The countdown to the unveiling of the new PMA begins at 6 p.m. on February 3 with Lights Across Congress, a special event that will bring together more than 20 community organizations, businesses, and supporters to present a massive 130-foot-wide cinematic projection on the museum’s façade, promising to be the Maine arts event of the year.
Lights Across Congress will serve as a public countdown to the reopening of the PMA, and at the end of the projection the museum will open its doors and welcome visitors to the entirely new and reimagined PMA, for free.
Lights Across Congress will include one of the largest multidimensional projections in Portland’s history, made possible through generous support from Unum as well as through partnerships with Headlight AV, p3, and the City of Portland. To celebrate the reopening of the museum, the projection will light up the façade of the PMA with an exciting and colorful animated sequence that people will remember for years to come. With support from the city of Portland and to provide as many viewing angles as possible, Free Street at Congress Street will be closed to traffic on the evening of February 3.
Many more community partners will be involved—including ice sculptors, food trucks, and the Friends of Congress Square Park—to make Lights Across Congress a festive winter carnival environment and a true party to mark the reopening of the PMA.
Lights Across Congress is a moment of celebration for the Portland Museum of Art, as well as an opportunity to showcase the economic and social power of Maine’s arts and culture for a wide array of organizations, community partners, and businesses. From leading corporations such as UNUM to creative agencies such as p3 and The VIA Agency, and from community organizations such as Creative Portland to state agencies such as the Maine Office of Tourism, Lights Across Congress and the reopening of the PMA provides a moment for the city of Portland and the state of Maine to rally around the arts.
Courthouse Gallery Fine Art in Ellsworth is presenting three exhibitions featuring Philip Barter, Gregory Dunham, Heidi Daub and Richard Keen. “My Maine” is the first retrospective of Maine painter Philip Barter since his death in 2024. Known for his stylized renderings of trees, rivers, mountains and clouds, Barter developed a distinctive visual language through bold […]
The Maine Museum of Photographic Arts in Portland will host an artist panel from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 21 in conjunction with “Investigations into the Metaphysical,” on view through Oct. 3. The exhibition brings together work by Brendan Bullock, Marianne Bernstein, Brenton Hamilton, Peter Shellenberger, Fern Nesson, Joyce Ellen Weinstein, Elizabeth Opalenik, Luc Demers […]
High Peaks Artisan Guild in Kingfield is featuring the work of multidisciplinary artist, sculptor and jeweler Samuel Goldstein throughout August. Goldstein, who lives in the Western Maine mountains, has spent more than eight years creating small sculptural pieces and jewelry from precious minerals and stones including rainbow fluorite, alabaster, lapis lazuli and Oregon sunstone. His […]
The Boothbay Region Art Foundation in Boothbay Harbor is accepting submissions for “ARTinME 2026,” its fourth annual juried exhibition celebrating large-format art. The exhibition, on view from Sept. 30 to Nov. 7, is open to full- and part-time Maine artists working in large two-dimensional formats in a variety of media and styles. Two-dimensional works must […]
The Deer Isle Artists Association is presenting “Small Works,” its popular annual exhibition showcasing work by artist members, through Sept. 13 at its gallery in Deer Isle Village. The exhibition features small works in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, weaving, woodwork, glass and jewelry. Buyers may take purchased work home immediately, […]
Cynthia Winings Gallery in Blue Hill will open “Seen at the End of the World,” co-curated with Christine Lafuente, on Aug. 23. The exhibition will feature work by Scott Baltz, Stanley Bielen, Avy Claire, Christine Lafuente, Carol Pelletier and Stuart Shils. In the Project Space, the gallery will present “Uncharted Seas,” featuring work by Kate […]
Local Color Gallery in Belfast will welcome guest artist Nell Parker for “New Topics: Spirits in the Land,” on view from Aug. 25 to Sept. 20. The exhibition features linocut and woodcut relief prints that explore animist possibilities within the local landscape through Parker’s pictorial heritage rooted in Western art history. Her work draws on […]
George Marshall Store Gallery in York is showcasing an evolving selection of work by regional artists alongside “Critters,” a group exhibition on view through Aug. 30. Among the works currently highlighted is Amanda Case Millis’ monotype “Three Mornings on Monhegan II,” inspired by one of the artist’s visits to Monhegan Island. Michael Stasiuk’s sculptural “Black […]
Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland is presenting four exhibitions through Aug. 29: Scott Kelley’s “The Whale,” Bo Bartlett’s “Eye of the Beholder,” Richard Estes’ “Woods and Waters” and “Sea Change: A Group Exhibition.” Kelley’s “The Whale” celebrates the 175th anniversary of Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick,” a novel that has fascinated the artist since he first encountered […]
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