Fiore Art Center opens “Artists in Residence: The First Three Years”

Jefferson. Maine Farmland Trust’s Fiore Art Center opens the summer season with a gallery reception and artist panel on June 29, 3-5pm. The event is open to the public and the panel starts at 4pm, featuring alumni Anne Alexander (sculpture), Michel Droge (abstract painting), Heather Lyon (video/performance art) and Jodi Paloni (writing). The panel will be moderated by Center Co-Directors David Dewey and Anna Witholt Abaldo.

Artists in Residence: The First Three Years is an exhibition of current artwork by artists, writers, and gardeners who took part in the residency program during the first three years of the Joseph A. Fiore Art Center at Rolling Acres Farm (2016-2018). Curated by David Dewey, the exhibit acknowledges achievements at Rolling Acres and examines the artistic impact of living and creating in this idyllic rural setting on subsequent work.

The exhibit runs from June 1 through September 29 in the Gallery at Rolling Acres, 152 Punk Point Road in Jefferson (open on Saturdays from 12-4pm). Participating alumni include Tom Higgins, Rob Pollien, Therese Provenzano, Susan Smith (2016); Anne Alexander, Elizabeth Hoy, Jessica Klier, Tanja Kunz, Sarah Loftus, Jude Valentine (2017); Rachel Alexandrou, Carol Douglas, Michel Droge, Heather Lyon, Maxwell Nolin, Jodi Paloni, Clif Travers and Thu Vu (2018).

“For most artists and writers, being granted a time and place to do creative work, free from life’s constraints, provides what they most desire: uninterrupted time to work,” writes Dewey in his curatorial statement. Dewey states that a residency is not just a time to refresh one’s creative batteries, but more important, it is a time to pursue and satisfy creative leanings and urges in greater depth. This kind of focused isolated work experience either confirms the continuance of previous methods or opens up new creative directions.

The artwork in this exhibition represents a variety of disciplines: painting, sculpture, performance, writing, installation, and a mixture of other disciplines and methods. The diversity of artistic disciplines is a requirement of the residency program and critical to its success. The communal experiences of daily life in the farmhouse, eating from the garden, exploring themes that relate to the land and environment along with intense studio commitments are the building blocks that form the beginning foundation of the residency program at Rolling Acres Farm.