades, Down East has been the authority on Maine, and today continues to capture the reader’s attention with an insider look at contemporary life in Maine. People who love Maine love Down East.
Artwork Credit
Jim Shaw, Seven Deadly Sins, acrylic on muslin, Left: 96" x 48", Center: 96" x 96", Right: 96" x 48"; 96" x 194" overall, 2013. Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo.

Artist Lecture: David Johansen and Mara Hennessey
2016-09-29 12:00 - 13:30 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
MECA&D’s Visiting Artist & Guest Lecturer Series invites professional artists, educators, curators, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs to give presentations 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.
David Johansen and Mara Hennessey
Thursday, September 29th, 12:00pm

New York City rock legend David Johansen has been recognized over the years for his brilliant forays into entertainment and culture. In the 1970’s, Johansen, along with Johnny Thunders formed the seminal protopunk band the New York Dolls. Though they disbanded a few years later ("too much, too soon"), Johansen continued to follow his mantra of "adjust and create," emerging as the iconoclastic persona/performer known as Buster Poindexter, a "Rascal Pack bon vivant" known for his trademark martini glass and pompadour. With The Uptown Horns, Johansen/Poindexter performed a mixture of jazz, lounge, calpyso and novelty. He also occasionally performed with the Saturday Night Live house band.
Johansen claims that he is "neither unhappy enough to be a poet nor indifferent enough to be a philosopher, but lucid enough to be a condemned man." For several years he performed in an act called Howlin for Hubert, in which he conjured Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters with Howlin Wolf's guitarist, the late Hubert Sumlin. He continues to write, sing, and tour with the New York Dolls as well as through solo performances in NYC’s classiest nightclubs as Buster Poindexter.
Johansen's wife Mara Hennessey has been touring and collaborating with him for many years. A writer and visual artist, Hennessey designs, produces, and art directs their performances, both at home in New York, and all over the world. She is currently working on a book based on material from her travels.

Media Sponsors

Maine Home+Design is connected to those who live and breathe architecture, art, and good living. Its pages are filled with architectural masterpieces, home design inspiration, compelling artwork, designers, craftspeople, and the latest design trends and industry news.
At Maine Magazine, we believe that Maine is alive with intense creativity and passionate people who contribute to the vibrancy that makes this such a great place to live. We dedicate ourselves to bringing it to our readers.

How to Garden in Outer Space exhibition
2016-10-07 09:00 - 2016-10-16 17:00 | ME
How to Garden in Outer Space – Isabelle O'Donnell '17
Edward M & Carol J Friendman Gallery
On view until October 16
Monday–Friday, 9:00am-5:00pm
My work draws from my personal history, traditional craft processes, and the saturated palette of commodity products. Both the natural world and the commercial mundane influence my process, inspiring my choice of materials, color, and composition. The work itself holds the residue of these influences and contributors, but transcends them by creating a bizarre world blending formal and fantastical elements, and raising questions about material, genre, and function.

ART21 Screening (2 days, 4 screenings)
2016-10-17 16:00 - 2016-10-18 18:00 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design (ICA at MECA&D) will be screening Art 21. There will be director introductions, Q&A, and student discussion with each viewing.
Featured artists: Natalia Almada, Edgar Arceneaux, Nick Cave, Minerva Cuevas, Stan Douglas, Theaster Gates, Brian Jungen, Barbara Kasten, Liz Larner, Tala Madani, Liz Magor, Damián Ortega, Pedro Reyes, Diana Thater, Jeff Wall, and Chris Ware.
Episodes, Dates, & Viewing Times

Mexico City — Monday, 10/17, 4:00pm
Los Angeles — Monday, 10/17, 6:00pm
Vancouver — Tuesday, 10/18, 9:30am
Chicago —Tuesday, 10/18 , 6:00pm

About Art21 Season 8
The series provides unparalleled access to the most innovative artists of our time, revealing how artists engage the culture around them and how art allows viewers to see the world in new ways. Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actress Claire Danes will join the Peabody Award-winning documentary television series “Art in the Twenty-First Century” as its broadcast host for the series’ eighth season.
The new season showcases the geography, architecture, society, culture, and heritage of each location. Each episode highlights aspects of contemporary life that viewers everywhere experience. “Using the sounds, colors, and energy of the city as a landscape that artists respond to and interact with, the films expand beyond the studio to explore each artist’s engagement with their communities and the world around them,” said ART21 Executive Producer Eve Moros Ortega.
Episode Descriptions
Mexico City
Mexico City artists exit their homes and studios to use the growing megalopolis as their canvas. The artists present everyday materials as artworks, mine recognizable images for their poetic potential, and take their art to the streets. Damián Ortega (b.1967, Mexico City, Mexico) uses objects from his everyday life—Volkswagen Beetle cars, Day of the Dead posters, locally sourced corn tortillas—to make spectacular sculptures, which suggest stories of both mythic import and cosmological scale. Pedro Reyes (b.1972, Mexico City, Mexico) designs ongoing projects that propose playful solutions to urgent social problems. From turning guns into musical instruments, to hosting a People’s United Nations to address pressing concerns, to offering ecologically friendly grasshopper burgers from a food cart, Reyes transforms existing problems into ideas for a better world. Minerva Cuevas (b.1975, Mexico City, Mexico) is a conceptual and socially-engaged artist who creates sculptural installations and paintings in response to politically charged events such as the tension between world starvation and capitalistic excess. Cuevas documents community protests in a cartography of resistance while also creating mini-sabotages—altering grocery store bar codes and manufacturing student identity cards—as part of her Better Life Corporation. Natalia Almada (b.1974, Mexico City, Mexico), the great-granddaughter of Mexico’s controversial 40th president, Plutarco Elías Calles, makes intimate films that delve into the tragedies of her Mexican-American family’s personal history as well as the Sinaloa region’s violent present.

Chicago
Chicago is a city rooted in industry and towering architecture, and artists in Chicago are disrupting urban experience through experimentation. Nick Cave (b.1959, Fulton, MO, USA) creates “Soundsuits”—surreally majestic objects blending fashion and sculpture—that originated as metaphorical suits of armor in response to the Rodney King beatings and have evolved into vehicles for empowerment. Theaster Gates (b.1973, Chicago, IL, USA) first encountered creativity in the music of Black churches on his journey to becoming an urban planner, potter, and artist. Gates creates sculptures out of clay, tar, and renovated buildings, transforming the raw material of the South Side into radically reimagined vessels of opportunity for the community. Barbara Kasten (b.1936, Chicago, IL, USA) makes photographs and video projections in her studio that evoke an experience of movement through modernist architecture. Chris Ware (b.1967, Omaha, NE, USA), known for his New Yorker magazine covers, is hailed as a master of the comic art form. Ware’s complex graphic novels, which tell stories about people in suburban midwestern neighborhoods, poignantly reflect on the role of memory in constructing identity.

Vancouver
In small and tightly-knit Vancouver, artists reframe the world through a series of sophisticated illusions. By recreating historical moments, staging photos of vernacular scenes, and crafting intricate sculptures that trick the eye, artists reveal how everyday images and moments from the past are not always what they seem. Liz Magor (b.1948, Winnipeg, MB, Canada) makes uncannily realistic casts of humble objects—gloves, cardboard boxes, cigarettes—that speak to mortality and local histories. Through complex video installations, photos, theatrical productions, and virtual reality simulations, Stan Douglas (b.1960, Vancouver, BC, Canada) reenacts historical moments of tension that connect the history of Vancouver to broader social movements of struggle and utopian aspiration. Brian Jungen (b.1970, Fort St. John, BC, Canada) draws from his family’s ranching and hunting background, as well as his Dane-zaa heritage, when disassembling and recombining consumer goods into whimsical sculptures. Attentive to the accidental encounters that can inspire an image, photographer Jeff Wall (b.1946, Vancouver, BC, Canada) recreates flashes of inspiration by building sets and repeatedly photographing gestures until they coalesce into a picture that’s printed on a grand scale.

Los Angeles
While sprawling Los Angeles has world-class museums and art schools, artists working in the shadow of the entertainment industry are more “under the radar,” affording them the space and time to imagine. Diana Thater (b.1962, San Francisco, CA, USA) makes video installations that poetically grapple with threats to the natural world. She is filmed preparing for her monumental exhibition, The Sympathetic Imagination, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Liz Larner (b.1960, Sacramento, CA, USA) experiments with abstract sculptural forms in a dizzying array of materials, including polychromatic ceramics that evoke the tectonic geologic shifts of the western landscape. Tala Madani (b.1981, Tehran, Iran) skewers stereotypes in her sharply satirical paintings that evoke clashes of culture: men and women, the rational and the absurd, Western and non-Western. And Edgar Arceneaux (b.1972, Los Angeles, CA) investigates historical patterns through drawings, installations, and multimedia events, such as the reenactment of Ben Vereen’s tragically misunderstood blackface performance at Ronald Reagan’s 1981 Inaugural Gala.

Artist Lecture: Allyson Mitchell
2016-10-20 12:00 - 13:30 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
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.
Allyson Mitchell
Thursday, October 20th, 12:00pm
Lady Sasquatchs – installation view of Midge by Allyson Mitchell
Allyson Mitchell is a maximalist artist working in sculpture, performance, installation and film. Her practice melds feminism and pop culture to investigate contemporary ideas about sexuality, autobiography and the body, largely through the use of reclaimed textile and abandoned craft. These articulations have resulted in a coven of lesbian feminist Sasquatch monsters, a room-sized Vagina Dentata, an army of super genius Holly Hobbies and a woodland utopic library complete with a wishing well of forbidden political knowledge. Her works have exhibited in galleries and festivals across Canada, the US and Europe, including Tate Modern, the Textile Museum of Canada, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, the Andy Warhol Museum, Walker Art Center, The British Film Institute, Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
A survey of Mitchell's "hand made" animated film and video work recently toured festivals and performance spaces internationally with exhibitions in Dublin, London and Bologna. Until their retirement in 2004, Mitchell also performed actively with the fat performance troupe 'Pretty Porky and Pissed Off', which she co-founded in 1997.

Media Sponsors

Maine Home+Design is connected to those who live and breathe architecture, art, and good living. Its pages are filled with architectural masterpieces, home design inspiration, compelling artwork, designers, craftspeople, and the latest design trends and industry news.
At Maine Magazine, we believe that Maine is alive with intense creativity and passionate people who contribute to the vibrancy that makes this such a great place to live. We dedicate ourselves to bringing it to our readers.

Public and Alumni Forum on Salt
2016-10-20 17:15 - 18:30 | Maine College of Art & Design, First Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
When Salt entered into partnership with Maine College of Art & Design, the College promised to host a forum about Salt to which Salt alumni would be invited. The date for this forum is Thursday, October 20, 2016 at 5:15 pm at Maine College of Art & Design. The first half of the forum will address general questions about Salt and the second half will take the form of a discussion regarding the proposed curriculum for the new graduate certificate program. We will close with an optional tour of MECA&D, led by Dean Anderson.
If you wish to attend the forum, please RSVP in this link.

Artist Lecture: Saya Woolfalk
2016-11-03 12:00 - 13:30 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
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.
Saya Woolfalk
Thursday, November 3rd, 12:00pm
Saya Woolfalk, Virtual Chimeric Space, Mixed Media with HD Digital Video Projections, 42' x 12' x 12'
Saya Woolfalk is a New York based artist who uses science fiction and fantasy to re-imagine the world in multiple dimensions. With the multi year projects No Place, The Empathics, and ChimaTEK, Woolfalk has created the world of the Empathics, a fictional race of women who are able to alter their genetic make-up and fuse with plants. With each body of work, Woolfalk continues to build the narrative of these women's lives, and questions the utopian possibilities of cultural hybridity.
Her work considers the idea that symbolic and ideological systems can be activated and re-imagined through collaboration, imaginative play and masquerade. To effect this re-imagining objects, bodies, and landscapes are constructed to immerse us in the logic of another place. In many ways Woolfalk’s works become the repository of the dreams and ideas of the many people who participate in producing and imagining the contours of the works. In the tradition of the fable or folk story, Woolfalk maps the desires and ideas of people to create narratives that attempt to be relevant to a contemporary audience.

Media Sponsors

Maine Home+Design is connected to those who live and breathe architecture, art, and good living. Its pages are filled with architectural masterpieces, home design inspiration, compelling artwork, designers, craftspeople, and the latest design trends and industry news.
At Maine Magazine, we believe that Maine is alive with intense creativity and passionate people who contribute to the vibrancy that makes this such a great place to live. We dedicate ourselves to bringing it to our readers.

Remembrance Day for Lost Species: Poetry Reading
2016-12-02 12:30 - 13:30 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
Friday, December 2, 12:30pm
Please join local poets in the galleries in the ICA at Maine College of Art & Design for a lunchtime reading of poems in memoriam to species extinctions. This reading has been organized in response to a global movement of artists and creatives seeking to bring attention to these losses through a worldwide Remembrance Day for Lost Species on November 30.
Poets reading include:

Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Portland Poet Laureate
Annie Finch
Megan Grumbling
Julie Poitras Santos

Image provided by the Facebook page of Remembrance Day for Lost Species.

Info Session: Painting Retreat on the French Riviera
2016-12-04 15:00 - 16:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Painting Retreat on the French Riviera
Students are housed in the 19th century Italianate "Villa" (above) and in the Château.
The Château de La Napoule
With Diane Dahlke, May 15–22, 2017
Info Session: Sunday, December 4th
3:00-4:00pm in Osher Hall

We will hold an Informational Session on Sunday, December 4th from 3:00-4:00pm in MECA&D’s Osher Hall. Meet Diane Dahlke, discuss the curriculum, view slides from previous retreats and learn more about the history of the Château and the great beauty of its environs.
Read more information about the trip here

Accountant Workshop: Using the Opportunity Maine Tax Credit
2017-01-30 17:30 - 19:00 | ICA at MECA&D, 522 Congress St., Portland, Maine, 04101, United States
Accountant-In-Residence Workshop:
Using the Opportunity Maine Tax Credit
Monday, January 30, 5:30pm
Artists at Work, Maine College of Art & Design
The Opportunity Maine Tax Credit reimburses student loan payments for college graduates from 2008-2016 who live and work in Maine. Bonus points if you graduated with a degree in graphic design or new media, which are considered STEM degrees and have additional benefits.
Free for faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Please reserve a seat by emailing jtomlinson@meca.edu.

Artist Lecture: Dyani White Hawk
2017-02-02 12:00 - 14:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Dyani White Hawk
Thursday, February 2, 12:00pm
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.
As a woman of Lakota and European ancestry, White Hawk was raised among Native American communities within urban landscapes. Her work reflects these cross-cultural experiences through the combination of modern abstract painting and traditional Lakota art forms. Some works are executed strictly in paint; others incorporate beads, porcupine quills, ledger paper, brass sequins and other materials representing a Lakota aesthetic. White Hawk strives to create honest, inclusive compositions that acknowledge all parts of her history, Native and non-Native, urban and reservation, grassroots and academia. These works are intended to increase exposure and inclusion of Native American contributions and thought within contemporary arts. The complexity of visual and conceptual references encourage conversations which in turn acknowledge the diversity of Native experiences, break down misconceptions, generalizations, and reinforce the importance of a Native voice within contemporary arts.
Dyani White Hawk, Untitled (blue and gold), acrylic, oil, vintage beads, thread on canvas, 2016

Media Sponsors

Maine Home+Design is connected to those who live and breathe architecture, art, and good living. Its pages are filled with architectural masterpieces, home design inspiration, compelling artwork, designers, craftspeople, and the latest design trends and industry news.
At Maine Magazine, we believe that Maine is alive with intense creativity and passionate people who contribute to the vibrancy that makes this such a great place to live. We dedicate ourselves to bringing it to our readers.

Lights Across Congress Celebration
2017-02-03 18:00 - 22:00 | Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress St, Portland , ME, United States
This February 3, the Portland Museum of Art experience will extend outside the walls of the museum, through an innovative event and celebration called Lights Across Congress. This event, anchored by a 124 foot wide by 36 foot high multi-dimensional projection on the museum’s brick facade, will be the art and cultural event of the year.
At 6:00pm, we will start the countdown to the main event, accompanied by music, ice sculptures, and food trucks along Free Street. Then, at 6:30pm, watch from Congress Square as the building comes to life with a custom presentation by local production company, P3. The PMA will be awash with light, and you'll be welcome to come inside and take a first look at Your Museum, Reimagined, with completely reinstalled galleries, new special exhibitions, gallery talks, a new installation of The Workshop, celebratory treats in the PMA Café, and activities for all ages.
Free and open to the public! Congress Square.

Research Writing Workshop 1: Getting Started
2017-02-21 12:00 - 13:30 | The Learning Studio, 522 Congress Street, Room 200, Second floor, PORTLAND, ME, 04101, United States
Tutoring takes place in Room 200, the Learning Studio, adjacent to the Joanne Waxman Library.These will be offered Universal Time: 12pm–1:30pm, unless otherwise noted. More details will be posted for each.
Sign-up is encouraged, as space will be limited in some workshops. To sign up, students can email tutor@meca.edu.

Tuesday, 21 February: Research Workshop 1: Getting Started
Thursday, 23 February: Using the Chicago Manual of Style (mini-workshop)
Tuesday, 28 February: How to Take Great Notes
Tuesday, 7 March: Nailing the Scholarship Application Essay
Tuesady, 28 March: Research Workshop 2: Writing, Citing & Paraphrasing
Thursday, 30 March: Beyond the 5-Paragraph Essay
Tuesday, 4 April: Senior Synthesis Workshop
Tuesday, 18 April: How to Write a Great Artist Statement
Tuesday, 25 April: Creative Journaling

More information about MECA&D's Tutorial Services, along with how to create an one-on-one meeting, is available on this page.

Artist Lecture: Abelardo Morell
2017-03-02 12:00 - 14:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Abelardo Morell
Thursday, March 2, 12:00pm
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.
Abelardo Morell was born in Havana, Cuba in 1948. He immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1962. Morell received his undergraduate degree in 1977 from Bowdoin College and an MFA from The Yale University School of Art in 1981. In 1997 he received an honorary degree from Bowdoin College.
His publications include a photographic illustration of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1998) by Dutton Children’s Books, A Camera in a Room(1995) by Smithsonian Press, A Book of Books (2002) and Camera Obscura (2004) by Bulfinch Press and Abelardo Morell (2005), published by Phaidon Press. Recent publications include a limited edition book by The Museum of Modern Art in New York of his Cliché Verre images with a text by Oliver Sacks.
Abelardo Morell, Tent Camera Image, Walden Pond, 2016

Media Sponsors

Maine Home+Design is connected to those who live and breathe architecture, art, and good living. Its pages are filled with architectural masterpieces, home design inspiration, compelling artwork, designers, craftspeople, and the latest design trends and industry news.
At Maine Magazine, we believe that Maine is alive with intense creativity and passionate people who contribute to the vibrancy that makes this such a great place to live. We dedicate ourselves to bringing it to our readers.

This Week: 'Eve of a Hundred Midnights' Book Signing & Reading
2017-03-08 18:00 - 19:30 | PhotoLab, 522 Congress Street, PORTLAND, ME, 04101, United States
Please join us on Wednesday, March 8, at 6:00pm for a book signing and reading with Bill Lascher Salt '02 for his book Eve of a Hundred Midnights. This event takes place in the PhotoLab, located in the Lower Level of the Porteous Building. Free and open to the public.

Eve of a Hundred Midnights
Eve of a Hundred Midnights tells the true story of two newlywed war correspondents’ island-hopping run for their lives across the Pacific after the fall of Manila. The book charts the career of Melville Jacoby, who covered China and the Philippines during World War II, and recounts how Mel’s love for China and journalism brought him into the orbit of MGM scriptwriter-turned-journalist Annalee Whitmore, who he married in Manila barely a week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Portland, Oregon-based author Bill Lascher, a relative of Jacoby’s and a 2002 graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, will discuss the book and how journalists like Mel and Annalee brought the oft-neglected conflict in China and the Philippines to U.S. audiences. Lascher will also discuss how he used archival sources from private and institutional collections to bring the Jacobys’ story to life.
Purchase the book here
Bill Lascher, Salt ’02
Artist Biography
Bill Lascher is a Portland, Oregon-based journalist whose work appears in Atlas Obscura, The Guardian, Pacific Standard, High Country News, the Oregonian, Portland Monthly and elsewhere. A graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine, and Oberlin College, Lascher studied history with a politics minor. Lascher also earned a master’s degree in 2009 in specialized journalism from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.

Jenny Scheinman Lecture
2017-03-09 12:30 - 14:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Jenny Scheinman
Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait

Jenny Scheinman will give a lecture discussing the vision behind Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait and the inspiration for her live score in Osher Hall at 12:30pm on Thursday, March 9. Further information about the artist, her project, and upcoming performance can be found at Portland Ovations.
Free and open to the public.
"In her new multi-media project, acclaimed composer, singer, and violinist Jenny Scheinman invites us into the captivating visual world of Depression-era filmmaker H. Lee Waters. Scheinman is joined by guitarist Robbie Fulks (who is “so good, it’s scary” according to The Chicago Tribune) and banjoist Robbie Gjersoe to create a live soundtrack of new folksongs, fiddle music, and field sounds to accompany this fascinating footage of small town America, masterfully reworked into a new film by director Finn Taylor. The humanity in these songs and images bares a transcendent, universal quality that speaks to any community."

Justice for Women Lecture Series: Storytelling Event & Write-in
2017-03-22 12:00 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
Justice for Women Lecture Series: Storytelling Event and Write-in
MECA&D is teaming up with the Justice for Women Lecture Series, presented by the University of Maine School of Law, and the USM Office of Multicultural Student Affairs to host a storytelling event and write-in on Wednesday, March 22 from 12:00pm–1:30pm in the ICA. Joining us from Malaysia, Zainah Anwar, a leading voice in the Muslim feminist movement, will encourage others to tell their stories by sharing her own.

Want to help?
There is no action without inspiration.
In addition to attending the event, you can donate postcards and supplies for the event. We want these stories to inspire participants to write messages of hope to their senators, representatives, family members, or friends. Our state is home to over 8,000 new Mainers who are Muslim, making this awareness raising event as much a local issue as it is global.
For questions contact Shiva Darbandi at diversity@meca.edu.

Artist Lecture: Ian Lynam Design
2017-04-06 12:00 - 14:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Ian Lynam Design
Thursday, April 6, 12:00pm
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.

Ian Lynam Design is a multidisciplinary creative studio specializing in unique solutions for international clients. The studio has been based in Tokyo since 2005. Ian Lynam Design is a Tokyo design studio operating at the intersection of graphic design, design education and design research. We specialize in identity, cultural research and typography. We make stuff for forward-thinking humans.
Ian Lynam speaks internationally on a range of topics from Japanese typography to cultural concepts revolving around design. Presentations tend to wind and weave through aesthetic trends and analysis, graphic design history, design criticism, and political economy.

Media Sponsors

Maine Home+Design is connected to those who live and breathe architecture, art, and good living. Its pages are filled with architectural masterpieces, home design inspiration, compelling artwork, designers, craftspeople, and the latest design trends and industry news.
At Maine Magazine, we believe that Maine is alive with intense creativity and passionate people who contribute to the vibrancy that makes this such a great place to live. We dedicate ourselves to bringing it to our readers.

Film & Discussion: Refugee Kids: One Small School Takes On the World
2017-04-07 19:00 - 20:00 | ME
Refugee Kids: One Small School Takes On the World
Friday, April 7, 2017 at 7:00pm in Osher Hall
Hosted by the MECA&D Diversity Committee, this event is free and open to the MECA&D community and general public. Part of First Friday Art Walk activities.
Refugee Kids is a short documentary that follows students at a New York City summer program for children seeking asylum from the world's most volatile conflicts. The film presents an intimate, emotionally gripping account of the students' stories of escaping war and conflict and resettling in America, chronicling their triumphs and setbacks as their lives unfold over the course of one formative summer. Refugee Kids humanizes complex geopolitics and depict the challenges and urgency of immigration to American in an increasingly dangerous and interconnected world.
Reza Jalali and Ekhlas Ahmed will lead a discussion about the film immediately following the 46-minute film.

Reza Jalali, recognized as one of the eminent ethnic Americans in Making it in America: a sourcebook on eminent ethnic Americans (©2001by Elliott Robert Barkan) and named as one of Maine’s 50 leaders by Maine Magazine in 2016, is a writer, educator, and human rights activist. As a member of Amnesty International USA Board of Directors, Jalali has led delegations to different refugee camps in Turkey and Bosnia. He has participated in numerous United Nations-sponsored international conferences. In 1992, he visited the White House as part of a national delegation to discuss the plight of Kurdish refugees fleeing Iraq. Reza manages the Office of USM Multicultural Student Affairs and advises Muslim students at Bowdoin College.
Ms. Ekhlas Ahmed, a refugee and a civil rights activist from Darfur, Sudan, fled with her family to Egypt and lived there for two years before being resettled in Portland, Maine in 2005. She has since graduated high school with honors and earned a degree in sociology from University of Southern Maine with hopes of helping resettle refugees. She is the vice President and Co-founder of Darfur Youth of Tomorrow, an organization raising awareness related to the violence and unmet needs in Darfur. Currently Ms. Ahmed is an AmeriCorps member educating, helping to motivate Multilingual & Multicultural students through the Make It Happen Program at the Casco Bay High School.
For more information about the film: Refugee Kids: One Small School Takes On the World

MECA&Dmorphosis Fashion Runway Show
2017-05-04 19:00 - 20:00 | Porteous Building, Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
MECA&Dmorphosis celebrates MECA&D's graduating professional artists and raises critical scholarship funds to educate the next generation of artists. This year, MECA&Dmorphosis consists of two separate events. The Runway Fashion Show is on Thursday, May 4, and the BFA Thesis Exhibition is on Friday, May 5, 2017.

Thursday, May 4, 2017, Show Starts at 7:30, Doors Open at 7:00
The Runway Fashion Show in the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) features work by students in our Textile & Fashion Design Program and raises critical support for MECA&D’s Student Scholarship Fund. The Textile & Fashion Design Program at MECA&D was created through a generous gift from Roxanne Quimby.
We are happy to report that this event has SOLD OUT!!
Please contact Dietlind Vander Schaaf at dvanderschaaf@meca.edu for wait list info.

2017 Sponsors

Contributors

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MECA&Dmorphosis 2017: BFA Thesis Exhibition
2017-05-05 09:00 - 2017-05-23 17:00 | Porteous Building, Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Friday, May 5, 2017, 5:00–8:00pm
The 2017 Thesis Exhibition Opening will be held in conjunction with the First Friday Artwalk. This year's exhibition features work by over 100 graduating students in our BFA program. Light fare and interactive art on Floors 1, 2 and 3 of the Porteous Building. Free and open to the public. The BFA Thesis Exhibition will be on view through May 23.
For more information contact Dietlind Vander Schaaf at 699.5012 or dvanderschaaf@meca.edu.
Artwork in header is by Greta Wilsterman '17
» View Senior Thesis Online

106th MECA&D Commencement
2017-05-13 10:00 | State Theatre, 609 Congress St, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Commencement will be held on Saturday, May 13, 2017 at 10:00am at the State Theatre located at 609 Congress Street, Portland, Maine.
Download the 2017 Commencement invitation.
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.

How can I see my student's work?
The Thesis Exhibition is open, free of charge to the public, starting on First Friday, May 5, 2017.

Collect: Summer Art Sale
2017-06-29 10:00 - 2017-07-01 18:00 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
Join Us for our Summer Art Sale
June 29 - July 1 at MECA&D's Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA at MECA&D)
Featuring the original works of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends, proceeds benefit MECA&D’s Student Scholarship Fund to enable the next generation of artists to pursue their talents.
A Sampling of Featured Work:

See the list of Featured Artists.
Open to the Public June 29 - July 1
The Art Sale is held in MECA&D’s ICA within the Porteous Building, 522 Congress St, Portland, Maine.

Shop: 10am-6pm, Thursday, June 29
Shop: 10am-6pm, Friday, June 3
Shop: 10am-6pm, Saturday, July 1
Maine College of Art & Design presents Collect: MECA&D’s Summer Art Sale 2017, June 29 - July 1, a fundraiser in support of MECA&D’s Student Scholarship Fund. This three-day, salon-style extravaganza is a great opportunity to discover emerging artists, view new work by established artists, and build or add to an art collection. The art sale features a unique, diverse and unexpected array of original work in a variety of genres with a range of sizes, prices, and media, including furniture, sculpture, jewelry, paintings, prints, photography, textiles, drawings, and more. One to five works are priced by the artists and sold to benefit MECA&D, with 50% and 25% commission or full donation options.
For more information, email collect@meca.edu
Read the press release.
Special thanks to our generous supporters:
Sponsors

Media Sponsors

Additional Support

Special Thanks

Talk with Hetritsab Gabra Rimtothe
2017-07-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Hetritsab Gabra Rimtothe
Osher Hall, Second Floor Porteous, Maine College of Art & Design
Tuesday, July 11, 7:00-9:00pm
Public Talk- "Kindness is your reliable guide to chaos".

Film: The Sacred Place Where Life Begins
2017-07-13 17:30 - 19:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Film: The Sacred Place Where Life Begins
Thursday, July 13, 5:30pm
Osher Hall, Second Floor, Porteous
Miho Aida will be screening her film, The Sacred Place Where Life Begins. The film documents women in the American Arctic and their efforts to protect it. Miho is an environmental educator originally from Japan and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to discussing her film, Miho provides opportunities to write letters to elected officials. Both adults and children in the audience are very moved by the experience.
In 2015, Miho biked from DC to Bar Harbor showing the film in campgrounds and libraries. She is now partnering with the Sierra Club and focusing attention on Ohio and Maine to enact change that may help protect this area.
From Miho
Hello, everyone! My name is Miho Aida. My first name Miho means to be a leader who demands for greater democracy for all people and protects culture and environment. My birthdate is the day when US Congress officially recognized as Women’s Equality Day. I aspire to live a life that honors my name and my birthdate. One of the ways that I live up to my name is to create an environmental media culture that gives a voice to women. In particular, I am committed to amplify a voice of women of color through films to counterbalance the lack of their representation in the environmental movement with a hope to provide role models for all girls.
This July, I am coming to Maine to share my award-winning short documentary called The Sacred Place Where Life Begins - Gwich'in Women Speak. In this short film, Arctic indigenous Gwich’in women call for a permanent protection of their sacred land in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from a potential oil development. The development would not only violate the rights of indigenous people but also integrity of humanity, and I feel strongly that I have a personal power and responsibility to stand in unity with the Gwich'in for the future generations.
I will be touring on my bicycle with a hope to help communicate the voice of the Gwich'in women and show how one woman can make a difference to protect our heritage that we all have responsibility to pass on to our future generations. Come see the film and be inspired to take action with us. Join the movement. See you in Maine!
