UMVA Portland Update

The UMVA Gallery at the Portland Media Center enthusiastically enters its 2019 schedule of exhibitions. The January show “Passages of Time: MacDonald and Mogul” featured the compelling photographs of new UMVA members Jesse MacDonald and Jules Mogul. Jesse recently graduated from the fine arts program at University of Maine Orono and Jules is presently a fine arts undergraduate at UMO.

            “The Way Life Is – Maine Working Families and Communities,” curated by UMVA board member John Ripton, drew work from 39 artists across Maine. It received advance publicity in a feature article in the Portland Press Herald MaineToday by Bob Keyes:  https://www.pressherald.com/2019/01/27/artists-portray-a-complicated-picture-of-maine-in-the-way-life-is/.  At the opening author and poet Pat Ranzoni read from her 2018 book Still Mill – Poems, Stories & Songs of Making Paper in Bucksport, Maine 1930-2014. Portland artist Titi De Baccarat engaged the audience in a song/chant composed for the evening. More than 150 people attended the opening.

            UMVA gallery manager and board member Gregg Harper collaborated with UMVA president William Hessian on the engaging and beautifully presented March exhibit, “Ours Is a Life of Lights and Shadows.”  Brief artistic statements accompanying the works deepened the gallery experience for visitors. The opening was very successful with 150 in attendance.

            The Gallery received nearly a thousand dollars as a percentage of sales in the first three months of 2019. Most notably, the Judy and Tony King Foundation donated one-half of the sale of Tony King’s photograph “Worm Diggers.” Now deceased, King lived much of his life in Cape Porpoise, Maine. The gallery exhibited three of his images in the February show.

            The April exhibit promises to be an exciting fourth 2019 show. UMVA members Bob Riemann (photographer) and Rabee Kiwan (painter) are presenting their images of Portland in “Portland City: Re-Imagined.” A preview of their beautiful, often poetic images can be seen in the e-invitation: www.portlandreimagined.weebly.com. The opening is Friday, April 5, 5-7:30 PM at the UMVA Gallery.

            Other initiatives by the Portland chapter include electing an executive committee to manage the affairs of UMVA-Portland. The plan is to streamline the chapter’s work and elevate its presence in the Portland art scene. The formation of the committee will be discussed in the April 15 Portland chapter meeting (6 – 7:30 p.m.). All UMVA-Portland  members are encouraged to participate in shaping the committee.