A TALE OF POSITIVE VISION

1952: A group of eleven artists formed an artist co-op and called themselves “Maine Coastal Artists.”  For 15 years, the cooperative rented space wherever they could near the central Maine coast.

1967: A New director was hired. Her first goal: to find a permanent home. The co-op purchased ($1650.) a vacant firehouse in Rockland, Maine, and renamed themselves the Center for Maine Contemporary Art.  They stayed in the firehouse for over 40 years in spite of a growing list of limitations - chief among them: out-of-the way location and increasing space squeeze.

Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland

2010: Director change.  Suzette McAvoy is the former museum curator of the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland.  She convinced all “players” that it was time to think and act bigger.  Within two years, she had pledges for the $3M necessary to build the new state-of-the-art center.  An internationally renown architect - Toshiko Mori, Professor of Architecture at Harvard - agreed to design the facility at nearly no cost.

Main Gallery featuring painter John Walker - "From Seal Point"

The Center for Maine Contemporary Art opened in 2016 in the heart of Rockland just down the street from the Farnsworth Museum. It’s mission statement reads “to provide a catalyst for carrying forward Maine’s legacy in American art.”  

Numbers of visitors have gone from 9,000 per year to 35,000 with an expected increase to 50,000 this year.  It’s a small facility with one main gallery, two smaller ones, a classroom/art lab, small outdoor courtyard for sculpture and the usual lobby/gift shop and administration offices.  There is no permanent collection,therefore, no need for the demands of temperature controlled storage space and curatorial supervision. 

Rockland’s goal is to be known as Maine’s “art center.”  An “art corridor,” a cluster of privately owned art galleries, tie the Farnsworth Museum (their collection of Andrew Wyeth watercolors is a huge draw) with the CMCA down the street. Already, the Center and it’s first art exhibits have been reviewed by national newspapers and on-line art magazines.  It is listed among the top 10 places to visit on most Maine travel sites.

The power of vision!!   

Natural light from celestery windows (borrowed from Dia Beacon?)