Dennis Gleason knows better than to get too excited about selling a piece of art from his Boothbay Harbor gallery as a Christmas gift. If might go over, or it might not.

Personal taste being what it is, giving original art as a gift is always risky. The giver of the gift – let’s just say, a husband – might think a certain painting by a favorite Maine artist will look perfect over the sofa. But the receiver of the gift – maybe a wife – might not agree. She wished for something smaller or at least more compatible with the wall colors. “We’ve learned to hold the check until a wife says yes,” said Gleason, who operates Gleason Fine Art. “If it goes over, we’ll cash the check.”

On the other hand, risky gifts bring high reward, said Portland gallery owner Jen Swarts. “How great does it feel to receive something that was picked out thoughtfully and with your tastes in mind? There is something romantic about that,” said Swarts, who sells paintings, photographs, jewelry and glassware at Casco Bay Artisans on Commercial Street.

The gift of art can take many meaningful forms – tickets to the symphony to hear amazing musicians or guitar lessons so you make amazing music yourself. An original painting to hang on the wall or studio time so you can recommit to painting and make that masterpiece yourself. Or, even just a good book – or the time to write one.

Here are a dozen gift ideas for art-lovers, with many budgets, tastes and talents in mind.

THE GIFT OF THE SHOW

Portland Stage Company offers a $90 Ticket Sampler, which is a punch card good for two admissions through the rest of the performance season. Two people can attend one play or one person can attend two plays. The theater also offers a six-ticket Flexpass for $230. Both are packaged as gifts, with a gift card. Among the shows on the calendar are the durable comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace,” opening Jan. 24, and 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winner “Disgraced,” opening May. 2.

portlandstage.org or 774-0465

If classical music is more appropriate, the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s Compose Your Own, three-ticket option offers a 10 percent discount per ticket and reduced handling fees. How’s this for a concert trio: A PSO Pops! 50th anniversary celebration of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (Feb. 25-26); Beethoven and Rachmaninoff’s “Seconds” (Feb. 12 and Feb. 14); and a guest appearance by American fiddler Mark O’Connor (April 29-30). The PSO also sells a Flexpass, available in pairs, good for two admissions to any concert on the schedule. Individual tickets range from $25 to $75.

portlandsymphony.org or 773-6128

The Portland Museum of Art has redesigned its membership levels to appeal to folks who have never thought about or ever wanted to become a member, and to connect with the shifting demographics of Portland. An individual membership cost $60 for the year, a plus-one membership – unlimited admission for two adults for a year – costs $80, and an annual family membership costs $110 for year, and allows admission “for everyone in your family, no matter how you define it.” The museum is closed in January for maintenance and other work, and will reopen Feb. 3 with “The Mistress and the Muse” featuring work from the Isabelle and Scott Black Collection.

portlandmuseum.org or 775-6148

The best-selling ticket at Portland Ovations right now is for the touring musical “Annie,” which comes to Merrill Auditorium for one show, at 6 p.m. April 27. Tickets range from $45 to $70 through PortTix. Other shows popular with gift-givers are “Vocalosity” on Jan. 26, a high-energy a cappella singathon, and the national tour of the musical “Once,” Feb. 8-9, both at Merrill. If you are buying for a child, consider packaging tickets to Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie “We Are in a Play!” performance May 8 with one of his early-readers from a local bookseller.

portlandovations.org or PortTix at 842-0800

THE GIFT OF APPRECIATIONS

Maine painter Henry Isaacs began making reproductions of his oil paintings about six years ago as a way to sell work to people who wanted his paintings but couldn’t, or wouldn’t, invest the $2,500 to $15,000 it costs to own one. His limited-edition prints, which he makes with a master printer in New Hampshire, cost from $15 to $350. “I realized that the paintings I make are unaffordable to most people, even me. I am delighted they sell for what they do, but I realized that if I wanted to get new people interested in my art I had to make it more affordable,” he said.

henryisaacs.com

When buying original art as a gift, photography can be a good option, because it’s generally less expensive and often direct representation, which makes it easier to match the subject of the image with the recipient. Swarts at Casco Bay Artisans suggests black and white photos by Maine photographer Douglas White, who recently completed an Acadia National Park Residency.

cascobayartisans.com/artist/douglas-wood

 

Owning an original painting by Maine painter Dahlov Ipcar of Georgetown is beyond the means of many, but the Portland Museum of Art makes a lamp with details from Ipcar’s “Blue Savanna” as a wrap-around shade for $60. The painting of wild animals is in the museum’s permanent collection.

store.portlandmuseum.org/products/blue-savanna-lamp-by-dahlov-ipcar

The most popular item in the gift shop at the newly opened Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland is a hunter-orange “WOW” hat, for $20. The hat is a nod to the marketing campaign for the new building, which started with “Say WOW to the new CMCA!” The CMCA logo is hunter orange, and the hat’s matte silver lettering matches the brushed stainless trim of the building. Creative Director Jonathan Laurence designed the hat, which was hand-screened at Fox Island Printworks on North Haven.

cmcanow.org/product/cmca-wow-hat

At the Farnsworth Art Museum gift shop in Rockland, reproductions of pendulum earrings worn by museum founder Lucy Farnsworth sell for $40. Lucy Farnsworth dressed in the Victorian style of her day. After her death in 1935, she left her family fortune in a trust to create the Farnsworth museum. The earrings are to honor her legacy.

farnsworthmuseum.org

THE GIFT OF CREATION

More than anything, artists want time and space. Pickwick Independent Press in downtown Portland rents studio time at its printmaking shop to non-members, for $50 a day or $200 a week. Monthly rentals also are available, as are tutorials and studio assistants. pickwickindependentpress.com/daily-access.

The Bakery Photo Collective, which is moving back to Portland from Westbrook, offers a 30-day all-access membership for $250. This affords 24-hour access, ideal for a photographer working on a project with a deadline. bakeryphoto.com/membership

At 317 Community Music Center in Yarmouth, 13 weeks of guitar lessons with some of the finest teacher-musicians in Maine cost $450. It’s a lifetime gift if the lessons stick and music becomes a daily habit. Group ukulele lessons cost $300 for 13 weeks. An English Country Dancing class, held on Wednesday nights at the Yarmouth Historical Society, will feature musicians from 317 Main and a live caller: 10 weeks for $125.

317main.org or 846-9559.

For the writer in your life, consider the gift of the Black Fly Writers Retreat, May 4-7 at Grand Lake Stream. Presented by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, the retreat offers morning workshops, afternoons of writing, and evenings of readings and camaraderie at a classic Down East lakeside retreat. Prices range from $250 to $700 depending on accommodations.

mainewriters.org/2017-black-fly-writers-retreat

An experienced instrument maker seeking to tune up his skills would appreciate a one-week one-on-one internship with violin maker Jonathan Cooper of Acoustic Artisans in Portland. Cooper focuses the class to the interest of the student. It can be an overall introduction or a hands-on instruction focusing on varnishing, sound production or another specialized area: $1,500 for five 8-hour days.

acousticartisans.com

A one-week woodworking intensive through Maine College of Art’s continuing studies program (Jan. 9-14) costs $405 and gives participants a basic introduction to woodworking and furniture-making, with the goal of completing a Shaker side table by week’s end.

cs.meca.edu/january-week-long-intensives

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