Maine College of Art

2017 MFA Thesis Exhibition
2017-05-12 11:00 - 2017-06-09 17:00 (America/New_York) | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
2017 MFA Thesis Exhibition
On view from May 12, 2017 – June 9, 2017
Exhibition Opening: Friday, May 12, 2017, 5:00–8:00pm
FFAW: Friday, June 2, 2017, 5:00-8:00pm (closing event)
Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design
ICA Gallery hours: Wed–Sun, 11:00am–5:00pm, Thurs, 11:00am–7:00pm, Friday, 11:00am–5:00pm, (FFAW until 8:00pm)
Maine College of Art & Design is pleased to announce the 2017 MFA Thesis Exhibition. The exhibition spotlights works by nine graduating artists, and represents a synthesis of each student’s experience in Maine College of Art & Design’s MFA Program in Studio Art. The MFA Thesis Exhibition features work in a variety of media and surveys a range of conceptual themes and creative approaches that characterize the global cultural landscape and contemporary art practice.
Featuring: Sarah Emch, Megan Franasiak, Crystal Gale Phelps, Shelby Wynne Richardson, Dayna Riemland, Jose Rodriguez, Jr., Renee Sawyer, Benjamin Spalding and Louise Coupar-Stamat.
Renee Sawyer, November 4th (Waiting), 2016, digital photograph, 12.75” X 17.5”
Benjamin Spalding, Middle School Milagro, 2017, Nails, resin, lacrosse shorts
Louise Coupar-Stamat, Seed, a stratified woman, 2017, Performance, Clay and Women
Sarah Emch, Involuntary, Detailed Video Still, 2017
Megan Franasiak, From I’m Handling It Pretty Well These Days, 2017, gouache on vellum, 36” x 50”
Crystal Gale Phelps, Sawing A Woman In Half, 2016, Performance, 47 minutes
Shelby Wynne Richardson, Will you pet my pussy?, 2016 , Mixed media artist book, 3x9x9
Dayna Riemland, Watcher (detail) 2017, hand embroidery on cotton, 36 x 48”
Jose Rodriguez Jr, This Land Is My Land, still from digital video, 2017

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

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

Media Sponsors

VRAGE Exhibition
2017-04-26 11:00 - 2017-04-28 20:00 | ME
VRAGE: The Virtual Reality Art Gallery Experience
On view from April 26, 2017 – April 28, 2017, Closing Event: Fri., April 28, 5:00-8:00pm
Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design
ICA Gallery hours: Wed, 11:00am–5:00pm, Thurs, 11:00am–7:00pm, Friday, 11:00am–5:00pm
The Virtual Reality Art Gallery Experience, or VRAGE, is an exploration of the parallel progression of the worlds of technology and fine art, utilizing virtual reality to add context to the typical gallery experience and to showcase art in creative, immersive ways.
Without the restrictions of real-world environments, VRAGE transcends the idea of what an art gallery is supposed to be. Rather than the gallery existing as a separate entity from the art, VRAGE collectively acts as a piece of art in itself. Through game development and 3D modeling techniques, we have the opportunity to tailor individual galleries to represent the vision of the artists in ways that a traditional gallery room could not accomplish. The optimization of space also plays a key role; VRAGE will contain multiple individual gallery rooms within the confines of an eight foot by eight foot play space.

Seeds of Resilience
2017-04-22 17:00 - 20:00 | thomas knight park, 18 Ocean St, South Portland, ME, 04106, United States
Seeds of Resilience
Thomas Knight Park
Earth Day, April 22, 5:00-8​​:00pm
You are invited to a celebration under the bridge, in Thomas Knight Park on Earth Day to take part in Ellanor Milkowski Dahlgren's MECA&D Public Engagement Capstone event!
There will be speakers from Resilient Portland, Portland Trails and other institutions promoting sustainability within the city. They will be speaking on topics of positive energy, food, waste, liveable cities and sea change!
Ella is partnering with Resilient Portland who is making a map of the groups within the city who are working toward a more sustainable and resilient community. The event will be celebrating the release of this map and highlighting a number of the groups listed!
The lineup for music and performers will be: Myles Bullen, Visitor10, Thomas Aeroson, and more to be announced soon!
There will possibly be fire-spinning by local artists, food, and a post event, geo-cache/scavenger hunt for the fairies!
Bring a dance partner, a random person you met on the street, your friends and family, or just your self!
This is a free event done for the sake of our planet and all creatures and ecosystems local and worldwide, as well as in the spirit of Ella's art and thesis project. All proceeds will be paid to our musicians and performers who help make this gathering possible!

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

'Evolving Perceptions' Exhibition
2017-04-07 10:00 - 2017-04-19 17:00 | ICA at MECA&D, 522 Congress St., Portland, Maine, 04101, United States
Evolving Perceptions
Large open jar, Stoneware, Kaolin slip, Laterite slip, Wood Ash. Atmospheric fired with gas, 2017, 31 x 18 x 18
Explorations in Clay: Adrian King '12
Artists at Work Exhibition Space
April 7—April 19, 2017
Evolving Perceptions is a showing of functional and sculptural wares that are exploring a conversation between surface, form and the ever changing perspective of functional objects. Adrian King recently worked as an apprentice to a production potter in North Carolina by the name of Mark Hewitt. There he learned to produce functional pottery at a high standard keeping with pottery traditions tied to english slipware and southern folk pottery. Since his time working in North Carolina, he has been developing a body of work that speaks of the relationship of his interests in atmospheric firing with gas and wood, and the skills and techniques he learned as an apprentice. He hopes to be able to capture the beauty of the materials used through simple yet activating surfaces that speak true to the process of the craft.

Gallery Talk: Curator Susanne Slavick of 'UNLOADED'
2017-04-06 18:00 - 19:30 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
Please join us for a Gallery Talk with Curator Susanne Slavick on Thursday, April 6, 2017, 6:00-7:30pm.
Renee Stout, Baby's First Gun, 1998
Curated by Susanne Slavick, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Art, Carnegie Mellon University; UNLOADED is a multimedia group show that explores historical and social issues surrounding the availability, use, and impact of guns in our culture. It includes works by: Lauren F. Adams, Nina Berman, Joshua Bienko, Casey Li Brander, Anthony Cervino, Mel Chin, Cathy Colman, Dadpranks, James Duesing, Jessica Fenlon, Vanessa German, Jinshan, Andrew Ellis Johnson, Jennifer Nagle Myers, Adrian Piper, Don Porcella, Devan Shimoyama, Susanne Slavick, Renee Stout and Stephanie Syjuco.
UNLOADED presents a number of perspectives on the image and impact of guns in contemporary culture, though none endorse them as a means to an end. Works by 19 artists touch upon a host of issues surrounding access to and use of firearms, across demographic categories. They examine and represent the role that guns continue to play in our national mythologies, suicide rates, individual and mass murder, domestic violence, and the militarization of civilian life.
Gun ownership and control is a divisive topic in this country. The artists in UNLOADED visualize the power of the gun as icon and instrument, the damage it can do and how weapons might be rejected, broken or silenced. Some show the power that guns wield in our daily realities and personal fantasies. Others mourn and resist that power, doing everything they can to take it away, believing there are better ways to resolve conflicts, ensure safety and keep the peace.
UNLOADED is touring to ten venues across the country.

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.

Evening with Miqayel Voskanyan & Friends
2017-04-03 20:00 - 22:00 | one longfellow square, 181 state street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
In partnership with Maine College of Art & Design and Portland Conservatory of Music, One Longfellow Square and the Armenian Cultural Association of Maine is pleased to announce an evening with Miqayel Voskanyan & Friends on April 3, 2017 at 8:00pm at One Longfellow Square. Tickets are $20 in advance and available online or by calling OLS at 207.761.1757.
Miqayel Voskanyan & Friends Miqayel Voskanyan & Friends is a jazz-folk band based in Yerevan, Armenia. The band was formed in 2011 with the goal of introducing jazz to the tar (a folk instrument used across the Caucasus and Iran), immediately standing out as a fresh, modern sound in world music. Voskanyan takes the lead on the tar, known for its long neck and soothing tones. Although historically heard in traditional folk music, Voskanyan’s band has given the tar a new identity and, as a result, has created a new genre of music that fuses old and new to produce something wholly unique - an alluring concoction of jazz, folk, rock, and classic Armenian melodies. Miqayel Voskanyan & Friends has performed around the world, including China, Croatia, France, Georgia, Germany, Poland, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, the UEA and the USA. Their self-titled debut album was released in 2014. They are set to release their second album, Nightology, in spring 2017.
In 2013, "Miqayel Voskanyan & friends" won the "Best Band of the Year" award at the Radio Van Music Awards. In spring 2014, the band received a special invitation to perform at the Made In New York Jazz Competition Gala Concert in New York City and had the opportunity to play at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center NY with legendary jazz artists Randy Brecker and Lenny White. In the summer of the same year, the band received an invitation for representing Armenia at Caucasus Cultural Festival held in Seoul ( South Korea). After recording their debut CD album in summer of 2015,
"Miqayel Voskanyan & friends" band had the honour to represent Armenia at the MIDEM festival in Cannes, France. In August 2015, the band took part in International Ethnic Festival Krutushka at Kazan city ( Russia).
The band features Miqayel Voskanyan on tar, Arman Peshtmaljyan behind the keys, Gurgen Ghazaryan slapping the bass and Movses Ghazaryan on drums. Singer and accordionist of the Collectif Metz Basar, Sevana Tchakerian will join them on stage as a special guest.
The Armenian Cultural Association (ACA) of Maine was founded in 2003 by a group of Mainers who wished to preserve the history and culture of a unique branch of the Armenian diaspora. President of Maine’s ACA, Gerard Kiladjian, has lived in Portland since 2000 and is excited to be partnering with other Portland-based cultural institutions to bring world-class musicianship from the other side of the world to Portland. Kiladjian said, “Music has always been a universal language and way to bring people of all backgrounds together, and this group bridges a wide range of cultural and geographic inspiration. Music lovers of all ages and backgrounds will be mesmerized by Miqayel’s ability to artfully blend traditional jazz elements with traditional Armenian music.”
Maine's Armenian community is one of the oldest in America. The first immigrants arrived here in the late 19th century to escape growing persecution in Turkey. Hundreds more would arrive by the time of the Armenian Genocide in 1915. Successive waves of new immigrants and their descendants now make Maine their home.
Please contact Raffi Der Simonian at rdersimonian@gmail.com or 207.756.0916 for guest list, interviews, media requests and more information.
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Portfolio Day
2017-03-31 15:30 - 17:00 | 380 Cumberland Avenue, 380 Cumberland Avenue, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Portfolio Day is an ongoing annual collaboration between MECA&D’s Artists at Work program and AIGA Maine. The event offers students the chance to share their portfolios with a broad spectrum of professionals ranging from creative directors, to independent artists, local publishers and in-house teams.
Portfolio Day is open to MECA&D, SMCC, and USM students majoring in Graphic Design, Photography, Illustration, and Digital Media. This year the event will be held on Friday, March 31 from 3:30pm to 5pm in MECA&D's newly opened space at 380 Cumberland Avenue.
For more information regarding this event please contact Jessica Tomlinson, Director of Artists at Work at jtomlinson@meca.edu or 207.699.5016.
Learn more here.

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.

'UNLOADED' Exhibition
2017-03-16 09:00 - 2017-04-14 17:00 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
UNLOADED
On view from March 16, 2017 – April 14, 2017
Exhibition Reception: Friday, April 7, 2017, 5:00–8:00pm
FFAW: Friday, April 7, 2017, 5:00-8:00pm
ICA Gallery hours: Wed–Sun, 11:00am–5:00pm, Thurs, 11:00am–7:00pm, Friday, 11:00am–5:00pm, (FFAW until 8:00pm)
Curated by Susanne Slavick, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Art, Carnegie Mellon University; UNLOADED is a multimedia group show that explores historical and social issues surrounding the availability, use, and impact of guns in our culture. It includes works by: Lauren F. Adams, Nina Berman, Joshua Bienko, Casey Li Brander, Anthony Cervino, Mel Chin, Cathy Colman, Dadpranks, James Duesing, Jessica Fenlon, Vanessa German, Jinshan, Andrew Ellis Johnson, Laura Karetzky, Jennifer Nagle Myers, Adrian Piper, Don Porcella, Devan Shimoyama, Susanne Slavick, Renee Stout and Stephanie Syjuco.
UNLOADED presents a number of perspectives on the image and impact of guns in contemporary culture, though none endorse them as a means to an end. Works by 19 artists touch upon a host of issues surrounding access to and use of firearms, across demographic categories. They examine and represent the role that guns continue to play in our national mythologies, suicide rates, individual and mass murder, domestic violence, and the militarization of civilian life.
Gun ownership and control is a divisive topic in this country. The artists in UNLOADED visualize the power of the gun as icon and instrument, the damage it can do and how weapons might be rejected, broken or silenced. Some show the power that guns wield in our daily realities and personal fantasies. Others mourn and resist that power, doing everything they can to take it away, believing there are better ways to resolve conflicts, ensure safety and keep the peace.
UNLOADED is touring to ten venues across the country.
Image from Previous Page: Mel Chin, 'Cross for the Unforgiven: 10th Anniversary Multiple' (2012)

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."

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.

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.

'Mainestream Art' at St. Botolph Club
2017-03-01 08:00 - 2017-04-07 17:00 | St Botolph Club, 199 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachussetts, 02116
Mainestream Art at St. Botolph Club
On view March 1 – April 7, 2017
199 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02116
Two MECA&D Alumni are featured in the show: Anne Ireland '94 and Connie Hayes '80.
Past St. Botolphe awardees have included Anthony Bragg '07, Jenny Dougherty '03, Pilar Nadal MFA ‘13, Edwige Charlot ‘10, Lisa Pixley '06, Patti Sandberg '02, Randy Regier MFA '07, Sa Schloff.

Anne Ireland '94
Anne Ireland grew up near New York City and, after graduating from Bowdoin College, she returned to work for CBS NEWS. While in New York, she took painting classes at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and after moving to Maine in 1985, she earned a BFA with honors from the Maine College of Art & Design. Ireland has had solo and group show all over Maine, and in 2010 and 2013 her work graced the cover of the spring and summer L.L.Bean's catalogues. In 2012, she was awarded a residency at The Studios of a Key West, Florida. Ireland's work is represented by Thos.Moser Gallery in Freeport, Maine, The Gallery at Somes Sound in Somesville (Southwest Harbor) Maine and Collier West Gallery in Brooklyn, New York.
View her website here.
Connie Hayes '80
Connie Hayes is a painter living in Rockland, Maine. She received her M.F.A. from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, and Rome; her B.F.A. from the Maine College of Art & Design in Portland; and her B.A. from the University of Maine. She received a fellowship to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1989. Born in Gardiner, Maine she taught at the Maine College of Art & Design for 10 years, also participating in arts administration there for 15 years, including serving as the interim Dean of Faculty. In 2003 she was awarded an honorary doctorate in fine arts from the Maine College of Art & Design. From 1992-1998 she lived in New York City. Since 1990 she has been painting on location through her Borrowed Views project and developing figurative work in her Rockland Studio. She serves as a member of the board of trustees for the Farnsworth Art Museum.
View her website here.

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.

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.

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.

Collective Actions II
2017-02-01 09:00 - 2017-03-03 17:00 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
Collective Actions II, an exhibition of printed matter highlighting collaboration, communication, and public engagement, opens in the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at Maine College of Art & Design on Wednesday, February 1, 2017.
The reception takes place on Friday, February 3, 2017 from 5:00-8:00pm and is open to the public. The exhibit will be on view until Friday, March 3, 2017.
Collective Actions II consists of three elements:
- The Unity of Opposites
- Print Lab
- Mobile Print Power
The Unity of Opposites exhibition features the collaboration between two printmaking studios: Zea Mays Printmaking (Florence, MA), and Peregrine Press (Portland, ME). The two studios created a visual “rip-off” of the childhood game Telephone, in an effort to expose real-world issues about communication and interpretation in our contemporary culture. The process continued until 75 artists participated over the course of five months; each artist’s response highlights their own perspective on their collaborator’s art.
The interactive Print Lab is being brought to fruition by the Future Mothers art collective, the multigenerational New York City collective Mobile Print Power, and by student artists from MECA&D’s Zine Club. Three distinct but complementary projects, comprised of the Future Bridges tent, the Mobile Print Power silkscreen cart, and the Zine Fair, will employ socially engaged art practices and draws on a rich history of collaboration, dissemination, and public action through printmaking. Through participatory workshops that engage local community members, participants will explore urgent social and political issues through creative mediums.
Mobile Print Power (MPP) is a multi-generational collective based out of IMI Corona, in Queens, New York, that utilizes silkscreen printmaking and participatory design in public spaces to engage communities. Soñamos Sentirnos Libres: Making it Real is an evolution of the exhibition Soñamos Sentirnos Libres: Under Construction. This version of the exhibition highlights some of the collaborative work produced throughout its initial run, which focused on utilizing historical resources to to draw connections between past and current struggles for the rights of immigrants, intentionally prioritizing the voices of youth, undocumented folks, and women. At Maine College of Art & Design, a series of public events will engage different communities with the ideas behind MPP’s work, including collaboration, immigrant identity, and the role of the artist.
The Institute of Contemporary Art is open to the public, free of charge, Wednesday–Sunday, 11:00am–5:00pm, Thursdays until 7:00pm, and First Fridays until 8:00pm.
Artwork: Nancy Doniger, Dance, Monoprint

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.

'Maine Region Scholastics' Exhibition
2017-01-30 09:00 - 2017-02-10 17:00 | Maine College of Art & Design, First Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Maine Region Scholastics Exhibition at Maine College of Art & Design
First Floor, Porteous Building, 9:00am–5:00pm
January 30–February 10, 2017
The Maine Region Scholastic Art Award Exhibition exhibits juried work submitted by 7th to 12th graders who are residents of, or attending schools in the state of Maine. This exhibit features the work that has received the highest recognition; Silver Key Awards and Gold Key Awards. This is an excellent opportunity to see the quality and breadth of work created by middle and high school students under the guidance of Maine’s art educators. Students who earn recognition at the Gold Key Award regional level compete nationally and have a chance to earn national recognition. If you would like more information regarding the Scholastics Art and Writing Competition, please visit their website.
View 2016 Winners
Page Header Credit: Caitlyn Duffy, Mantra, Grade 12, Art Teacher: Chris Crosby, Gorham High School

'Stick Pins': Metalsmithing & Jewelry
2017-01-16 08:00 - 2017-02-03 17:00 | Front Window at Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Stick Pins
An exhibition of stick pins designed and crafted by students in the Metalsmithing & Jewelry Program, led by Associate Professor/Program Chair, Sharon Portelance '82.
Porteous Front Window, Congress Street
January 16–February 3, 2017

'Process + Place​​' Exhibition
2017-01-10 08:00 - 2017-02-28 17:00 | Charles C. Thomas Gallery at Maine College of Art & Design, second floor
Process + Place Exhibition
Charles Thomas Gallery, Second Floor
January 10–February 28, 2017
Monday–Friday, 9:00am-5:00pm
A group exhibition featuring work by alumni who participated in a 2016 artist residency at either the Stephen Pace House in Stonington, Maine or the Baie Ste Marie Artist and Family Residency in New Edinburgh, Nova Scotia.
This show includes work by Bruce Brosnan '95, Caren-Marie Michel '78, Angela Warren MFA '11, Eric Vaughn MFA '12, Margaret Lawrence '93, Matthew Burnett MFA '06, and Scott Fuller MFA '06.

Angela Warren MFA '11, untitled, acrylic on canvas, 30''x30'

'Hired Wrights: Manifest Artistry' Exhibition
2017-01-06 09:00 - 2017-02-01 17:00 | ICA at MECA&D, 522 Congress St., Portland, Maine, 04101, United States
Hired Wrights: Manifest Artistry Exhibition
The Hired Wrights are a collective of MECA&D alumni artists, designers and craftspeople available for freelance work. This is your go-to crew if you need a logo, a video, an illustration, a photograph, a mural or custom furniture. See examples of their work on display.
Artists at Work Gallery Space
January 6–19, 2017 , 9:00am–5:00pm

'Remembering the Intentionally Forgotten'
2017-01-03 09:00 - 2017-01-18 17:00 | Front Window at Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Remembering the Intentionally Forgotten, Nicole Guest '17
An installation on memory, utilizing laser-cut text in paper and fabric, by Nicole Guest '17. Front window of Porteous building on Congress Street.

'Selected Works', Emmett Freeman '17
2017-01-03 09:00 - 2017-01-17 17:00 | Maine College of Art & Design, First Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Selected Works, Emmett Freeman '17
An installation of sculptural ceramic figures by Emmett Freeman '17.
Zand Head Gallery, First Floor
January 1–18, 2017, 9:00am–5:00pm
What’s going on in this piece figure 4, Earthenware, Terra Sigillata, 2016

Viewing: PBS' Mercy Street
2016-12-06 17:30 - 20:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
The Maine Film & Video Association (MFVA) will be hosting South Portland producer Lisa Quijano Wolfinger of Lone Wolf Media in a presentation of the Second Season of her most recent project, the prime time episodic drama for National PBS, Mercy Street. Wolfinger will be screening the first episode of the Second Season over a month earlier than its January 22nd premiere on Maine Public Television. She will lead a discussion of what it takes to sell an idea to the PBS network, how this second season differs from the first in terms of characters, story and production. Free Leonardo’s Pizza and drinks.

The event is open to all. MFVA members and MECA&D students are free.
Non-member admission is $10.

The series was co-created by David Zabel, (showrunner/writer for NBC’s ER) and is executive produced by David Zuker (The Good Wife) and Ridley Scott (Gladiator and Thelma & Louise).

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
