Programs

Five Rivers Arts Alliance strengthens communities through the arts. Its programs include:

• Five Rivers Arts Alliance Member Meetings. Held monthly (except for Sept & Dec) these presentations offer practical advice and training in business, marketing and Web 2.0 skills for artists and entrepreneurs.
• Pecha Kucha Nights: Ten creators show their work in this fast-paced evening of inspiration.
• 2nd Friday Art Walk: More than twenty studios and galleries are open 5–8 p.m. in Brunswick and Topsham on the second Friday of the month, May–November. Includes Après Art Listings for later evening shows.
• 3rd Friday Art Walk: Bath studios and galleries open on third Fridays, 5–8 p.m., June–September.
• Arts Nights at the Library: Lecture and reading series by local artists, held in winter months in Bowdoinham, Topsham, Brunswick and Bath. Suspended for 2010.
• Arts Downtown & All Around: Region-wide open studio and gallery December weekend, featuring more than fifty studios, businesses, group shows and galleries and representing work by hundreds of artists across the region.
• Family Arts Festival: Annual arts festival for all ages with performances and hands-on art workshops on the third Saturday of September, on the mall, between Park Row and Maine St., in downtown Brunswick.
• Artscape: Published quarterly, Artscape is an extensive calendar and guide to arts, culture, and heritage of the Five Rivers region. This publication is currently on hold.

Five Rivers also supports special projects:

• Regional Marketing Initiative: Funding from the national Endowment for the Arts, the Maine Community Foundation made possible publication of "The best things in life are here" brochure that promotes our region's major cultural institutions and a new online calendar.
• Creative Economy Forums: A Community Development Block Grant-funded planning project supported Public Forums addressing needs of artists, organizations and creative businesses.
• Creative Communities Institute: This institute, in June 2006, focused on strengthening a regional sense of place and improving marketing tools to promote our region’s arts, culture and heritage.

Past Projects include:

• May Arts in the Park: A free community arts festival with a medieval fair theme, celebrating May Day in Bath’s Library Park. Offered in 2005 and 2006.
• ArtWorks and Art Van: Five Rivers supported Bath’s ArtWorks and ArtVan Programs by serving as fiscal agent for this new organization. The ArtVan Program is now a project of Volunteers of America.
• MidCoast Hospital Healing Environment Tile Project: 650 area elementary school students created permanent tiles for the new regional hospital in 2001.
• Arts For Youth: Children at Perryman Drive, Brunswick designed and painted a beautiful wall mural for the Perryman community building.
• Bath-Brunswick Cultural Map & Guide: A four-color map of the region, with 73 arts & cultural destinations and 23 natural sites.  Published in 2002.
• Brunswick Area Arts & Cultural Directory: Original directory of the greater Brunswick area researched in 1997-98 and published in 1998. Five hundred artists and cultural organizations were identified.
• Greater Bath Cultural Resources Directory. Research in 1998-1999 revealed more than 500 artists and organizations in Bath and five surrounding towns.
• Folklore: Original cultural assessment included work by folklorists in greater Bath and Brunswick areas. Julien Olivier of New Hampshire interviewed people in the French community to document and preserve folk arts and culture within the Franco-American community. His work can be found at Pejepscot Historical Society. Folklorist Robin Hanson researched and wrote folklore studies for the Bath and Brunswick communities.
• Images: Nathan Broaduss prsents at Pecha Kucha Night. Photo by Keith Spiro. Mime Kay Mann performs at the Family Arts Festival. Photo by Roger Fenn. Doug Protsik and Sharon Pyne perform at Bath's May Arts in the Park. Photo by Rena Chevalier. Artist Debra Csenge talks to a visitor at Arts Downtown & All Around; photo by Susan Perrine.