HARPSWELL

Open houses will be held at businesses next month

Eighteen studios, shops, galleries and eateries in Harpswell, including the islands, peninsula and Cundy’s Harbor, will celebrate the holidays with community open houses from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 4-5 and 11-12.

Harpswell is also celebrating the reopening of the historic Cribstone Bridge. Visitors are encouraged to tour all of Harpswell and discover baskets, pottery, jewelry, crafts, hats, ornaments, furniture, fine art, handbags, note cards, clothing, quilts, candies, handmade paper, fine wine and special menus at two restaurants for the occasion. Maps and fliers will be available. Call 833-6081.

ROCKPORT

Panel will discuss topics in photography today

Current topics in photography will be the subject of a panel discussion co-hosted by Maine Media Workshops and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art at 2 p.m. today at CMCA, 162 Russell Ave., Rockport. Charles Altschul, photographer and president of Maine Media Workshops, will moderate the panel.

Admission is $5 (free for CMCA members and Maine Media Workshop students).

Panelists include Andy Graham, photographer and president/founder of Portland Color; George Kinghorn, curator and director of the University of Maine Museum of Art; photo-based artist K.K. DePaul; and photographer and multimedia producer Jonathan Laurence.

Altschul notes that in the past 10 years, the public’s vision has expanded beyond the limits of time and space, as photography is no longer constrained by lens optics and the limitations of recording light on film. Rapid advances in digital technology have also made it faster, easier and less expensive than ever to take a photograph and to print and share an image. At the same time, there is a strong resurgence of interest in historical photographic processes.

Using the backdrop of the two photo shows currently on view in Rockport — “Going Forward, Looking Back” at Maine Media Gallery and “Photographing Maine: Ten Years Later at CMCA” — the panel will discuss the complexity of the current moment in photography.

Maine Media Gallery is on the first floor of the Shepherd Building, 18 Central St., Rockport. It will be open this afternoon in conjunction with the panel discussion.

BRUNSWICK

Local consultant will lead festival’s fundraising effort

Amy Waterman, a Brunswick resident who has worked as a consultant to Bowdoin and Bates colleges and the Brunswick Downtown Association, is the new development officer at the Bowdoin International Music Festival.

Waterman is the curator of Maine+Jewish, the inaugural exhibit of the Maine Jewish Museum; a member of Brunswick’s Creative Economy Working Group; treasurer of Five Rivers Arts Alliance; and a committee member of Longfellow Days and the Brunswick Outdoor Arts Festival.

Waterman, a 1976 graduate of Bowdoin College, was the artistic and executive director of the Eldridge Street Project in New York from 1992 to 2007. Prior to that, she served in senior positions at the American History Workshop and the American Museum of the Moving Image. She is also the website editor and manager for the Council of American Jewish Museums in Denver.

She will lead fundraising efforts for the Bowdoin International Music Festival, a classical training and concert program presenting more than 80 concerts and serving as many as 275 advanced students from around the world each summer on the Bowdoin College campus.