Supporting Maine Artists and Enriching Our Arts Community

Welcome! The Maine Arts Journal: UMVA Quarterly is an ever-changing expression of the Maine arts community as compiled through the lens of the MAJ editorial board and with the support of the Union of Maine Visual Artists.

The UMVA has a new website that brings all the facets of this organization into one useful resource. Please visit www.theumva.org to find out why the UMVA matters to the arts and people of Maine and why artists should become members.

UMVA’s Mission

The Union of Maine Visual Artists (UMVA) represents visual artists statewide in all fields of endeavor and welcomes those who support contemporary artists in Maine. The UMVA is dedicated to upholding the dignity of artists, while creating positive social change through the arts. By collaborating with other cultural and progressive organizations, we raise awareness for significant issues while promoting an inclusive arts community in Maine. We are grassroots and we are active. We fear no art.

MAJ: A Place for Maine Art and Its Artists

The Maine Arts Journal: UMVA Quarterly’s web presence was launched in April 2017 to allow members, subscribers, and others free access to all the current and archived journal issues.

The publication began as a simple newsletter of the UMVA. The original goal was to connect the artist members spread all across Maine in the decades before the internet allowed such communication. As times, technology, and the needs of artists have changed, the “newsletter” has changed as well. From 2014–2016 the newsletter, which had morphed into an arts journal, continued to grow.

The Journal features essays by and about artists, interviews, UMVA member submissions, poetry, UMVA updates about its current projects, local chapter, and more.

The MAJ is organized around quarterly themes to which we encourage members to submit work.

Be Part of the Maine Community of Artists

Submission information and guidelines can to be found here. Please view the current issue and explore the archived issues that are available through the main menu.

We welcome your feedback on current features, proposals for future issues, and your ideas and submissions for upcoming themes. Our new format allows for comments. We hope to hear from you.

MAJ Editorial Board:

Natasha Mayers, Nora Tryon, Véronique Plesch, Betsy Sholl (poetry editor), with the help of Colby interns Sofia Escobar Amaya and Audrey Loo.