Sarah Alexander, executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) for the last eight years, says that when people hear where she works, they always tell her the story of their first visit to the fair.

“People’s lives are transformed there,” she said. “And almost everybody’s favorite posters are from the year they first went.”

That fair in question is MOFGA’s Common Ground Country Fair — an annual gathering of roughly 60,000 people in the town of Unity, celebrating rural living, sustainable land stewardship, and community — which turns 50 years old in September.

As for the posters Alexander mentioned? Those are arguably a celebration in their own right. And as such, are about to get a celebration of their own.

Every year, MOFGA has put out a call to Maine artists for submissions, and a jury of 200-plus volunteers has chosen one winning iconic image to become that year’s official poster. This year, to commemorate both the 50 years of the fair and America’s 250th birthday, a free public exhibition, “50 Years of Common Ground,” brought all of the posters together to the Maine State House Gallery in Augusta starting June 1. Before the Common Ground Country Fair itself happens Sept. 25-27, the exhibition will move to Waterville’s Ticonic Gallery on Sept. 4. 

Devotion to the fair and the poster collection runs deep. Many reprints sell out immediately in MOFGA’s online store and buzz abounds about the exhibition’s opening receptions: the first was Thursday in Augusta and a block party reception will be held Sept. 4 in Waterville. The devotion extends past Maine and New England.

“People across America know the fair,” said Amy Hausmann, who was a curator and arts administrator in New York City before joining the Maine Arts Commission as executive director in August 2024. “You’ll see people all over wearing the T-shirts that the posters are made into.”

And those are organic cotton T-shirts, natch. The designs, said Mary Weitzman, MOFGA director of membership and development, “are the ambassadors for our back-to-the-land movement, they’re about passing along tradition. Organic sustainability. Caring for the land, and everybody coming together.”

Despite the fact that most of the images in the exhibit were created by different artists, there are definitely aesthetic commonalities.

“From an art historical perspective, there’s a very stark, modern graphic quality,” Hausmann said, “whether it’s a beautiful tall sunflower or a bouquet of garlic tied together like flowers. Or there’s one that’s a beet, yet it looks like this very exotic vegetable. Others are insects, bees, all different animals… but the aesthetic is similar — all very clean and extremely accessible.”

This year’s winning submission, by artist Brenda McGuinness, depicts a beaming sheepdog surrounded by golden sunflowers. Its happy vibe was one factor in its favor, says April Boucher, who has been MOFGA’s Common Ground Country Fair director (she leads the group responsible for the selection process) for more than a decade, but more so was what it represents.

“Lots of people love the sheepdog demonstrations at the fair,” said Boucher. “And it’s so nice to be able to remind them of that. But this year’s design is also about the relationship between farmers and animals and stewardship with the land. That’s such a big part of the fair.”

She pauses, as if remembering a specific moment. “When we’re all discussing and advocating for a winner, we always want to make sure a design has an educational moment,” she said. 

By “discussing and advocating,” she means the lengthy selection process that members say operates much like caucuses. It begins with inviting 240 people to vote online in the first round and then moves to in-person (and on occasion, very animated) conversations between 30 to 50 people.

“People definitely have favorites and when someone’s passionate about a design it can be infectious,” she says, adding, “But everyone comes from a good place. And ultimately we always ask, ‘Does this design say something about our agricultural values in our everyday lives?’”

That educational component is the most crucial aspect of the posters, agrees Alexander. “We have so many talented artists in Maine,” she said. “The submissions we get are beautiful and thoughtful, but at the end of the day, it’s about the mission. So a work may not be selected because it may not be representative.”

While all of the posters illustrate different dimensions of MOFGA’s mission, they vary in both representation and message every year.

“This year’s sheepdog tells the story of working animals at the fair,” Alexander said. “That’s a very different theme than the bee balm poster, but they’re both connected to our mission. That’s the magic of the country fair. And even if you’re not a gardener, you might appreciate the apples and owl poster because you still understand the role that produce plays in our farming systems.”

As it turns out, you might appreciate those connections if you’re an executive director of the Maine Arts Commission. Hausmann remembers her own first visit to Common Ground Country Fair as a young kid going with family.

“It’s a place we pass information and stories from one generation to another,” she said. “People learn skills and crafts and methods to care for land and grow crops. That knowledge-passing is a very community-based process and that’s very beautifully democratic.” 

When it came time for her to look for ways to best celebrate Maine in conjunction with the nation’s 250th anniversary, creating a poster exhibition celebrating MOFGA struck her as an ideal dovetailing.

“Common Ground Country Fair is about liberty and equality, and about sharing of resources, food, information and tradition,” she said. “The posters that artists have created exemplify that. These are the ideals of the country. It’s the perfect way to celebrate the fair’s 50th anniversary and celebrate America’s 250th. It’s quintessentially American and it’s quintessentially Maine.”

Alexandra Hall is a longtime New England lifestyle writer who lives in Maine.

IF YOU GO

“50 Years of Common Ground,” June 1-Aug. 30 at Maine State House Gallery, 230 State St., Augusta. Gallery hours 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Sept. 4-30 at Waterville Creates, Ticonic Gallery, 93 Main St., Waterville. Exhibit reception is 4-8 p.m. on September 4. For more, visit mofga.org.