It’s good to see that a group of artists in South Portland and Cape Elizabeth have organized an alternative to Portland’s First Friday Art Walk.

First Friday has long been a popular event among both art enthusiasts and those in the area who are looking for an evening out on the town.

This weekend six galleries will participate in the Second Saturday Art Stroll. The stroll will stretch from Cottage Road in South Portland to Shore Road in Cape Elizabeth. At one end, the organizer of the event, Stephen Popp, who owns Old Crow Gallery at 31 Cottage Road, will be holding an art opening for photographer Nancy Ciocca and painter Nance Driscoll.

Other participating business owners include Artascope Studios, at 352 Cottage Road, where Polly Bennell of InterPlay Creative Coaching in South Portland will host a workshop, starting at 6:30 p.m., on balancing creativity and life.

A short distance from there, at 378 Cottage Road, the owner of the Front Room Gallery, Jon White, will be displaying his ceramic pottery and the photography of Matthew Robbins. Next door to the Front Room, at 382 Cottage Road, the Three Ring Circus will have 35 local artists on display.

In Cape Elizabeth, the Sandpiper Designs jewelry gallery, at 546 Shore Road, will show the work of the worker of Gratia Banta. Next door to Sandpiper Design, Ann Veronica’s canvas bags will be on display along with jewelry made by more than 30 artists.

Events like this are good for local artists, as well as the local economy. It offers a great alternative to people who might otherwise be forced to travel to Portland to get their cultural fix for the evening.

Residents in Cape Elizabeth, South Portland and other neighboring communities should get out Saturday and support this event and local artists. With their support, it could grow and become a regular occurrence in these communities.

Something to contribute

This week writer Linda Hersey takes readers behind the walls of the Long Creek Youth Development Center in her story on Page 1 to show readers a unique program that seems to be affecting the lives of at least a few inmates there.

The program brings teachers from the Portland Conservatory of Music to Long Creek to give music lessons to the inmates there, most of whom are teenagers. The inmates then perform for visitors and peers.

The program has at least a few success stories, like Branden Morrissette, who is interested in attending music college in Florida after he completes community college in Maine and a three-year sentence at Long Creek for theft and other offenses.

While a music program certainly isn’t going to reach everyone, the success of this program should be inspiration to other prisons in the state, where similar programs could be beneficial to inmates, many of whom could be contributing members of society, if they only knew they had something to contribute.

Brendan Moran, editor

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