Made in Maine – by YOU
Photo: Adria Moynihan Rusk, Still Life Studio
By Jessica Skwire Routhier
FOR NEARLY TWO CENTURIES, artists in all media have flocked to Maine in the summer to take advantage of the picture-perfect days, the dazzling light and the matchless scenery. For nearly as long, those who are lucky enough to be here during this magical time, no matter where their home address, have been tempted to acquire that perfect souvenir to remind them of Maine’s unique summertime alchemy of light, space, art and natural beauty. Finding that perfect handmade craft or original work of art can be a memorable experience. But making your own handcrafted souvenir—now that’s really something special. We’ve done the research, and we have listed below places in nearly every corner of Maine where you can spend a day or an afternoon with a professional artist and leave with a unique work of art with your own hands.
Southern Maine
York Art Association
394 York Street, York Harbor
207-363-4049
www.yorkartassociation.com
A classic artists’ association, YAA hosts annual community events like Art in the Park and a July Summer Art Fair, as well as exhibitions of work by its member artists. But it also welcomes visitors and non-members to its ongoing art-making events, which include monthly “Sip and Paint” (adults only!) and Family Fun days (all ages).
River Tree Arts
35 Western Ave, Kennebunk
207-967-9120
www.rivertreearts.org
Located in one of Maine’s prettiest and most-visited towns, River Tree Arts has been providing a performance and artmaking space for its community for more than 35 years. Along with its summer camps and multi-week classes—for kids and adults—in everything from painting to metalsmithing, River Tree Arts will offer one-day kids’ workshops this summer in sewing and mask-making.
Photo courtesy of Engine
Engine
128 Main Street, Biddeford
207-370-9130
www.feedtheengine.org
Since its founding in 2010, this nonprofit arts center has played a key role in Biddeford’s transformation from an economically depressed former mill town to a vital center for the creative economy. Engine offers artist workspaces, a communal 3-D printer, special exhibitions and a year-round schedule of art-making events. Among their offerings this summer is a series of encaustic—painting with hot wax—workshops, led by artists Kimberly Curry and Dietlind Vander Schaaf.
Greater Portland
Artascope at bec
Bickford Education Center
48 Railroad Square, Yarmouth
207-847-4060
bec.artascope.com
Housed in an arts education center (“bec”) that was the legacy of former town councilor Erv Bickford—and adjacent to a truck museum that is also named for him—Artascope offers among its array of classes several one-day intensive workshops that promise to end with a finished work of art. Classes in oils, stained glass and mosaic are scheduled for June and July.
Monoprints at a recent workshop at Portland’s Still Life Studio. Photo: Adria Moynihan Rusk
Still Life Studio
222 St. John St, Portland
207-899-6972
www.studiostilllife.com
Located near Portland’s historic Union Station, Still Life Studio promises individual attention in workshops that are geared for five to ten participants, ages 15 and up. Private lessons are also available with Adria Moynihan Rusk.
Maine College of Art Continuing Studies
522 Congress Street, Portland
207-699-5061
cs.meca.edu
The Maine College of Art—familiarly known as MECA—is an acclaimed degree-granting institution that anchors Portland’s arts district. It also welcomes non-traditional students through its robust Continuing Studies program. Highlights of the summer schedule include “Paper & Stitch” with nationally recognized artist Crystal Cawley, an on-site drawing class at the nearby Portland Museum of Art and a day-long course on contemplative art taught by Khenmo Drolma, a Buddhist nun.
Gel printing at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village.
Central & Western Maine
Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village
707 Shaker Road, New Gloucester
207-926-4597
www.maineshakers.com
Nestled at the gateway to Maine’s Lakes Region, this beautiful, historic and fully intact Shaker village is the only active Shaker community in the world today. Visitors can extend this unique cultural experience by taking one of the many classes they offer in traditional crafts. Half-day workshops this summer and fall include eco-printing, wood carving, book binding, basket making and numerous textile arts, as well as a hard cider making workshop on October 13.
Fiber & Vine
402 Main Street, Norway
207-739-2664
www.fiberandvine.com/classes
Located in Norway’s recently preserved 1894 opera house, Fiber & Vine is—as the name suggests—a yarn and wine store as well as an art space. Since knitting and wine are both best enjoyed with company, the store also offers regular classes, each focused on creating a take-home work of art: a flower pin, a letterpress postcard, a fabric basket, even a felted gnome. Check the website for summer and fall class schedules.
Gallery 302
112 Main Street, Bridgton
207-647-2787
www.gallery302.com
Named for the state route that runs from Maine’s seacoast to New Hampshire’s mountains, this artists’ cooperative offers an array of one-day workshops for its members as well as residents of and visitors to the peaceful and idyllic Lakes Region. Included in this summer’s lineup are two workshops with Anna Low of Purplebean Bindery—folded paper cards and leather-bound sketchbooks—and a “Soul Path Art” workshop with Larissa Davis.
Common Street Arts / Waterville Creates!
16 Common Street, Waterville
207-872-ARTS
www.watervillecreates.org
Waterville has long been a destination for the arts, thanks to the Colby College Museum of Art. Since 2012, new arts organizations like Waterville Creates! and its programmatic arm, Common Street Arts, have also flourished. Common Street Arts offers an open clay studio that hosts classes for all ages and offers regular life drawing sessions and day-long workshops that go beyond the run-of-the-mill: nature gelatin prints (June 30), celebrity life drawing (July 17, August 14, and September 18) and more.
The Harlow
100 Water Street, Hallowell
207-622-3813
www.harlowgallery.org
Hallowell is the hip first cousin to Maine’s capital city, Augusta, and home to some of the best antiquing and dining in the state. Visitors can make a day of it and take a class at the newly renamed—and relocated—The Harlow (formerly Harlow Gallery), home of the Kennebec Valley Art Association. In its new workshop space, The Harlow offers day-long and half-day workshops year-round; past offerings have included collage, papermaking and beading. The Harlow also offers free “Second Sunday” workshops during which guests of all ages can spend an afternoon making art to take home.
Maine Jewelry & Art
100 Harlow Street, Bangor
207-941-8600
www.mainejewelryart.com
Just down the street from the University of Maine Museum of Art is Maine Jewelry & Art, an artist-run gallery and supply store that also offers jewelry-making classes year-round. This season, workshop participants can make stacking rings, a charm bracelet, a tiny metal memento box or enjoy a night of jewelry-making over beers at the Beads and Brews workshop. Check website for dates and times.
A recent collage workshop at The Harlow in Hallowell. Photo: Alison Mckeen
Midcoast
River Arts
241 US Route 1, Damariscotta
207-563-1507
www.riverartsme.org/classes
Hosting about ten juried exhibitions a year, River Arts is an essential place for Maine artists to see and be seen. This membership organization also takes its commitment to community seriously, and in a town like Damariscotta that means not just the year-round residents but also the many thousands of summertime visitors. One-day or half-day workshops scheduled for the season include plein-air painting with Mary Ann Heinzen( August 25 ), Poetic Landscape Photography (June, 15), among many others.
The Art Loft
385 Main Street #9, Rockland
207-691-8558
www.artloftrockland.org
Located in a historic brick building in the bustling art center of midcoast Maine, The Art Loft is a community gallery and art space that stresses the therapeutic benefits of making art. From April through November, drop-in classes—which are open to all, with a discount for members—are offered on a monthly schedule, with a new instructor each month. Among this season’s highlights: in August, Angela Anderson will lead classes on wearable art and Art Povera, the avant-garde Italian movement of the 1960s. The Art Loft also offers monthly Paint Nights, Open Studios and lectures/demonstrations by visiting and member artists.
Center for Maine Contemporary Art
21 Winter Street, Rockland
207-701-5005
www.cmcanow.org/artlab
The modern, light-filled spaces of the Center for Maine Contemporary Art’s new building, designed by architect Toshiko Mori, are the setting for their monthly ArtLab For All Ages, a free afternoon artmaking program. ArtLab also offers standalone classes for children and adults; recent offerings have included a workshop on making walkie-talkie toys and a poetry workshop with Ellen Goldsmith. Adult classes are offered in partnership with 26 Split Rock Cove, an artist’s retreat in nearby Thomaston.
Waterfall Arts
256 High Street, Belfast
207-338-2222
www.waterfallarts.org
Surrounded by coastal beauty, Waterfall Arts was founded “to create community in harmony with nature through the transformative power of the arts.” They offer an impressive schedule of classes and workshops for the general public throughout the year, many of which reflect the environmental stewardship that is part of their mission. This summer, participants can learn about cardboard taxidermy (June 12) , Life Drawing Short Pose (June 13), Letterpress Lite (June 22) and much more.
Downeast
Lighthouse Arts Center
86 Main Street, Bucksport
207-702-9135
www.lighthouseartscenter.com
Just north of the breathtaking expanse of tidal river spanned by the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory and just across from the historic brick Alamo Theater, now run by Northeast Historic Film, is Bucksport’s Lighthouse Arts Center, an arts organization, gallery and education center. In addition to summer camps that kids can attend for even a single day, Lighthouse Arts Center offers summer workshops for adults in bookmaking, plein-air watercolor, wheel-thrown pottery and bubble glazing—the latter offered as part of their “. . . and Sip,” program, which includes a glass of wine in the registration price.
Schoodic Arts for All
23 Harbor Road, Winter Harbor
207-963-2569
www.schoodicartsforall.org
The thriving arts organizations of Downeast Maine prove that there is much to do, see, and make in this less-travelled, but still stunningly beautiful, part of the state. In scenic Winter Harbor—the island just past the more well-known Mount Desert—Schoodic Arts blends the visual and performing arts, offering a bonanza of live music and art workshops during its annual Summer Festival, on July 23 through August 12, 2023. From stone sculpture to bird-carving, midsummer visitors to this sun-blessed region can make art from dawn to dusk.
Eastport Arts Center
36 Washington Street, Eastport
207-853-4650
www.eastportartscenter.org
Whether or not Eastport is the first place in the United States to see the sun rise (there is some debate), there’s no doubt that the northern city is blessed with long hours of summer sunshine and that, somewhat off the beaten tourist track, it’s a heavenly place to be this time of year. Like other arts organizations in the area, Eastport Arts Center offers events and programs in both the visual and performing arts, including a popular art-making workshop series in July and August. Last year’s offerings included embossed beeswax candles, upcycled art and found-object folk art; check the website for this year’s workshops.
Students from Calais High School work on printmaking at the Tides Institute with StudioWorks Artist-in-Residence, Rachel Gross. Photo: Tides Institute
Tides Institute and Museum of Art
43 Water St, Eastport
207-853-4047
www.tidesinstitute.org
One of the ever-evolving Tides Institute’s highest-profile projects is the StudioWorks program, which brings several working artists to its facility for consecutive short term residencies each year. “StudioWorks requires all artists to include social engagement as part of their residency project,” explains StudioWorks coordinator Kristin McKinlay. Specific workshops are generally not scheduled until artists are in town, so McKinlay encourages those interested to keep an eye on the Institute’s calendar page: tidesinstitute.org/calendar. The ten StudioWorks artists for 2018 include Maine artists Michel Droge (painter), Sarah Hewitt (textiles), and Duncan Hewitt (sculptor), as well as others from across the country.
Aroostook County
Wintergreen Arts Center
149 State Street, Presque Isle
207-762-3576
www.wintergreenarts.org
Located in downtown Presque Isle, Wintergreen Arts Center serves as a creative hub for all of Aroostook County, administering the area’s First Friday art walk and maintaining a year-round roster of community art events. Two ongoing programs, offered in the evening hours, feed both the body and the art spirit. Pizza ‘n Art for Teens and Tweens includes sweet treats (and parents) as well as pizza, and participants get to take home what they create (most recently, a daisy painting with artist Heather Harvell). Sip & Paint has a similar format but is for grown-ups only, with chef-created savories and wine.
Please note that, as in many other parts of the country, Maine’s wonderful museums and public libraries also offer regular art-making programs; visit mainemuseums.org for listings. Individual artists also offer workshops in a variety of locations; many listings appear on maineartscene.com.
