Category — Portland

PACA kicks off an all new series of Creative Conversations on March 17 with “YOUR TURN!”.

All Creative Conversations take place at SPACE Gallery, 538 Congress Street, Portland, www.space538.org.
Doors open at 6:30, program from 7 to 9 pm.

YOUR TURN! is a Creative Conversations comment box, moderated by Jessica Tomlinson.  This an open-forum discussion with members of PACA, the newly minted Creative Portland Corporation, City of Portland representatives, local press and the music and gallery communities. Come to this informal roundtable for answers to your questions or to voice your concerns about the future of the Arts in Portland. There are a few different avenues you can take to contribute to the conversation: during the discussion; submit an email anytime up until the day of the event with your question or comment to info@portlandarts.org, include the subject line “Your Turn”; or fill out a comment card anonymously and drop it in the comment box provided at the beginning of the night. Come be a part of setting the Arts agenda for years to come.

Future Creative Conversations:

April 13 – The Arts in our Communities.  This program will highlight several projects that are currently engaging diverse communities in Portland through the arts.  Panelists will discuss programs in Public Art, individual initiatives, and Art at Work, a national venture to improve municipal government through strategic art-making projects with city employees and elected politicians.  This program will be moderated by Marty Pottenger, PACA board member and Arts & Equity Director for the city of Portland, www.artatworkproject.us.

May 19 – Cool Ideas!  This evening, PACA invites several arts leaders in the community to discuss recently developed projects that have made Portland a more exciting, interesting, and creative place to be.

This Friday is the first FFAW of the fall season, and to celebrate, PACA is teaming up with Portland Discovery Land & Sea Tours to run the trolleys during the art walk!  The trolleys will run from 4:30 until 8:30, and will be available to transport art walk participants from Longfellow Square in Portland’s West End to Washington Avenue on the East End.

Board Secretary Virginia Rose commented, “With so many new venues across Portland, we are hoping to make travel between downtown and Munjoy Hill easier, and bring more art walk participants across the Franklin Artery in style.”

The trolley will run, free of charge, making stops along the following route: Longfellow Square, Congress Square, Monument Square, Washington Avenue & Congress Street, India Street & Middle Street, Exchange Street & Middle Street. For more information about Portland Discovery Land & Sea Tours, see their website: www.portlanddiscovery.com.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

September 17, 2009 – The Portland Arts and Cultural Alliance (PACA) announced today awards of $26,000 in grants for the last fiscal year, as well as the appointment of four new board members.

In the 2008-09 fiscal year, PACA received $10,000 from the Maine Arts Commission for building capacity in Maine’s cultural communities and $4,000 for the Public Art Lecture Series. The Davis Family Foundation granted PACA $7,500 for the First Friday Art Walk, and the City of Portland contributed $5,000 for general operating support.

Board president Alice Kornhauser commented, “We are deeply gratified to have such substantial support from public, private and non-profit sectors for programs like First Friday Art Walk that contribute so much to the quality of life in Portland, not to mention over $250,000 a year to the local economy.”

PACA’s four newly-appointed board members include: Peter Bass (President of Random Orbit, Inc. a progressive real estate development company and member of the Developers Collaborative), Ezekiel Callanan (co-founder and Executive Director of Maine Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts), Amanda Flanagan (Account Executive, gBritt PR), and Marty Pottenger (Director, Arts & Equity Initiative, City of Portland and Executive Director, Terra Moto Inc.).

About Portland Arts and Cultural Alliance (PACA):
Founded in 1985 and designated as the City of Portland, Maine’s local arts agency in 1997, PACA’s core programs include First Friday Art Walk and Creative Conversations. PACA also provides support to the City of Portland’s Public Art Committee as well as the newly established Maine Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. PACA was the facilitating agency for Portland’s participation in the Maine Arts Commission’s Discovery Research and “Arts and Economic Prosperity” national survey through Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America.

St. Lawrence Arts Center

Saturday, May 30th
11:00am – 1:00pm
$5

We are having an Arts & Crafts event for all ages! Activities will include: Cartooning lessons by Ed King, painting slates from our roof, making beaded jewelry, making magnets and collages, and more! All materials included (but bring your own if you’d like!) Kids should wear clothes they can get messy.

St. Lawrence Arts Center
76 Congress St. Portland, Me.
775-5568

The gallery at Running With Scissors will open a group show of new works of art during the First Friday Art Walk on June 5.

Join the artists for a reception including live music performed by the local group, under a cardboard sea from 5:00 to 10:00 pm. “Looking Inside” will present art in a variety of mediums from the fifteen artists who make up this unique art collective. Friday’s celebration will also be an open studio event, offering the public a unique opportunity to meet the artists and visit their studios.

The upcoming show also celebrates running with scissors’ one-year anniversary at its new location, 54 Cove Street, home of the Cove Street Art Center.  The show continues through July 31. For more information or directions, call 699-4242.

The relocation of running with scissors artist studio space to Cove Street has resulted both in an expansion of it’s fully-equipped studio concept and a revival of it’s vibrant and re-known gallery.  The 7 year old studio’s presence has also inspired owner, Jeff Ritter, to transform the entire building into the Cove Street Art Center, which, as well as being home to running with scissors and J.S. Ritter Supply for jewelers, will soon house a second gallery and artist studio space. Construction is virtually completed on the 3500 square feet Open Concepts Studios which includes studio space for most art disciplines, a gallery, and a metals and glass workshop/classroom space. Although appropriate for a variety of art disciplines, all of the studios will have natural gas feeds and ventilation and are approved for the use of soldering equipment making these studios ideally unique in Portland for both jewelers and glassmakers.