Art of Giving Gala
PORTLAND, MAINE – Five iconic Maine artists: Angela Adams, Eric Hopkins, Alex Katz, Barbara Ernst Prey and William Wegman, in addition to MECA alum Renée Bouchard, have agreed to participate in a fundraising gala commemorating Down East Magazine’s 60th anniversary, on Thursday, August 14, 5:30-9 p.m. at the Portland Company, 58 Fore Street, Portland.
Each work will be portrayed on an inside cover of the August anniversary issue and each artist has identified a nonprofit charitable partner to receive proceeds from the Art of Giving Gala. Down East Enterprise President, Publisher, and CEO Bob Fernald said, “Down East Magazine is guaranteeing at least $60,000 will be donated to the six charitable organizations; a minimum of $10,000 will go to each — in fact, we’re hoping for more.” Fernald added, “It’s an honor to support so many important nonprofits in Maine and we are truly grateful for each artist’s significant contribution. I am looking forward to this very special evening. I hope our readers will join us in celebrating and giving back to the Maine community.”
Tickets to the Art of Giving Gala are $100 per person and can be exchanged inside the event for one raffle ticket at no additional charge. A limited number of additional raffle tickets for the works of art may be available at the event for $100 each. Tickets to the gala are available online through downeast.com/artofgiving or artofgiving.brownpapertickets.com. The Penobscot Bay YMCA is the Art of Giving’s community outreach sponsor and is managing the process of distributing the donations to each charitable organization.
Kathleen Fleury, editor in chief of Down East, talked about the process of selecting the artists for the anniversary issue, “These artists are each known in their own right for their incredible work. They are tied to the legacy of Maine and have helped Maine achieve recognition for its beauty, strength of character and creative talent, all of which are important elements to Down East’s own mission of celebrating Maine. We are extremely honored by their willingness to contribute to our anniversary celebration.”
About the Artists
North Haven native Angela Adams began her career by earning a degree in interior design from the Art Institute of Philadelphia and establishing the angela adams design house in Portland in 1995. Together with designer Sherwood Hamill, the angela adams brand has expanded to include rugs, tapestries, bedding, totes, scarves, and furniture. Adams’ bold graphic patterns have caught the attention of numerous national publications, and her work has been featured in the New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens, Coastal Living, Dwell, Real Simple, and more. The donation will go to The Locker Project/Good Shepherd Food-Bank.
Renée Bouchard lives and works in Bennington, Vermont. She graduated from the Maine College of Art in 1999 and attended the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Phoebe Flory Watercolor School prior to that. Bouchard has received awards and honors from the Vermont Arts Council, the Vermont Studio Center, Cooper Union, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the Montana Artist Refuge and from the Kate Millet Art Colony for Women. McDaris Fine Art in Hudson, New York, and Moberg Gallery in Des Moines and Chicago currently represent her work. Her work was selected to be included in the Art of Giving by Down East editor in chief Kathleen Fleury, MECA and artist Eric Hopkins. The donation will go the MECA Scholarship Fund.
Eric Hopkins captures the beauty of Maine in a variety of media, including watercolors, oils, blown glass, and photography. He grew up on North Haven, graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, and has spent his career sharing his unique vision of the Pine Tree State. He has taught at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts on Deer Isle and shown his work at the Portland Museum of Art, the Farnsworth Art Museum, and several U.S. embassies across the globe. He is also represented in the corporate collections of Maine companies like L.L.Bean, Central Maine Power, and Idexx Laboratories. The donation will go to the North Haven EMS.
Since 1951, Alex Katz’s bold painting and prints have been shown in than 200 solo exhibitions and are included in more than 100 collections worldwide, including those of the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Institute, and Rockland’s Farnsworth Art Museum. Katz is a native of Brooklyn and a graduate of Manhattan’s Cooper Union Art School. In 1949, he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Since then, images of Maine have featured prominently in his vast collection of dramatic portraits and striking landscapes. In 1996, the Colby College Museum of Art opened a 10,000-square-foot wing dedicated to Katz and featuring more than 400 works donated by the artist. He is a longtime summer resident of Lincolnville. The donation will go to the Colby College Museum of Art.
Barbara Ernst Prey has earned widespread acclaim for her landscape watercolors, which frequently depict Maine. A New York native with degrees from Williams College and Harvard University, Prey maintains studios in Maine, New York, and Massachusetts, where she is an adjunct faculty at Williams. Her work been commissioned by NASA and the White House and is included in collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She currently serves on the National Council on the Arts, the advisory board to the National Endowment for the Arts. The donation will go to the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
William Wegman is best known for his cleverly posed photographs of his Weimaraner dogs, which have been exhibited worldwide for more than 40 years. After earning degrees in painting from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Wegman began teaching at California State University, Long Beach. That’s when he got his dog Man Ray, a Weimaraner that would become the central figure of his owner’s art. Since Man Ray’s death in 1981, Wegman has continued to work with the dogs, featuring them in videos shown on Sesame Street, Saturday Night Live, and Nickelodeon. They’ve also inspired nearly twenty children’s books. Wegman lives in Maine and New York. The donation will go to MOFGA.
The Art of Giving is made possible through the support of area businesses including Aurora Provisions, Transformit, Vena’s Fizz House, Sweetgrass Distillery, and Rainmaker Springs, and event sponsors MEMIC, L.L. Bean, Pequot Papers, Brown Printing Company, and Marlow Yachts. The Penobscot Bay YMCA is the community outreach sponsor for the Art of Giving Raffle.
For more information about Down East Magazine’s 60th Anniversary and Gala, visit downeast.com/artofgiving.
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