Kindling Fund Grants for Visual Artists Working in the State of Maine

SPACE Gallery in Portland, Maine has announced its third round of Kindling Fund grants for visual artists working in the state of Maine.

Initiated in 2014, theKindling Fund provides grants to artist­organized projects that have a strong public component. The most competitive projects are ones which don’t fit in established venues, but rather occur in unconventional spaces or as site­specific presentations.

The Kindling Fund is a part of the Regional Regranting Program of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This program matches Warhol Foundation support with localized partner organizations who value artist­driven contemporary and independent practices.

SPACE is one of ten other regranting projects around the United States, bringing a new kind of support to the state of Maine. Artists may request between $1,500 and $5,000 for their projects.

This is the third year SPACE has offered the Kindling Fund to Maine artists. Over the past two years, a total of 20 Kindling Fund grants has been awarded. Past projects supported by The Kindling Fund have included The Chart, an online arts journal for artists, writers and cultural producers to write and create traditional and experimental art criticism (2015); The Institute for American Art, an educational organization designed as a museum and located within a domestic home (2015); and New Fruit, a women­run alternative arts space located in Portland’s Bayside neighborhood (2016).

The Kindling Fund feeds the energy of Maine’s visual arts community by funding artist­organized projects that engage the public in ways that are both inventive and meaningful. The Kindling Fund values risk, experimentation, unconventional engagement, critical dialogue, and collaboration. Successful projects reach new audiences and create new models for presenting artists’ work. The mission of SPACE Gallery is to present contemporary, emerging and unconventional arts, artists and

ideas. The Kindling Fund extends this mission around Maine, beyond the reach and capacities of SPACE as an organization.

A series of informational sessions will be held around the state which will provide opportunities for potential applicants to learn more and ask questions:

• SPACE Gallery (Portland) will host a session at its location at 538 Congress Street on Tuesday, September 13 from 6-­7 pm
• Engine Gallery (Biddeford) will host a session on Wednesday, September 14 from 6-­7 pm
• Launchpad (Bangor) will host a session on Thursday, September 15 from 6-­7 pm
• The Center for Maine Contemporary Art (Rockland) will host a session on Monday, September 19 from 6­-7 pm
• The Abbe Museum (Bar Harbor) will host a session on Tuesday, September 20 from 5­-6 pm
• SPACE will hold an information session and budget workshop on Saturday, October 1 from 11 am - 12 pm

All information sessions are free and open to the public. Applications are to be submitted online (www.kindlingfund.org/apply).

The deadline to submit grant applications is October 22 at 11:59 PM. 

For more information, visit www.kindlingfund.org or reach out to SPACE at the contact details noted below:

SPACE Gallery
538 Congress St.
Portland, ME 04101
207-828-5600
www.space538.orgContact: Elizabeth Spavento, Visual Arts Programmer / elizabeth@space538.org

About SPACE Gallery
Established in 2002, SPACE Gallery is a nonprofit contemporary art space that presents visual arts exhibitions, live music and performance, film screenings, artists talks, literary events, and more, for a sum of approximately 200 events and 15 exhibitions each year.

About The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts was established in 1987 for the advancement of the visual arts. The Foundation’s objective is to foster innovative artistic expression and the creative process by encouraging and supporting cultural organizations that in turn, directly or indirectly, support artists and their work. The Foundation values the contribution these organizations make to artists and audiences and to society as a whole by supporting, exhibiting, and interpreting a broad spectrum of contemporary artistic practice.

People of the First Light Photo Contest

The Abbe Museum is currently in the process of installing our new, permanent exhibit, People of the First Light, and we're in search of some stunning photos in and around Maine to use in specific sections of the exhibit. Do you have any photos of Maine's natural landscapes, animals, or plants? Or of Mount Katahdin, Moosehead Lake, Mount Kineo, Mount Desert Island, Penobscot Bay, Downeast coast, or Aroostook County? If so, please consider submitting them to our People of the First Light Photo Contest, which begins February 24, and ends March 7, 2016, at 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST).

The contest is open to anyone of any age, including Abbe Museum staff and trustees. Any photos chosen as finalists may be included in our permanent exhibit, People of the First Light, in the following ways: background images, murals, and in digital interactives.

Please only submit landscape photographs in the following two categories.

All photos must be void of people:

1. Natural Maine: Animals, plants, and landscapes specifically pertaining to the ocean, lakes, and rivers; geological or climatological features. 
2. Travel: Locales or activities in Maine that convey a sense of place specifically in/around Mount Katahdin, Moosehead Lake, Mount Kineo, Mount Desert Island, Penobscot Bay, the Downeast coast, and Aroostook County.

Cropped photos are eligible in both categories. We do not accept digitally or otherwise enhanced or altered photos. Minor adjustments, including spotting, dodging and burning, sharpening, contrast, and slight color adjustment or the digital equivalents, are acceptable.

Entrants whose photos depict other people’s work (such as sculptures, statues, and other copyrightable works) may need to obtain a release from the rights holder and provide it to the Abbe upon request. When photographing the work of others, it must be as an object in its environment and not a full-frame close-up of another person's creation.

Photos that violate or infringe upon another person's rights, including but not limited to copyright, are not eligible. Photos that contain sexually explicit, nude, obscene, violent or other objectionable or inappropriate content, as determined by the Abbe in its sole discretion, are ineligible for all categories of this contest.

How to enter: 
By submitting an entry, each contestant agrees to the rules of the contest. Please submit high-resolution photographs to Allison Shank at allison@abbemuseum.org. When submitting your photo, please indicate the following information:

• Name
• Credit line (how to credit the photo)
• Information about the photograph: what the photo is of, location, and any other important details
• Contact information
• Please submit a separate email for each photograph.

We do not accept photographs submitted through the postal service. We do not accept more than one contestant per e-mail address. Photographs submitted to the contest must be at least 300dpi or greater so that they can be displayed on our website and in our core exhibit, People of the First Light, without being stretched or distorted.

High-quality scans of non-digital photographs are acceptable. Digital photographs should be taken at the highest resolution possible. Photographs must be in a .jpeg, .jpg, or .png format. Files submitted may not be larger than 10 MB. We will not accept original negatives, prints, or slides.

You retain your rights to your photograph; however, by entering the contest, you grant the Abbe Museum a royalty-free, world-wide, perpetual, non-exclusive license to publicly display, distribute, reproduce, and create derivative works of the entries, in whole or in part, in any media now existing or later developed, for any People of the First Light purpose, including, but not limited to, advertising and promotion of the exhibit. Any photograph reproduced will include a photographer credit and possibly a short bio. The Abbe will not be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such uses.

Entry deadline:
The contest begins on February 24, 2016. All entries must be received by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on March 7, 2016.

Judging:
Photo entries will be judged based on creativity, quality, originality, responsiveness to the prompt, and overall impact. Judging will be conducted by the Director of Collections & Interpretation and the Manager of Creative Services. All final photographs selected will be used in some shape or form for the core exhibit, People of the First Light, which will open to the public on May 1, 2016. The finalists will be notified by March 11, 2016, and will appear on our website in spring 2016. The Abbe will notify the finalists via the contact information provided at the time of entry. Please do not contact us about the status of entries or judging.

Conditions of Entry:
All entrants hold the Abbe Museum and their respective regents, directors, trustees, officers, employees, fellows, interns, research associates, and volunteers (the “Indemnified Parties”) harmless from and against all claims of any nature arising in connection with entrant’s participation in the contest and acceptance or use of a prize. The Indemnified Parties are not liable for any costs, damages, injuries, or other claims incurred as a result of entrants’ participation in the contest or winner’s acceptance and usage of a prize.  The Indemnified Parties are not responsible for incomplete or misdirected entries, technical or network malfunctions or failures, or causes beyond their control. Entrants are solely responsible for their entries. Entrants may not submit materials that introduce any software viruses, worms or other programs designed to damage software, hardware or telecommunications equipment or are off-topic, partisan-political, contain advertising, nudity, personal attacks or expletives, or is otherwise abusive, threatening, unlawful, harassing, discriminatory, libelous, obscene, false, sexually explicit, or that infringes on the rights of any third party.

The contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law. The Abbe Museum reserves the right to cancel the contest or modify these rules at its discretion. In the event of a dispute regarding the winners, the Abbe Museum reserves the right to award or not award the prizes in its sole discretion. The Abbe Museum reserves the right to disqualify any entrant whose entry or conduct appears in any way to: inhibit the enjoyment of others; tamper with the competition; violate these rules or other applicable law or regulation; infringe on the rights of third parties, or act in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner. Decisions of the Abbe Museum are final and binding.

Twisted Path III: Questions of Balance

On November 14th and 15th, Native artists will convene at the Abbe Museum in downtown Bar Harbor for a Creative Summit with the goal of developing and sustaining a community of contemporary Wabanaki artists. The summit, inspired by and designed to complement the Abbe’s current main exhibit,

Twisted Path III: Questions of Balance

, will include discussions, an open artists’ studio and a mural workshop.

Twisted Path III

artists participating in the summit include Patricia Michaels, Taos Pueblo, from Season 11 of Project Runway, and Wabanaki artists Rick Hunt, Abenaki; Gina Brooks, Maliseet; Gabriel Frey, Passamaquoddy; Shane Perley-Dutcher, Maliseet, and Vera Longtoe Sheehan, Abenaki.

Friday’s events will be discussion-based and open only to Native artists. Conversations will be geared towards Native arts in Maine, and how to create support systems for emerging Wabanaki contemporary artists. In addition to the

Twisted Path III

artists, other Wabanaki artists and Maine Indian Basketmaker’s Alliance members have been invited to participate in the discussions, with the hopes of identifying the first steps towards creating a Contemporary Native Arts Guild. By bringing together some of today’s leaders in the contemporary Native art world, the Abbe Museum hopes to generate discussions about creative placemaking, cultural tourism, and the future of contemporary Native art in Maine.

On Saturday, the Creative Summit will open to the public with free museum admission. The day will be filled with opportunities to see the artists at work. From 10:00am – 12:00pm the public is invited to observe an open artists’ studio; the artists will work together, trading materials and techniques, to create collaborative pieces. From 1:00 – 4:00pm the artists will collaborate in a mural workshop and the public is again invited to observe.

Twisted Path III

Co-Curator, Rick Hunt, Abenaki, will lead the artists in the creation of a mural that will become part of the Abbe’s permanent collection. Anyone is invited to watch the Twisted Path III artists at work during Saturday’s events.

The Creative Summit is made possible through the support of Lead Corporate Sponsor, Bar Harbor Bank and Trust with additional lead support from the Maine Arts Commission. The Abbe Museum also thanks the

Twisted Path III

exhibit sponsors: the Sharpe Family Foundation/Douglas and Ann Sharpe, Anonymous Foundation, Fisher Charitable Foundation, Hattie A. & Fred C. Lynam Trust, The First, Maine Arts Commission, MPBN, and the Bangor Daily News.

Abbe Museum takes greening seriously

Link: Abbe Museum takes 'greening' seriously

The Abbe Museum tells visitors about the culture and history of the native American peoples of Maine.

So it made sense to launch “Greening the Abbe,” a project designed to make the small museum – just a few minutes drive from Acadia National Park along Maine’s rugged and beautiful coastline – as environmentally conscious and energy efficient as possible.

“We have this place for learning, and it just made sense to be doing it responsibly all the way through,” says Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko, the president and chief executive officer of the Abbe Museum. “We recognized that something had to be done.”.

Currently at the Abbe Museum

Twisted Path III: Questions of Balance, invites audiences to consider Native American concerns about the environment through the medium of contemporary art. Artists’ works express emotional and cultural reflections on the status of our planet—both comfort from a sense of place and connections to the land, and the conflicts inherent in cultural genocide and pollution of sacred spaces.

Many of Twisted Path III’s artists have work available for purchase in the Abbe Shop, such as raw silk, handpainted scarves by Patricia Michaels; silver jewelry by Shane Perley Dutcher; baskets by Gabriel Frey, and twine baskets by Vera Longtoe Sheehan.


Four Directions of Wabanaki Basketry, located in our unique Circle of the Four Directions, offers a place of quiet reflection for visitors to the Museum.

The exhibit features a basket from each of the Wabanaki tribal communities: the eastern basket made by a Maliseet child, the southern baskets made by Passamaquoddy women, the western basket made by a Penobscot man, and the northern basket by a Micmac elder. Visitors will also hear the creation story of Koluskap and the Ash Tree in the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy/Maliseet, and Micmac languages.

Made possible through the generosity of John and Ruth Overton.


150th Thoreau-Wabanaki Anniversary Canoe Tour. During May 2014, an epic journey took place commemorating the travels of Henry David Thoreau and his Wabanaki Guide, Joe Polis, through the Maine Woods in July of 1857. The Abbe Museum is hosting a photo exhibit that describes a modern-day recreation of Thoreau and Polis’ journey. Curated by Chris Sockalexis, Penobscot Tribal Historic Preservation Officer.

Photo credit, Chris Sockalexis