AUGUSTA

Belfast, Waterville win grants for revitalization

The Maine Arts Commission announced last week that Belfast and Waterville each will receive $50,000 grants to assist with community revitalization. The grants are designed to support dialogue and partnership among municipalities, businesses and the cultural sector, and were awarded through the commission’s Creative Communities = Economic Development Grant.

The grant enables the cultural sector to contribute to plans and initiatives that stimulate the local economy, provide jobs, strengthen the role of arts and culture, and enhance quality of place.

The Belfast Creative Coalition will use the grant funding to bring together arts, cultural partners and economic partners to brand and market the Belfast community as a place for arts, culture and local food.

The coalition will hire an administrative coordinator who will be responsible for centralizing community resources and maximizing the synergy within the region to strategically allocate resources. The administrator will develop a regional cultural events calendar and interactive website, coordinate programming and events, and generate regional marketing and branding.

In Waterville, the grant will support the city’s new Converge & Create brand through asset-based marketing, incentives for artists, creative business attraction and new cooperative programming.

Waterville Main Street, working in tandem with the city, the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce, the Colby College Museum of Art, the public library and the Waterville Arts Council, will oversee the design and implementation of a brand-integrated and coordinated marketing strategy for Waterville’s arts and culture.

Projects in Waterville will include the marketing of existing cultural assets, the development of a cooperative downtown arts venue and the development of incentives for recruiting artists and creative businesses to downtown.

“Waterville is poised to become a destination for arts and creative opportunities in Maine, and the support of the CCED grant will help us to realize these exciting goals,” Sharon Corwin, director and chief curator of the Colby College Museum of Art, said in a statement. “We are thrilled that Waterville has been selected to receive this important support.”

BOOTHBAY HARBOR

Andre Gallant to judge Maine Photography Show

Photographer and world traveler Andre Gallant will be the jurist of the seventh annual Maine Photography Show. The show is a juried statewide exhibition of photography in Maine.

Gallant, who lives in Saint John, New Brunswick, is the author of “Photographing People at Home and Around the World,” “Destinations: A Photographer’s Journey,” and “Dreamscapes: Exploring Photo Montages.” He was also the photographer for the books “Winter,” “The Great Lakes” and “Seacoasts,” all written by Pierre Berton.

Gallant teaches photography workshops with Freeman Patterson, with whom he co-wrote “Photo Impressionism” and the “Subjective Image,” as well as the revised edition of “Photography for the Joy of It.” He lectures internationally as well as in the U.S.

He is a regular contributor to Photo Life, and his work has appeared in numerous magazines such as Outdoor Photographer, Canadian Camera, Canadian Gardening, Canadian Living, Gardening Life and En Route. He is the recipient of two National Magazine Awards for his photography.

Entries for the 2012 Maine Photography Show will be taken through Feb. 1. All entries are taken online. Visit mainephotographyshow.com for entry form and information.

The show opens April 14 and continues to May 5, and is open to all amateur and professional photographers with a Maine address. The exhibition is produced and presented by the Boothbay Region Art Foundation. The gallery is at 1 Townsend Ave. in Boothbay Harbor. 

– Compiled by Bob Keyes, Staff Writer

 

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