EASTPORT, Maine — Years of efforts to establish this seaside Washington County’s downtown area as an arts mecca received a boost this week with the award of a $250,000 grant to The Tides Institute and Museum of Art in Eastport.
The grant is one of 47 awarded nationwide by ArtPlace, an organization committed to supporting “creative placemaking initiatives.” The grant is the first ArtPlace award to be made to a Maine community and is one of only two awarded this year in New England.
Tides Institute and Museum of Art Director Hugh French said Tuesday the funds will help to underwrite programming and facilities restoration through a project that’s been dubbed Artsipelago, a play on words given the geography of the Eastbrook region, which is replete with islands and peninsulas. Artsipelago is a cross-border initiative that showcases American, Canadian and Passamaquoddy artists studios as well as galleries and shops that feature locally produced art.
“It’s a comprehensive community revitalization strategy that bets on art as the centerpiece of a comeback in rural Eastern Maine,” French said. “We want to build on a whole series of arts activities that go on here year-round. We also want to build links between local artists and regional festivals and have more artist demonstrations festivals in places like Lubec and Calais.”
French said the ArtPlace grant will help subsidize restoration of the two-story, 1887 downtown Holmes Twins building at 48 Water St. that later will be christened StudioWorks. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an element of downtown Eastport’s National Historic District designation, the long-vacant building will serve as the centerpiece for an artists-in-residence program, French said.
“StudioWorks will bring art-making to the street level,” he said. “It’s going to be a very expensive restoration project. We hope to get started later this summer, and we hope to get in there by this time next year.”
The process of seeking an ArtPlace grant was lengthy and complicated, French said. There were 2,200 applicants that submitted initial requests, with 200 of those being invited to make final applications.
ArtPlace is a recent collaboration of 11 major national and regional foundations, six of the nation’s largest banks and eight federal agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts, to promote public interest in the arts throughout the country. ArtPlace has raised almost $50 million to help support efforts to transform communities that are making strategic investments in the arts.
I have been to Eastport several time recently. I have never been to the “art gallery” the Liberty Café on the other hand is IMHO a great reason to visit. I LOVE Greek food and while there is a Greek place in Brewer this place is much closer to me and the food is better. After you eat if your so inclined to enjoy desert there is a bakery to get your sweet tooth fix at called the Moose Island bakery. Also folks who do not now the Pirate festival in Eastport is AWESOME!!! Got kids or grandkids great grandkid even then this is the place to go September 7,8 and 9th 2012… Dress up it makes it even better.
Fyi I do not live in Eastport nor do I have any stake in any of these places other then I fully support and enjoy the fact they are local to us up here in Washington co…
” Tides Institute and Museum of Art Director Hugh French said Tuesday the
funds will help to underwrite programming and facilities restoration
through a project that’s been dubbed Artsipelago, a play on words given
the geography of the Eastbrook region, which is replete with islands and
peninsulas. Artsipelago is a cross-border initiative that showcases
American, Canadian and Passamaquoddy artists studios as well as
galleries and shops that feature locally produced art.”
Mr Walsh needs to learn the names of the towns he is supposed to be reporting on.
Will these funds benefit any of the other local businesses in town or just the twin sisters? Other buildings in town could use a little piece of the “pie”!