CSA II: Community Supporting Arts at Harlow Gallery

Harlow Gallery presents a series of 3 exhibitions showcasing artwork from CSA II: Community Supporting Arts in which participating artists have been visiting their partner farms regularly since January, at the start of the 2017 growing season, creating art inspired by their farmer’s lives, work, and landscape. The resulting body of artwork will be exhibited at 3 prominent Maine galleries beginning with The Maine Farmland Trust Gallery September 22-November 10. Maine Farmland Trust gallery, located at 97 Main Street in Belfast, celebrates agriculture through art, capturing the vibrancy of Maine’s farms and farmers—their intimate relationship to the earth, the crops they grow and animals they tend. (www.mainefarmlandtrustgallery.org.)

CSA II is also on view at Harlow Gallery, located at 160 Water Street in Hallowell, from October 27-December 2 with an opening reception Friday, October 27, 5-7pm; and at Engine, located at 128 Main Street in Biddeford, from November 10-December 16 with an opening reception Friday, November 10, 5-8pm. Harlow Gallery is home to the Kennebec Valley Art Association, a membership based 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to connecting and celebrating art, artists and community in central Maine since 1963. (www.harlowgallery.org.) Engine’s mission is to foster and integrate the arts and design, education, and sustainable creative entrepreneurialism as an explicit community value and civic priority in Biddeford. (www.feedtheengine.org.)

Participating artists and farms are: Ingrid Ellison of Camden (paired with Hope’s Edge Farm), Helene Farrar of Manchester (paired with Farmer Kev’s), Dylan Gifford of Kents Hill (paired with Wholesome Holmstead), Karen Merritt of Portland (paired with Crystal Spring Farm), Anna O’Sullivan of Portland (paired with The FarmME), Tim Ouillette of Portland (paired with Hancock Family Farm), Tyson Pease of Gardiner (paired with Tender Soles Farm), Alyssa Phanitdasack of Portland (paired with Sheepscot General Farm and Store), Jessica Rhoades of Thomaston (paired with Whatley Farm), Susan Bartlett Rice of Walpole (paired with Tarbox Farm), Nicholas Runco of Oakland (paired with KVCC CSA), Kris Sader of Orono (paired with Ripley Farm), and Rebecca May Verrill of Portland (paired with Frith Farm).

All the participating farms are Community Supported Agriculture (CSA farms). A CSA farm sells shares at the beginning of the growing season and then provides fresh, seasonal food on a regular basis to each shareholding household throughout the growing season. CSA II will use the power of art to promote the economic and environmental benefits of organic farming and of buying locally grown food. Our food industry is a critical key to a sustainable economy and the health and well-being of Maine citizens in an age of accelerating climate change.

For more information please visit harlowgallery.org or call 207-622-3813.