Andrew Chulyk, The Mind Reader, UMVA June Members’ Show.
UMVA Portland continues to post its monthly gallery exhibitions online. The June show is an Open Member one including work from 22 UMVA members. It is already online, curated by Amy Bellezza. You can see this June show and all the earlier 2021 exhibitions by visiting the UMVA website (theumva.org) and selecting “gallery exhibitions.”
In July, the UMVA Gallery @ Portland Media Center will hold its first in-gallery show, Art Matters by the Mid Coast Salon, a monthly discussion group of two dozen artists of diverse disciplines and styles. (Read the article in this issue by Gianne Conard.) It will be the first full in-gallery exhibition since March 2020. We hope that the increase in vaccinated Maine residents will bring UMVA members and other visitors to the gallery for the show’s First Friday opening on 2 June.
Plans for in-gallery shows in August and September are underway. The August exhibition is The Kneeling Art Photography, a show of Mainers representing the state’s various communities “taking-a-knee” in support of the struggle to end systemic racism and support social justice. The September exhibition is Freedom and Captivity: Maine Voices from the Imprisoned, bringing work by prisoners and ex-prisoners. Both shows plan First Friday Art Walk openings.
Many UMVA members are part of The Kneeling Art Photography project as photographers, videographers, and those photographed taking-a-knee: among them, Titi De Baccarat, Ann Tracy, Amy Bellezza, Dave Wade, John Ripton, Natasha Mayers, Anita Clearfield, Nora Tryon (LumenARRT!), Rabee Kiwan, Lesley MacVane, Jane Page-Conway, Christine Sullivan, and Jen Joaquin. Titi De Baccarat is the organizer/curator. View the website for updates.
2022 Call for Proposals
We are asking Maine artists to submit proposals for our 2022 Calendar year exhibitions to take place at our UMVA Gallery located in Portland. Click HERE for details and guidelines. We hope you join us as we prepare to make the UMVA 2022 Gallery season a success!
The Portland chapter also submitted to the UMVA board, for consideration and adoption, its draft of a statement about freedom of speech and creative expression. (The UMVA board plans to address this statement in its next meeting.) Christine Sullivan chaired the committee that drafted this statement in response to viewers’ potential political and social concerns related to the content of gallery exhibitions. UMVA Portland also signed an agreement with the Portland Media Center to continue its rental of PMC walls. Jen Joaquin, with the assistance of Joyce Ellen Weinstein and others, streamlined the curator/artist packet that is made available to those curating exhibitions at the gallery.
UMVA Portland discussed the “officers” of its group for the upcoming year. Christine Sullivan volunteered to accept the role of recorder. John Ripton agreed to stay on as convener for another term (April to April) or until another volunteer convener may come forward. Arthur Nichols agreed to continue as gallery manager until another member volunteers to take on this role. Arthur will seek to find another gallery manager that he will work with during a transitional period.
Image at top: Lesley MacVane, Yemaya Haitian Moon Goodess Protector of Mothers and Their Children, from the show Love/Rage: Goddess, 7–29 May.