A new art exhibit, exploring and processing COVID and grief through art opens Oct. 5 at the H. Allen and Sally Fernald Art Gallery at the University of Maine Hutchinson Center in Belfast. The show, on display through December, is free and open to the public from 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Monday–Friday.
A free public reception for the show will be held from 1–3 p.m. on Oct. 17.
Two groups are participating in this art show — the Eddy Middle School in Newry, Maine and the Treasure Trove Artistry Project.
The Eddy Middle School is a small, independent school in rural western Maine that gives students freedom, responsibility and accountability. As part of their studies during the pandemic, students used prompts to write truths and metaphors about both COVID and masks. The metaphors were then translated into watercolor paintings using a negative space technique. Work from over a dozen Eddy Middle School students will be on display in this show.
Treasure Trove Artistry celebrates the creative impulse as a universal language. It began after founder Patricia Kaplan lost her husband in April of 2020, right at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. In deep grief, Kaplan turned to poetry for solace and grounding. She began sending her poetry to artists and friends from Maine to Florida to Japan, asking them to create a piece of art in response to her poems (a rhetorical device known as reverse ekphrasis).
Works from the Treasure Trove artistry project, along with Kaplan’s poems were on display at the Belfast Soup Kitchen earlier this summer. Kaplan and the group’s other members hope that the project will continue to inspire future participation from artists of all mediums — dance, theater, and the visual arts. The Treasure Trove would like to thank Lin Calista for framing their work.
This exhibit will be on display at the H. Allen and Sally Fernald Gallery at the UMaine Hutchinson Center, 80 Belmont Ave., in Belfast from Oct. 5 through December.
Participating Treasure Trove artists include:
- Robin Carroll, Gulfport, FLA
- Carol Chanock, Scituate, MA
- Nicolas Cullen, Belfast, ME
- Jan Ahjan Grossman, Amherst, NH
- Russell Jokela, Niigata Myoko, Japan
- Katenia Keller, Monroe, ME
- Aimee Moffitt-Mercer, Belfast, ME
- Liz Moore, Stockton Springs, ME
- Liv Kristin Robinson, Belfast, ME
For more information about the Hutchinson Center’s H. Allen and Sally Fernald Art Gallery, click here.
