National Endowment for the Arts Funded Visiting Artist Series Launches at Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine
Visiting Artist Pamela Moulton will be the first in a series of artists to create communal art with visitors at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine in a National Endowment for the Arts-funded program.
The Visiting Artist Series in the Lunder Arts and Culture Gallery is designed to enrich the Museum & Theatre’s arts education programming for children and their families with a focus on using art as a lens to explore sustainability and our changing planet.
From February 19, 2022 to May 28, 2022, the Visiting Artist Series will host three artists who call Maine home. The Artists will work with Museum & Theatre visitors to create communal works of art.
Beginning in February and continuing through May, visitors will have the opportunity to meet and create alongside our three Visiting Artists who were chosen through a rigorous application and selection process: Pamela Moulton, Roberta March and Marissa Glover. Over the course of several dates, each Visiting Artist will be working in the Makerspace for special “pop-up studios” during specific play sessions over four weeks (please see events calendar).
Each artist works in a different medium and will supply base materials and lead special art-making techniques that visitors will use to contribute to the communal work of art. Over the course of the spring, visitors will help create sustainability-themed artwork:
Pamela Moulton will facilitate two projects. The first is an immersive sculptural installation that visitors will create using projects that use repurposed fishing rope and nets. The rope and nets are sourced through cleanup efforts done by the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation. The second project invites visitors to repurpose found objects to create an enchanting underwater forest environment.
Roberta March’s project invites each person to use markers and art supplies to create designs, patterns and pictures on individual wood pieces. These individually decorated pieces are then contributed to a communal, large-scale wooden butterfly mosaic. The butterfly was chosen for this project because it is a species endangered and impacted by climate change, but it is also a symbol of hope and change. Just as caterpillars transform into butterflies, so can we all work together to make positive changes for the earth.
Marissa Glover’s project uses repurposed textile scraps from local businesses that will be combined into a fabric mural of the natural world. Visitors will use recycled, thrifted, and salvaged materials to form flowers, plants and trees that celebrate the diversity of ecosystems from the mountains to the sea. As we repurpose items through creating beautiful art, we become part of a greater conversation about our role in nature and how we can help maintain its beauty and health.
The Museum & Theatre’s mission promotes engagement with the transformative power of the arts and provides essential opportunities for children to explore identity, foster creativity, and develop critical life skills essential for healthy development. As children engage in artmaking, they also are given the opportunity to explore new and complex ideas and express their understanding of the world around them.
In addition to generous funding of the Lunder Arts & Culture Gallery by The Lunder Foundation, the Visiting Artist Series is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.