October at the Abbe

When I started at the Abbe back in December, I hoped life would never be dull here, and my expectations were, in fact, exceeded—I’ve found creative and remarkable people, ingenious ideas, boundless energy, exciting programming, and stimulating exhibits. I am exactly where I’m meant to be—back home in Maine and working at an organization that not only inspires me every day, but one I believe in wholeheartedly. We're doing all this amazing, important work and I get to play a part in all of it!

And now it's October. One of the things that I haven't quite been able to grasp this year is the passage of time. 2015 has been going at such a fast clip, and the fact that it's October (my favorite month!) is slightly hard to believe. If you're feeling the same way I am, don’t despair—we have plenty to offer at the Abbe this month, including exhibitions, festivals, programming, and activities that will keep you entertained and engaged, whether you’re on a family outing or taking some “you” time to reflect and get inspired.

We're partnering with theMount Desert Island YMCA this year on a couple of programs, the first of which is Thursday, October 8th. The Children's Wabanaki Map Workshop, from 3:30 - 4:30 pm at the YMCA, will explore how Wabanaki people made story-like birchbark maps, orwikhikonik, using specific symbols that were used as forms of communication between two separated parties. You’ll be able to use a piece of imitation birchbark to tell a story of your choosing and create your own  wikhikonik ! This workshop is free and open to the public.

For those of you traveling to Bar Harbor this weekend (October 10th), there's a LOT going on at the Museum. We have two festivals occurring— Bar Harbor Film Festival andBar Harbor Children's Book Festival —and afree Teacher's Workshop. Because of the all the activity, we'll be shuffling around some exhibits, which means not all the exhibits will be open this weekend. If you are hoping to see theWaponahki Student Art Show (which closes the end of this month),  The Greatest Mountain, orLayers of Time, you might want to aim to come by on Monday, October 12th, when all three will be re-opened. And what better way to re-think Columbus Day than by coming to a Native American museum to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day!

We're also doing something this weekend that we haven't done in quite a while: admission will be by donation on Saturday the 10th and Sunday the 11th. Regular admission rates are $8 for adults and $4 for children ages 11 - 17; children 10 and under are free, as are Abbe members and Native Americans.

The inaugural Bar Harbor Film Festival kicks off at the Abbe on Friday evening, October 9th, at 6 pm and admission to the opening reception is free if youRSVP online. Check out theBHFF website for a full schedule of the weekend's film screenings and programs, and you can also purchase tickets for all of the Festival's events (there's different pricing depending on what you'd like to do). Or, stop by the Abbe Museum Shop and pick up your tickets in person.

Abbe Museum members get in free!
The Bar Harbor Children's Book Festival is free and open to the public, so please stop by between 11 am and 3 pm for some author and illustrator workshops.

Our free Teacher's Workshop on Saturday, October 10th from 8 am to 4 pm will focus on how contact with European cultures affects Wabanaki communities. Some of the topics that will be examined include French and British attitudes towards the Wabanaki, different ideals of land ownership and the problems this created, how Wabanaki culture had changed by the end of the

Revolutionary War, and where to find resources and how to evaluate them. Teachers will earn eight (8) Contact Hours for the workshop. To register, please contact Museum Educator Jen Heindel at jen@abbemuseum.org or call 207-288-3519.

On Thursday, October 15th, our annual film series is back, and this year’s theme focuses on the ideas ofContinuity, Change, and Resistance . The first film, Weaving Worlds, is a documentary about Diné (Navajo) rug weaving, and viewers will see one of the many perspectives on how Indigenous peoples in America have ensured economic and cultural survival through contemporary art. After the movie, join Museum Educators George Neptune and Jennifer Heindel for a discussion about the survival of traditions in the face of globalization. The film series is free and open to the public, and sponsored by Reel Pizza.

One of our most anticipated fall programs, Tea & Popovers Archaeology, will take place at the Jordan Pond House on Monday, October 19th from 7 - 9 pm. Our guest speaker this year is Chris Sockalexis, Penobscot Nation Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, and he'll present on the topic of petroglyph sites in Maine. This is a very popular evening and we've already filled a lot of seats! RSVP to 207-288-3519 or info@abbemuseum.org. The cost is $20 for Abbe members and $30 for non-members.

Click here for full event listings for October.

Addition to the Abbe Museum Collections

Maliseet artist Gina Brooks and the Abbe's Director of Collections & Interpretation, Julia Clark

TheDiane Kopec Collection Fund at the Abbe Museum was created to acquire works by living Native American artists. The collection reflects the vitality and vibrancy of Native American art today, and we recently added a birchbark box by Maliseet artist Gina Brooks to this important collection.

The imagery on the box includes the wampum pattern representing the Wabanaki Confederacy, the people holding up that confederacy, and on the lid, the double curve that represents the unity of the four tribes. Native people sent and received Wampum woven into belts as a form of communication. Through the geometric patterns of the beads, Native people wove wampum designs to remember and recall important events like oral histories, treaties, and agreements. These belts were brought back and forth from important events, and passed down from generation to generation.

Gina Brooks, Maliseet, is from St. Mary’s First Nation in New Brunswick, Canada, and resides in nearby Fredericton. She considers herself an artist informed by Wabanaki traditional knowledge, and her art includes brown ash basketry, porcupine quill and birch bark basketry, carving, and print making. Her original prints include acrylic and ink, and lithographs, monotypes, and copper etch plating. Her basketry and print art has been commissioned by private art collectors and Aboriginal organizations across Canada, and her work has been exhibited at the Charlotte Street Arts Center in Fredericton, Sudbury Nature Center in St. Andrews, (Weaving Traditions), and is featured in the New Brunswick Museum’s Wabanaki contemporary art collection.

Free Teacher Workshop

Abbe Museum Welcomes New Trustees

The Abbe Museum has added four new Trustees to its Board of Directors, bringing the total number of Trustees to 19. The new appointees – Abbe Levin, Margo Lukens, Patti Selig, and Chris Sockalexis – assumed their new roles on August 12, 2015.

“We are excited to welcome our incoming class,” said Abbe Museum President/CEO, Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko. “Our new members bring talents and new perspectives that will complement and strengthen our already impressive Board. We have spent time building a Board that is reflective of our community, our organizational needs, and our mission, and that care and commitment has certainly paid off. It is a pleasure to work alongside the Abbe Trustees as we strengthen the Abbe Museum’s presence locally and statewide.”

Abbe Levin is a cultural development consultant, and has served as the Cultural Tourism Coordinator for the Maine Office of Tourism since 2007. In addition, Levin works with a wide range of organizations and projects to assist with the preservation and promotion of cultural resources. She currently serves on the Maine Development Foundation’s Maine Downtown Center Advisory Council and the Sheepscot Valley Children’s House Board of Directors. Levin lives in Boothbay with her husband, and has two sons.

Margo Lukens is a professor in the University of Maine Department of English, and presently serves as chair of the Department of New Media and director of academic programs in Innovation Engineering. Her research interests include Wabanaki literary and storytelling history, Native American and First Nations plays and playwrights, innovation, and making whiteness visible to white people. Her work has included producing and directing Native American plays on campus and in the region, and generally participating in as much theater as possible.

Patti Selig’s first exposure to the Abbe was in the 1980s as she and her family discovered the Museum while visiting Sieur de Monts. She and her family lived in Ocean City, Maryland for 40 years where her husband owned a large construction company and she worked as a psychologist. She spent 20 years as a faculty member and department chair with the University of Maryland system, and when she retired from her career in higher education in 2005, she and her husband purchased the Cranberry Hill Inn in Southwest Harbor. She has been active as a volunteer for the Abbe for many years, serving on the Gala Committee, the Culinary Arts committee, and working at the front desk as a greeter.

Chris Sockalexis, Penobscot, is the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Penobscot Nation, and has served on the Abbe Museum Native Advisory Council since 2012. He has a BA in Anthropology from the University of Maine with his primary focus being on Maine Archaeology. He is currently conducting research for his Masters of Science degree at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute. Sockalexis is also a flintkapper with knowledge of the ancient art and technique of stone and bone tool production. Sockalexis is also an avid canoe/kayak paddler who loves being out in the Maine woods and on the waterways that his ancestors have traveled for thousands of years. He lives with his wife Jill and her daughter Taylor in Winterport, and is the proud father of Shannon, Willow, and Em.

The Abbe Museum Trustees also include: Ann Cox Halkett (Chair), Richard Cleary (Vice Chair), Katherine Stroud Bucklin (Secretary), Jeff Dalrymple (Treasurer), David Moses Bridges, Joseph F. Cistone, Linda K. Dunn, William Haviland, Jamie Bissonette Lewey, Barbara E. McLeod, Jennifer Neptune, Douglas Sharpe, Curtis Simard, Steve Wessler, Sandra K. Wilcox, and Honorary Trustees Alice Wellman and Darren J. Ranco.

Abbe Museum Awarded $150,000 Grant

The Abbe Museum has been awarded a $150,000 Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The grant is 1 of 217 awarded to museum projects across the US – totaling more than $25 million – and will fund the design, fabrication, and installation of the Abbe’s new permanent exhibit,  People of the First Light, which will open in the spring of 2016.

“We are beyond excited about this opportunity, especially because of what it means for the Abbe in terms of preparing for the immediate future,” said Abbe President/CEO Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko. “During the course of the past year in planning for our new strategic plan, numerous community conversations occurred and some of those resulted in identifying specific financial sustainability strategies that influence our exhibit planning efforts. The conversations all pointed to the need for a permanent exhibit, and thanks to IMLS, we’ll be able to give our visitors and communities exactly what they asked for!”

Located in the Abbe’s downtown Bar Harbor facility, the exhibit will occupy approximately 2,100 square feet. Its content, artifacts, images, and interactive and participatory elements will be informed by the Abbe’s recently adopted interpretive framework and input from its Native Advisory Council and Native advisors.

People of the First Light will use design and content to bring the visitor into the Wabanaki universe. The cyclical nature of time will be strongly reflected in the design of the exhibit, and time depth will be presented in a non-linear pattern. The exhibit will incorporate the many ways of knowing about Wabanaki history and culture.

“Thanks to this grant, the Abbe will enhance current and future exhibit and programmatic interpretations, expose visitors to multiple voices in presenting information about the Wabanaki people – with the Wabanaki voice as the primary one – and give visitors an understanding of how the colonization of Maine has impacted and continues to impact the Wabanaki people and their culture,” said Julia Clark, director of collections and interpretation.  

While the exhibit is considered permanent (15-20 year cycle), it will be constructed so that topics can be easily updated to reflect changing events, and the evolving conversations with Wabanaki advisors will be a guide if updates are needed. Audiences will find their experience relevant and engaging each time they visi People of the First Light.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 35,000 museums. Its mission is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic engagement. IMLS’s grant making, policy development, and research help libraries and museums deliver valuable services that make it possible for communities and individuals to thrive. To learn more, visi www.imls.gov. 

Wabanaki Artists take top spots at Santa Fe Indian Market

For the past 90 years, Santa Fe Indian Market has been bringing together the most talented Native American artists from around the US. As the largest Native arts fair in the world, the market covered the Santa Fe Plaza and surrounding streets this past weekend, and consisted of a myriad of events — galas, art openings, music and experiences, fashion shows, and the much anticipated juried art show. Several Wabanaki artists were in attendance this year, and a couple are coming back to the East Coast with some impressive ribbons.

Abbe Museum Fellow Emma Soctomah, Passamaquoddy, won first and second place in the Youth Division, which is her third consecutive year winning the top two spots.

Sara Sockbeson, Penobscot, won first place in Miniatures and second place in Contemporary. Her two winning baskets featured deer antler handles, which she sliced into cross-sections and then carved and polished each one, drilling a hole through the center. Sarah has said that all the antler handles she makes are unique for each basket.

Abbe Museum Educator George Neptune, Passamaquoddy, received an Honorable Mention in Traditional Basketry. George has admitted that he likes turning his baskets into sculptures, and that they’re all slight adaptations on traditional methods he has been taught.

The market is definitely a meeting of buyer and artist, but it proves year on year to be so much more than just that. It’s a place where artists gather to share their creations, their traditions, and their stories. It helps make possible the continuation of traditional life, whether on a pueblo outside Santa Fe or in a small town in Maine.

More official results of all the winners will be posted soon. The Best of Show winners list is currently available on the Santa Fe Indian Market website.

Congratulations to all the Wabanaki artists!

Annual Meeting Highlights

The Abbe's 2015 Annual Meeting was held on Wednesday, August 12th and we covered a lot of ground as we reported on fiscal year 2014, as well as our plans for the future. There were demonstrations by four Native artists, a sneak peek at our new strategic plan, and we honored an outgoing Trustee with the highest award bestowed by the Abbe.

Back in July, the Abbe named its 2015 Wabanaki Artist Fellows, recognizing three exceptionally creative individuals with a track record of achievement and the potential for significant artist contributions in the future: Donna Brown, Penobscot; Ganessa Frey, Penobscot; and Emma Soctomah, Passamaquoddy. These fellowships were made possible through support from Dawnland, LLC, the concessioner in Acadia National Park, who was in attendance at the Annual Meeting. All three Fellows gave demonstrations during the Annual Meeting, delighting guests with their art and answering any questions.

Ganessa Frey discussed basketmaking with Abbe supporters Joe and Cathy Gerstner.

Emma Soctomah admitted that artwork is very important to her, and she spends much of her time outside of school making baskets. She's off to the Santa Fe Indian Market this month to try and win some more awards. 

Donna Brown discussed her traditional beadwork with Abbe Trustee Sandy Wilcox.

The fellowships awarded are intended to provide support for travel, lodging, and other costs associated with exhibiting at Indian art markets in Maine and New Mexico. Emma and Ganessa will attend the 2015 Southwestern Association for Indian Art’s Santa Fe Indian Market (SWAIA), and Donna attended the 2015 Native American Festival and Basketmakers Market last month.

Gabriel Frey, Passamaquoddy, also gave a basketmaking demonstration. A utility basketmaker, Gabe uses his family's traditional knowledge and style to create beautifully woven, sturdily built utility baskets that can be used for a variety of purposes.

Gabe Frey (far right) carries on the tradition, high quality, and style of his grandfather who taught him, while incorporating his own individual aesthetic, forms, and decorative weaves. 

The Golden Trowel Award, the highest award bestowed by the Abbe, was presented to Art Spiess for his invaluable contributions in making the Abbe Museum's annual Field school happen. This school has been an integral part of the Abbe’s archaeological work since the 1980s, and is one of the most significant ways we teach about archaeology and engage people in this important way of learning more about Wabanaki history and culture. The success of the field school over the years has been due in large part to the outstanding contributions of archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and educators from around Maine. And for the past nine years, nobody has been as essential to that success at Art Spiess.

Art received his PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University in 1978, and he began his career at the Maine Historic Preservation Commission that same year. Art has been on the Board of The Maine Archaeological Society for more than 20 years, and he serves as the Editor of Archaeology of Eastern North America for the Eastern States Archaeological Federation.

Art has generously given his time and expertise to the field school, leading this outstanding annual learning experience. He has also been key in helping the Abbe keep our practices and policies around archaeological research and collections up-to-date with current standards and legal requirements. He has guided archaeology in Maine for over four decades of work at the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, and his depth of knowledge has been essential to the success of the field school.

Abbe's Director of Collections & Interpretation presented Art with the Golden Trowel Award.

The night ended on an exciting note: the Abbe's new strategic plan. This plan will guide the next phase of the Museum’s growth and development, from its adoption in 2015, through the next five to seven years. Our mission hasn’t changed, but our vision has a new focus:

The Abbe Museum will reflect and realize the values of decolonization in all of its practices, working with the Wabanaki Nations to share their stories, history, and culture with a broader audience. 

There are three phases to the plan, and phase one will kick-off very ambitiously this fall. The Abbe's President & CEO, Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko, gave a sneak peek of each goal, which will include a permanent exhibit, new and improved web presence, expansion of our dialogue-based programming, development of an archaeology advisory committee, an online collections database, and producing the Abbe Museum Indian Market. An official plan will be rolled out very soon!

A very big thank you to all those who came to the Museum on Wednesday to celebrate with us! We can't wait to see what happens next!

A Pop Up Program at the Abbe will focus on one of the first transoceanic ships

The Abbe Museum will host a Pop Up Program by Xabier Agote from the ALBAOLA, Basque Maritime Heritage Foundation on Thursday, August 20 from 7 – 9 pm. The discussion will focus on 16th century Basque whalers in North America and the San Juan whaleship replica currently being built in Spain. The program is free and open to the public.

“We are really just beginning to get a better understanding of how important the interactions between the Wabanaki and the Basque were, and how they shaped the longer history of interaction and colonization,” said Julia Clark, director of collections & interpretation at the Abbe Museum. “This program is a great opportunity to learn more about the Basque side of the story.”

Built in Pasaia - which is located in the Basque Autonomous Community of northern Spain - in 1563, the San Juan whaling ship is an example of the first transoceanic ships that set sail from the Basque Country to Newfoundland. It reflects the splendor and worldwide domination of the Basque maritime industry. It sank off the coast of Canada, in Red Bay, in 1565.

Over 400 years later in 1978, the Canadian archaeological team from Parcs Canada found the wreck of the San Juan and investigated it in an exemplary underwater excavation for the maritime archaeological world. After studying it for more than thirty years, it is the best known 16th century ship and has become an icon symbolizing UNESCO Underwater Cultural Heritage.

The Nao San Juan reconstruction began in 2013 in Pasaia within the Donostia/San Sebastián European Capital of Culture 2016, and is backed by the Canadian Government. Just as it joined Europe with North America in the 16th century, the Nao San Juan will allow these two countries to sail into the future together working from their joint past.

Xabier Agote is a shipwright and specializes in the construction of traditional and historical boats. He is the Founder and Director of ALBAOLA, where he has developed a research and education program that includes the construction of Nao San Juan; built a school for boat-building and seamanship; and generated a revival of public awareness of the long and rich Basque relationship with the sea. He is a graduate of the apprentice program at the Maine Maritime Museum, built several gigs for the Atlantic Challenge International Seamanship Program for The ApprenticeShop, Rockland, and has led several open boat expeditions along the coasts of Canada, Ireland, and Spain.

2015 Abbe Field School

The 2015 Abbe Field School kicked off on Sunday, August 2, offering a first-hand experience in an archaeological dig. This year's dig is excavating the Tranquility Farm Site, first explored by the Abbe Museum in the 1930s, and again during a series of field school excavations in the 1990s.

This year's excavations will build on previous exciting discoveries from the farm's site, which include a house floor and hearth feature with a radiocarbon date of 1240 ± 70 BP; the identification of burned plant remains from the hearth including raspberry, chenopodium, smartweed, wild rye and dewberry; and an assemblage of dentate-stamped pottery assigned to the Middle Ceramic Period, 2,100 - 800 years ago.

Fieldwork is complemented by lab sessions and lectures that give participants a broad understanding of archaeology and Maine's Native American heritage.

Dave Halliwell and Tim Spahr checking their paperwork.

Field School participants, Doug Sharpe and Anju Roy, examine their screen.

Abbe Museum Educator Jen Heindel uncovered some impressive pot shards on her first day!

Some participants get more into their work than others. Mary Ellen Sharp is learning what happens when you scratch your face while digging. She beats out Team Supervisor Kate Pontbriand (far left), who was our dirtiest face winner last year.

Michele Kirchner found a gem of a spear point on Day 2.

Tess Lichtmam consults with field school super volunteer Dee Lustusky on what she is uncovering.

Kate Pontbriand, field supervisor-in-training, consults with Art Spiess about the stratigraphy in the pit she is overseeing.

Kate Pontbriand shared her various archaeological field experiences with participants on Day 3. 

Abbe Museum Named Maine’s First Smithsonian Affiliate

Harold Closter and Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko

The Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine has been accepted as a Smithsonian Affiliate. This affiliation establishes a long-term partnership between the Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. There are currently 179 Smithsonian Affiliates in 42 states, Puerto Rico and Panama. The Abbe Museum is Maine’s first affiliate. 

“Becoming a Smithsonian Affiliate will support exciting collaborations between our organizations, while dramatically expanding the Abbe Museum’s visibility in the market place and in Maine’s cultural community,” says Abbe CEO, Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko. “Collaborative projects are key to the Abbe’s strategic direction. The Smithsonian is an incredible institution with tremendous scope in reach and resources. We are thrilled to share those resources with our community and members.”

The partnership will provide the Abbe Museum access to the Smithsonian Institution’s many resources, including its 136 million object collections, scholarships, and educational opportunities for staff, traveling exhibits, and membership benefits. Additionally, the Abbe and the Smithsonian will begin to pursue collaborations with one another, spreading the work of both cultural institutions. 

“The Abbe Museum,” noted Harold A. Closter, director of Smithsonian Affiliations, “is well-recognized for its outstanding collections, first-class exhibits, professional staff and commitment to education.  With a mission that so thoroughly matches the work of the Smithsonian, we are honored to welcome the Abbe Museum into the family of Smithsonian Affiliates and look forward to working with this impressive organization to help preserve the rich heritage of Maine and share the inspiring stories of its people.”

Collaboration with the Smithsonian is something in which the Abbe Museum already has experience. When Abbe’s downtown location opened, the Museum borrowed three collection items for the exhibit Four Molly’s: Women of the Dawn, guest curated by Bunny McBride. 

On May 23rd, the Smithsonian traveling exhibit IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas will go on display in the Abbe where it will remain through August 4th. The exhibit comes to the Abbe through the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), and explores the intersection of American Indian and African American cultures. The exhibit shares historical and contemporary stories of peoples and communities whose shared histories are woven into the fabric of American identity, but whose presence has long been invisible to many in the U.S. IndiVisible was developed by the National Museum of the American Indian with the National Museum of African American History and Culture. 

The Abbe has long enjoyed a relationship with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), particularly working together in the development of educational programming.  

Finally, a current Abbe Board Member, member of the Passamaquoddy tribe and renowned Native artist, David Moses Bridges, has worked extensively with the Smithsonian Institution as a researcher, consultant, and educator.

“I was very excited to learn of our relationship with the Smithsonian,” says Moses Bridges. “I have always been impressed by the Smithsonian’s commitment to include Native people as the caretakers and interpreters of the collections they oversee. By recognizing the family connection between objects and communities they have set a new standard of museum relationship with indigenous people. The Affiliations program allows the Abbe Museum and its visitors access to the greatest collection of Indigenous art in the world. Anyone who has stepped inside the Smithsonian will understand that the Abbe Museum’s new affiliation with the Smithsonian is surely something to be excited about.”

Smithsonian Affiliations, established in 1996, is a national outreach program that develops collaborative partnerships with museums and educational and cultural organizations to share Smithsonian Institution resources with citizens in their own communities. The program works with Affiliates to enrich communities with Smithsonian scholars, public programs, and professional development opportunities. Affiliate partner organizations demonstrate excellence in their work and commitment to the Smithsonian emphasis on heritage, preservation, and education.

Media availability: Abbe staff members and Smithsonian staff members are available for interviews. Please contact Johannah Blackman: johannah@abbemuseum.org, 207-288-3519.