Throughout 2015, more than twenty participating nonprofit organizations will offer exhibitions and public programs exploring the state’s role as a magnet for photographers, both as subject matter and as a unique place for introspection, discourse, and innovation.
Topics will range from the international community of photographers active in the state today, to iconic modernist photographers who are closely associated with Maine, to rare historical images from photography’s earliest days. The Maine Photo Project will also embrace new media, pushing the boundaries of what is traditionally perceived as a “photograph.” Many of the works on view will come from the prestigious collections of Maine’s collecting institutions as well as from photographers who live, study and work in the state.
The Maine Photo Project is organized and supported by the institutions of the Maine Curators' Forum and is generously sponsored by the art museums at Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby Colleges, with fiscal management provided by the Maine Historical Society. Funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Maine Office of Tourism.
About the Maine Curators' Forum
The Maine Curators’ Forum is a consortium of curators representing Maine’s leading arts and cultural institutions. Previous projects of the Maine Curators’ Forum include the Maine Print Project (2006) and the Maine Drawing Project (2011), both of which drew strong audiences to participating institutions and received national and regional press coverage in theNew York Times, the Boston Globe, Art New England, the Maine Sunday Telegram, and other sources. (The Maine Print Project also featured an associated book, The Imprint of Place: Maine Printmaking 1800-2005 by David Becker, published by Down East Books.) TheMaine Photo Project will build upon the success of these and other recent statewide exhibition collaborations such as the Maine Folk Art Trail (2008) and the Maine Civil War Trail (2013). The Forum has been active since the early 2000s, playing a fundamental role in establishing the Maine Art Museum Trail and in bringing a major exhibition of photographer Sebastiao Salgado's work to Maine in 2002. The Forum has also been active in state advocacy efforts, including efforts to return the Maine Labor Mural to public view.