The Portland Chapter of the Union of Maine Visual Artists held a meet up on 22 November 2025 at the home of our VP, Kimberley Harding. Members discussed the prospectus that Ann Tracy is developing for the May 2026 exhibit at the Oak Street Lofts Gallery, the only show the Portland group has on the books for this year. Members are encouraged to write up some proposals for other venues in the Portland area.
The theme for the show is Celebrating Hope. There is a size limitation of 8-by-8 inches. All entries must be wired because of the hanging system at the gallery. Pieces that do not have a sturdy wire from which to hang, will not be accepted into the show. Jane Dahmen will be the juror for the show.
Some members did not see the email that went out with save-the-date-for-the-meeting or the one that went out the night before the meeting. Updates for members are going out on the Mailchimp emails from UMVA and will eventually (we are all volunteers on this bus) show up on the website. Our web person, Shanna Compton, reminds us: “Your email preferences are self-managed now. Please go to https://theumva.org/email-list and fill in the form and select which topics you want news about. The same form works to update accounts that already exist. You can also use the ‘update my preferences’ link at the bottom of any newsletter email.”
The next meetup for members to discuss the upcoming show, as well as to bring in their work to talk about, will be on 24 January at 11 a.m, either at a local library (thank you for checking in on this, Christine Sullivan) or at Kimberley’s house. Going forward in this new year, our meetings will be at 11 a.m. on the fourth Saturday of every other month (24 January, 28 March, 23 May, 25 July, 26 September, and 28 November 2026).
Image at top: Jane Dahmen in her studio (photo: Portland Art Gallery)