Briefs
Chamber of Commerce awarded funds to support tourism
Kennebec Valley Tourism Council (KVTC) has awarded sponsorship support funds in the amount of $1,662.50 to Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce for the Taste of Waterville to assist in the growth of tourism in Maine’s Kennebec Valley and produce a positive economic impact on the region.
Mid-Maine Chamber was one of 12 sponsorship recipients awarded as part of the 2021 KVTC marketing partnership program. In total, the 2021 KVTC sponsorship support application requests reached nearly $29,100. The organization was unable to fully fund all regional sponsorship requests to its members this year. However, with the help of Brookfield Renewable U.S., KVTC was able to fund $19,351.50. KVTC is excited to award sponsorships to local organizations who are helping KVTC promote the Kennebec Valley region as a destination place with their own marketing initiatives.
Employees at the Whitney Museum and the Hispanic Society Join the Growing Ranks of U.S. Culture Workers Seeking to Unionize
Staffers from both institutions are trying to join the United Auto Workers.
The Whitney Museum of American Art. Photo courtesy the museum.
The Hispanic Society petition was filed with the National Labor Relations Board on May 7, and the Whitney’s followed suit on May 17, reports the
Workers at both museums are looking to join the Technical, Office, and Professional Union, Local 2110, part of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union, which has represented staff at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the New-York Historical Society since the 1970s and the Bronx Museum of the Arts since 2005.
Community Calendar: May 19-29
Wednesday 5/19
Literary Lunch: Brock Clarke discusses “I, Grape; Or the Case For Fiction” with Sarah Domet, noon, Portland Public Library, 5 Monument Square. Free, portlandlibrary.com.
Wednesday 5/26
Edward Ball will speak about the book “The Life of a Klansman” at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 26, as part of “Begin Again, reckoning with intolerance in Maine,” by Maine Historical Society in Portland.
Contributed / Nina Subin
“The Life of a Klansman,” Begin Again Series Zoom book talk with Edward Ball, 6 p.m., part of “Begin Again, reckoning with intolerance in Maine,” by Maine Historical Society in Portland, May 27 through Dec. 31. To schedule an in-person visit to the exhibit and learn more, visit mainehistory.org/programs.
Dorset’s museums have had a fairly tough time during lockdown and are really looking forward to reopening to the public over the next few months.
Lyme Regis Museum is built on the site of the home of Mary Anning, the world’s first great fossil hunter and celebrated its 100th birthday in March this year. The museum contains fossils found by Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot as well as one of scientific legend William Buckland’s famous plaster ‘shark poos’. They also have spectacular fossils discovered in more recent times including the head of a huge ichthyosaur. However the museum has a lot more than just fossils and, for example, their Writers’ Gallery contains Jane Austen’s cockade and material owned by the Austen family. (Much of Jane Austen’s novel, Persuasion is set in Lyme).
At the Farnsworth, Robert Indiana and the Wyeths share the spotlight this summer
The Rockland museum displays its gift from Betsy Wyeth and work that Indiana made in tribute to Marsden Hartley.
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The Farnsworth Art Museum will open “Robert Indiana: The Hartley Elegies” on May 29. Shown here is “Robert Indiana: The Hartley Elegy Series: The Berlin Series, KvF I,” a serigraph from 1990, measuring 76-3/4 inches tall and 53 inches wide.
Courtesy of the Farnsworth Art Museum
It was no secret that Robert Indiana harbored jealousies toward the Wyeth family. He minded his manners in public, but did not hesitate to privately express his belief that curators and writers in Maine paid too much attention to the Wyeths and too little attention to him.