ARRT! (The Artists’ Rapid Response Team!) works with progressive groups and organizations throughout Maine, providing images that can help to distill and clarify their important messages about issues that matter to people in Maine and the world beyond our borders.
Fall 2023 was a troubling season in Maine and the world. Issues of national and international import touched our lives, creating anguish, sorrow and division. ARRT! has worked hard to support groups struggling to make space for change in the world. Many people came out to work alongside ARRTists to give visual presence to their diverse messages. We honor the right of peaceful assembly and recognize that there are many perspectives in these fraught times.
ARRT! banner at Homelessness vigil, December 21, 2023.
As 2023 drew to a close, the Longest Night of Homelessness vigil was held on a cold night in Portland. The ARRT! banner pictured above was painted the year before and accompanied the mourners who walked from Preble Street to Monument Square where LumenARRT! projected the names of those who died during the year. Friends and community members spoke of those lost. It was a fitting tribute to the fourty-five souls and also to the many losses of 2023.
ARRT!ists at work in Bowdoinham with community help.
Placard painted with ARRT! and community members at an ARRT! Build in December 2023 supporting common sense measures for gun control.
Placard painted with ARRT! and community members at an ARRT! Build in December 2023 supporting common sense measures for gun control.
Placard painted with ARRT! and community members at an ARRT! Build in December 2023 supporting common sense measures for gun control.
ARRT!ists at work in Bowdoinham with community help.
Placard painted with ARRT! and community members at an ARRT! Build in December 2023 supporting common sense measures for gun control.
Placard painted with ARRT! and community members at an ARRT! Build in December 2023 supporting common sense measures for gun control.
December ARRT! session in Bowdoinham welcomed communities of activists for an ARRT! Build. Moms Demand Action, a grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence. Everytown for Gun Safety and Maine Gun Safety Coalition, also joined in.
Image painted during ARRT! session, December 2023.
ARRT! banner for the Greater Augusta Unity Committee in November 2023.
ARRT! banner for peace in Palestine.
ARRT! banner for peace in Palestine.
ARRTists at work.
Placard supporting ceasefire in Palestine.
ARRT!ist at work in Bowdoinham.
ARRT! banner in action.
ARRT! banner in action.
Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights created placards and banners for their actions this fall. ARRTists worked with these groups in November and December. This fall, the Maine Council of Churches and the Greater Augusta Unity Committee needed banners in their stands against hate. The National Resources Council of Maine, fighting the Pickett Mountain zinc mining proposal and the League of Women Voters with their campaign to support the vote relied on ARRT! to help.
ARRT! banner for the NRCM in efforts to stop plans for Katahdin region mine.
ARRT! banner for the Maine Council of Churches.
ARRT! banner for the League of Women Voters.
ARRT! banner for No Toxic Rockets for ME.
Join us for the next gathering of ARRT! be on 14 January.
The Artists’ Rapid Response Team (ARRT!) is a project of the Union of Maine Visual Artists (UMVA). ARRT! is grateful for the support of the UMVA and a donor-advised fund of the Maine Community Foundation. UMVA members and others are always welcome to join in, and ARRT! is always on the lookout for organizations in need of our services. Check out our website.
Image at top: ARRT!ists at work in Bowdoinham with community help.