You can feel it as you remove a layer or two, go for a walk, and see your smile reflected back by fellow city-dwellers. At some point when you weren’t looking, everything became exciting again. We asked the arts community what they’re excited about as warm weather turns Maine back into Vacationland. Here are just a few of the responses.
Alex Steed: Executive Director, Hip Hop Without Borders. While I can’t speak for the entire arts community, not many of us are skiers or snowboarders and we don’t occupy ourselves with out-of-doors winter sports. We sit inside and we think and scheme and drink and write and create and draw and get really fucking bitter that the days are short and that we have nothing else to do. Portland is great in that we are provided with a built-in period of forced creation.
Then comes this beautiful weather — Portland warmth — which is beautiful all of the time. Here, you get to see all of this art, all of this creation, that’s like the 200-hour orgasm to the Tantric-sex-like environment of creation created by the winter. I would be excited for nothing if it wasn’t for the show-off-fest that is spring and summer in Portland.
Deb Whitney: Whitney Art Works. Participating in the Mensk project, Haul-U. I would love to see that expand to become a veritable “Art Train” or convoy that could bring multiple performances and installations to the various stopping points on First Friday nights. It has a great energy and potential to be huge — and a great way for artists and performers to get what they do “out there.”
Galen Richmond: Flaneur. The way that you can spend an entire day getting a cup of coffee. In the winter, it's a grim errand that you do as efficiently as possible, with your hands jammed into your pockets, while in the spring and summer you can stretch it out over a number of hours. It’s nice to be able to run into people on the street and spend a few minutes finding out what they’ve been working on, and telling them what you’re up to. Incidentally, that’s one of my all-time favorite ways to promote a show.
Virginia Sassman: Aucocisco Gallery. We have 41 widely diverse venues for this April’s Art Walk (on the 7th), from galleries to coffee shops, artists’ studios to real estate companies. More local businesses are supporting the Art Walk through advertising. We’re making improvements on the Art Walk Web site as well, which is currently receiving over 500,000 hits a year. Still going strong after five years, the Art Walk is definitely an integral part of Portland’s social scene as well.
Lydia Badger: Artist. Sitting in Longfellow’s Garden, a truly inspiring spot behind the Wadsworth-Longfellow house on Congress Street. It’s open to the public from May to October and offers flowers and benches and sunlight on a brick walk and it’s right in the middle of the city.
