The UMVA is a non-profit 501C3 organization founded in 1975. The UMVA mission is to uphold the dignity of artists and to support a vital contemporary Maine arts community. UMVA members value what can be achieved through collective efforts. The UMVA encourages the ideal of art as a spiritual and aesthetic communication beyond commerce.

To that end, the UMVA creates better communication and support among artists and advocates for artists’ interests and rights.

The Union’s most important programs include a website, featuring members’ artwork, the online Maine Arts Journal: UMVA Quarterly (art magazine) and newsletter (with pertinent announcements).

The UMVA sponsors ARRT! and its new video crew, LumenARRT! and Maine Masters, an ongoing film series featuring some of Maine’s most distinguished artists.

Currently there are two active UMVA chapters, one in Portland and one in Lewiston-Auburn. The Portland chapter maintains the CTN Gallery on Congress St. with rotating member shows.

Union of Maine Visual Artists Current Board Members:

• Robert Shetterly  (UMVA President, Maine artist, activist and creator of the Americans Who Tell the Truth portrait series)
• Natasha Mayers  (Maine activist artist, founder of ARRT!, and editor of the MAJ)
• Mary Laury  (director of Schoodic Arts )
• Richard Kane (Maine Masters)
• William Hessian  (chair of Portland chapter of the UMVA and Maine artist)
• Cynthia Hyde (Caldbeck Gallery and Maine artist)
• Jackie Bennet (treasurer)

Membership is open to visual artists and members of the arts community living in or connected to the state of Maine.