July 2008 Artspeak:
Remembering Victoria Crandall
Victoria Crandall founded the Brunswick Summer Playhouse 50 years ago, opening nine ambitious and fully staged musicals in the course of ten weeks! It was hardly a Rooney-Garland-“let’s-put-on-a-show” moment, for Crandall brought experience and pluck that set the foundation for the theater’s impressive run. An Eastman School of Music training, Crandall had a concert pianist career, toured Europe during World War II with the USO, and accompanied many big names on Broadway of the era, including Maine’s own Rudy Vallee, Ethel Merman, Jimmy Durante, Frank Loesser, Richard Rodgers and Moss Hart. She produced musicals that toured resorts along the eastern seaboard and the Caribbean, playing a circuit of summer playhouses that catered to traveling shows with big name stars.
At 50, Crandall “settled down” in Maine to start her own summer music playhouse, with the ambition of staging locally producing musicals of Broadway caliber. From the start, strong alliances with the Town of Brunswick, Chamber of Commerce, local businesses and Bowdoin College have been keys to the theater’s success and longevity. So too has Crandall’s legacy of determination, professionalism, and dedication to “the best.” Opening night of the first 1959 production, “Song of Norway,” played to the Governor of Maine a loyal and engaged audience that has only grown with the years.
Able to shift with changing times, the theater succeeded first as Crandall’s for-profit business, and more recently as a nonprofit. It now provides educational training for more than 40 college interns and apprentices on stage and backstage. In 1988, Crandall received accolades for her work from Governor John R. McKernan and that year the theater was renamed Maine State Music Theatre, marking its statewide patronage and reputation. After flirting briefly with a move from Brunswick in 2000, MSMT purchased its Elm Street facilities where scene shop, rehearsal space and offices run year round. Come May, the company & crew move into Bowdoin College’s Pickard Theater as soon as the students move out. Today MSMT is one of the state’s largest cultural institutions, contributes more than $5 million to the local economy, and year after year, fills the seats of the beautiful Pickard Theater.
Audiences look for a “mix of the old favorites and the newest, hottest shows available” states Marketing Director Andrew Gilbert. “Every season we say ‘there's is no way we can top this next year’ and then we somehow do.” This season is as ambitious as any to date. Under the guidance of Artistic Director Chuck Abbot and Executive Director Steve Peterson, the whole staff, Equity actors, musicians and crew of interns clock many hours to create the appearance of an effortless performance audiences see opening night to closing curtain.
Tickets sell fast so to catch this summer’s shows and special events, go to msmt.org. Upcoming shows include: “The Producers,” June 25-July 12; “All Shook Up,” July 16-August 2; and the first full-scale production in Maine of the World’s Most Popular Musical, “Les Miserables,” August 6-24. “Toxic Audio” is a special event July 28. This Grammy-nominated a capella group ranges performs rap to be-bop, scat to doo-wop.
This year’s golden anniversary events include a gala opening night reception, art exhibit at Frontier Cafe, banners along Maine Street, and Accolades, the highly anticipated coffee table book with memories from the beginning through today. The entire staff and actor community of MSMT is behind this anniversary and involved in promotions, workshops, parties and presentations. Adds Gilbert, “Most importantly we realize that we would not have made it through 50 years without the support of the community and our audiences. This anniversary celebration is really for and about them.”
Artspeak: Local Food, Local Arts
A close relationship between local restaurants and local artists
Grab a cup of coffee or sit down to a three-course meal at a local restaurant and you are likely to find yourself surrounded by locally produced art. What makes an entrepreneur decide to decorate her establishment with a rotating gallery? Why do artists reach out to a food establishment as a gallery? What effect does the art have? These are a few questions we asked café/gallery owners in Bath and Brunswick and we found they shared a consistent view of food, art and community.
Eat Local/Display Local: “This is a community space and showing community art just makes sense. We do a high volume of business and in terms of visibility it is a great place to show. It makes people more aware of the artists in their own community,” said Café Crème owner Tonnie Schultz. Foods and products from local producers are coveted by consumers in our region, and sharing the creative side of our community adds meaning to the “shop local” motto we often hear.
Rotating Menus and Rotating Exhibits: Many restaurants vary their menus weekly, monthly, or seasonally and couple those variations with changes in the gallery space. Mae’s Café owner Kate Winglass noted, “It’s like changing the furniture; it creates variety, and our customers love to see the new pieces.” As the wall decor changes in an establishment, it can change the atmosphere of the space, fill an otherwise barren expanse and provide fulfillment of more than just the taste buds of the community. Says Frontier owner Michael Gilroy, “Our walls are in a constant state of change, so even our full time staff is inspired.”
Introducing art to new eyes: One of the benefits for artists showing in restaurants is that it allows people to see their work who might never experience it otherwise. Paul Harrison, owner of Little Dog Coffee Shop, says “We are approached by artists all the time…. Some artists have done reasonably well… an artist is able to show to a big audience here.” Gilroy adds, “Folks who might not enter a more traditional gallery/museum setting become exposed to different types of artwork, unintentionally.” New experiences for consumers can work both ways, bringing new customers into restaurants because of the art. “Through the month of May we always exhibit the Morse High [School, Bath] AP art class. Many students and their families come to the gallery opening who have never been here before. New artists bring in new people; their friends, family and people familiar with them.” says Winglass.
Let’s Talk! Conversation is fundamental to our society and art encourages these discussions. “Our customers like the storytelling aspect of our artwork. I’d also like to believe that it exposes our customers to something different, when they may least expect it,” says Gilroy. It may be a story told through the artists’ work, or a concept inspired by their work. Winglass said, “Some pieces are controversial; they bring up issues with different effects. Our latest artist had some pieces with political and religious elements and some customers loved it, and some hated it, but it’s all open to discussion. It makes people talk, and that’s important – that’s what art is all about.”
Let’s Walk: Visit these and many more art venues during regular business hours and on June 13, 5-8pm for 2nd Friday Art Walks, Brunswick & Topsham, and June 20, 5-8 pm 3rd Friday ArtWalk, in Bath. Listings at www.fiveriversartsalliance.org.
Interviewers: Amanda Similien, Economic & Community Development Specialist, Town of Brunswick and Erika Helgerson, Community Relations Coordinator, City of Bath talked to Michael Gilroy, Frontier Cafe, Cinema & Gallery, 14 Maine St, Brunswick; Paul Harrison, Little Dog Coffee Shop, 97 Maine St, Brunswick; Tonnie Shultz, Cafe Crème, 56 Front St, Bath and Kate Winglass, Mae’s Cafe, 160 Centre St, Bath.
ArtSpeak
RICHARD LEE - TAKING PANES
Look at those weathered mill windows with wavy glass panes," exclaims master paper artist Richard Lee. Stacks of windows lean against each other along a wall in Lee's second floor studio in Richmond's historic Ames Mill. Their frail, transparent forms mirror the artist to some degree. Both show their age. Each is outlined in white. They share a few cracks and creases between them. And together, man and medium are responsible for a vibrant collaboration of creativity, community and transformation in the dead of winter. "Taking Panes"--an exhibition fusing historic windows with contemporary artists--is a response to the disposal that these long-lived windows faced after replacement.
"What are you going to do with the old windows," Lee recalls asking? "Discard them" came the answer. Lee proposed salvaging them instead--and window-frame after window-frame quickly arrived at his studio, listing at attention, awaiting his orders. Lee's command, "Let’s give windows to artists and ask them to make an art statement."
Nearly one-hundred artists from the midcoast to as far away as Eastport, Bethel, Solon and Portland have traveled to Richmond and returned to their studios window-handed. The collaborating artists are diverse in their expressive styles and Lee expects that the upcoming show will reflect both quality and originality. "I think the challenge of transforming these old panes has been stimulating to their creators," he explains.
Regional artists, however, are not the only inspired participants contributing to "Taking Panes." Local businesses and agencies including the Town of Richmond, Richmond Contract Manufacturing Company, Paradigm Windows, K & G Hardware, Steve Pennisi, Amy Stacey Curtis, Jay Robbins and dozens of volunteers have also donated space, staging, promotional materials, hospitality and energy to this artistic salvation. Artists Mary Beth Morrison and Karen Campbell have helped organize the effort. Proudly, Lee nods and says the generosity he has received has been "overwhelming--a tremendous response."
Credit Lee's quiet magnetism for this. Lee, 75, is not only a master papermaker but a sly motivator. His ability to invite, cajole, suggest, and challenge artists from around the state in the dead of winter to pick up a window, create new work quickly, return it to Richmond, and attend the show's opening in-person is, like winter itself, a force of nature most cannot escape. Artist Richard Lee has inspired children and adults locally, nationally and around the world to participate in and practice papermaking. Last year, Lee was awarded Honorable Mention for the 2007 Maine Alliance for Arts Education Bill Bonyun Award and his paper expression "Egyptian Angel with a Monk" is currently traveling in the Fuller Craft Museum's national exhibition "Pulp Function." Lee himself traveled to Turkey last year and envisions another exotic journey this coming year if his health allows. All of his effort now though is focused on this exhibition and only one chore remains. Participation. Lee leans over and says, “Come all, bring your neighbors.”
Show details: Opening Reception: Sunday March 16th, 10am - 4pm. Free.
Ongoing: Wed – Sun, 10am to 4pm, March 12 - 16, March 19 - 23, March 26 - 30.
Location: Ames Mill, 307 Front Street, Richmond, 4th Floor.
Elevator in the building for those needing assistance.
Contact: 798-0935.
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Art & Accessibility
Anyone familiar with Brunswick knows the solid shape of the Walker Art Building perched on the edge of the Bowdoin College Quad, with its broad sullen shoulders, and back hunched to the community. Though the building’s stoic exterior bears no signage on the street side to announce its purpose or stature to passers by, this well-known centurion is on the National Register of Historic Places.This fall the Bowdoin College Museum of Art will reopen to reveal a newly tailored exterior, and an expanded and state of the art interior, completing a renovation project begun in 2003 to honor this Brunswick landmark.
The goals of the renovation are multifold, but perhaps the most interesting to me are those pertaining to the museum’s relationship to the community. While honoring the original structure, architects Machado and Silvetti Associates of Boston have created a visual and literal point of entry from the town-facing or street side so that the museum no longer appears to cater just to the college. The “glass curtain” on what might be considered the back of the building offers a glimpse into a new gallery featuring Bowdoin’s well-known Assyrian reliefs.
The new transparency facing Park Row reflects a desire on the part of the Director Katy Kline to communicate to the town that the greater community is welcome in. In addition to this enticing view, visitors are invited to enter via a new glass pavilion rising from the ground just east of the museum itself. This entry way is the architects’ answer to Kline’s goal to make the formerly partially accessible museum “elegantly handicapped accessible.” To that end, visitors of all abilities, and from both the college and community, are invited to enter the museum through this new and somewhat magical portal.
Having been a part of the Bowdoin College community as a student, and now a part of the Brunswick community as the director of an art center for people with disabilities, my appreciation of the transformation is heartfelt. Central to our focus at Spindleworks is to foster an inclusive community where everyone, no matter what his or her ability, is embraced and treated equally. We encourage this on a human level, and law requires it to happen on an architectural level. The new entrance to the museum takes this requirement one step further by making an inclusive entrance instead of a solely accessible one. I look forward to bringing the artists I work with to the museum where they will be able to experience the museum for what it is and what it hopes to be: a home to a wealth of art and artifacts for all the community to enjoy, learn from and celebrate.
The public is invited to the ribbon cutting ceremony at 1:00pm on Sunday, October 14. The museum will remain open until 5:00 pm, and then resume normal hours. In addition, Thursday evening hours are being added to increase access for the working community.
Liz McGhee is the Director of Spindleworks, which is a program of the Independence Association of Brunswick. www.spindleworks.org
August Artspeak: Rob Stevens 
Rob Stevens is part of a long history of boat builders in Maine. His career started at the Apprenticeshop at the Maine Maritime Museum in 1980. The program was free and students were “asked to commit to 18 months and to get the hell out by two years.” Rob and other apprentices were responsible for running the shop, and almost as soon as they knew anything, overseeing new apprentices. He was exposed to numerous traditional vessels as there were 8-9 boats being built at any one time including a Washington County Pea Pod, an 1840’s style Pinky, and a Chesapeake Bay crabbing skiff.
Rob now runs his own shop in Phippsburg, where he and two others—including a graduate from the Apprenticeshop—build boats to order. The next big project is the reconstruction of Maine’s first ship, the Virginia, built originally at the Popham Colony in 1607. While funds are still being gathered to bring the ship to life, extensive work has already been done by Rob, naval architect David Wyman, and volunteer John Bradford to design the boat. Without plans for the original vessel, the team used old drawings, descriptions, and books written in the 1600s on boat building to create the plans that are now Coast Guard approved and ready to go. Rob credits John with “saving the boat” as he deciphered the old books—the first mathematical descriptions of how to build a boat that were like reading Shakespeare.
When the time comes, the Virginia will be recreated using New England timbers, many from Maine, and hopefully a tree from every county in the state. Many of the tools that will be used could have been used by a 1607 shipwright. Rob admits “the jobs we use a power tool for, they could have done faster with an axe. Electricity makes us lazy.”
This summer you can find Rob at the Maine Maritime Museum as part of a summer long celebration of shipbuilding in Maine. He will be using traditional tools to make the spars for the boat, and will be working on the lofting (drawing out the plans full size). Rob recognizes and appreciates the hum generated by seeing a boat being built. The greatest part, he says, is seeing volunteers come out to get involved, even if to just sweep the shop floor. “There is something magic about boats, that speaks to the human spirit, and the pleasure and excitement of getting on the water.” Certainly Rob helping to carry forward the spirit that makes Maine one of the last strongholds of wooden shipbuilding.
