“Directors’ Cut: Selections from the Maine Art Museum Trail” at the Portland Museum of Art (PMA) is a mini-retrospective of 200 years of Maine culture with contributions from eight museums statewide. Some artists included are: Winslow Homer, Marsden Hartley and the Wyeths – along with the supporting tier of Maine art royalty, from John Marin and Rockwell Kent to Robert […]
PMA directors hope people like what they see and visit the other museums as well as the Maine tourism industry. “With one voice together, we have much more leverage to talk about the arts in Maine,” said PMA director Mark Bessire. “We’d like to see the state do a better job presenting culture as one element of the Maine brand of tourism. The visual arts tells such a great story, and we don’t use it enough.”
Art and culture have helped to define Maine more than people think. The art reflects “why we live here and why people want to visit Maine,” said Bessire.
When Winston Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favor of the war effort, he simply replied, “then what are we fighting for?”
insightsliteraryartjournal.com 