3D light show to mark Portland Museum of Art's reopening
COURTESY / PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART
An animated 3D movie, "Lights Across Congress," will be projected tonight onto the Portland Museum of Art's front facade facing Congress Street to mark the public unveiling of the museum's multi-year "Your Museum, Reimagined" efforts. The museum will reopen at 6 p.m. for a free public showing of its reimagined gallery spaces.
PHOTO / Alison Nason
Dozens of business and civic leaders attend a preview showing of the Portland Museum of Art's newly reimagined gallery spaces this morning.
Photo / Alison Nason
Andrew Eschelbacher, the Susan Donnell and Harry W. Konkel associate curator of European art, gets ready to lead a tour of one of the newly installed exhibition wings of the museum.
It was standing-room only in the Portland Museum of Art’s Great Hall Friday morning as invited business and civic leaders got a preview of the museum’s $2.7 million upgrade featuring a “reimagined” presentation of its collections across the museum’s three buildings.
The museum has been closed for a month to complete renovations and reinstall artwork in new and innovative ways throughout its galleries.
The public unveiling of PMA’s multi-year “Your Museum, Reimagined” project will take place Friday night at 6 p.m. 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.
Featuring one of the largest multidimensional projections in Portland’s history — made possible through funding from Unum and partnerships with Headlight AV, p3 and the city of Portland — “Lights Across Congress” will serve as a public countdown to the reopening of the PMA. At the end of the projection the museum will open its doors and welcome visitors to the entirely new and reimagined museum for free.
Another performance of the light show will occur at 8 p.m. today. Free Street will be closed to traffic for the event, which includes ice sculptors and food trucks to create a festive winter carnival and party to mark the reopening of the PMA.
'Your Museum, Reimagined"
“We raised more than $2.7 million and half of that money came from outside the state,” said PMA Director Mark Bessire as he greeted the guests. “It’s significant that the National Endowment of the Humanities and the National Endowment of the Arts … saw the cultural value that the Portland Museum of Art brings to Maine. For a smaller market like ours, it’s the equivalent of getting an AAA bond rating.”
The multi-year reimagining process included digitizing the museum's entire collection of more than 18,000 artworks, creating an art study and conference room and publishing the museum's first-ever catalog featuring its most important artworks. One of the biggest surprises to come out of it, Bessire said, is the way in which the museum’s efforts to refocus attention on its collections and make them more accessible to the public was appreciated by both past donors and prospective donors.
“We have a pretty frugal acquisitions budget,” he said, underscoring how important donations have been to the museum’s collection of significant works of art, such as David Rockefeller’s recent gift of “River Cove,” a 1958 tempera painting by Andrew Wyeth that’s considered to be one of his best.
Attracting visitors to Maine
The tourism draw of the Portland Museum of Art and other Maine museums has been cited by the Maine Office of Tourism as a significant contribution to the state’s economy. A 2010 economic impact study of Maine museums prepared for the Maine Arts Commission by economist Chuck Lawton and Lindsay Rowe quantifies total spending by PMA visitors at almost $23 million, with average daily spending by an overnight visitor estimated at $203 and for a day visitor at $95.
Elizabeth Jones, PMA’s director of audience engagement and communications, said the museum’s reimagining effort will reinforce that impact for both Maine residents and visitors through innovative programs, events and exhibitions.
“Transforming Maine through the power of art and highlighting art and culture’s economic significance for the state has been a focal point for the museum and a central tenet of ‘Your Museum, Reimagined,’” she said. “It is imperative for the future of our state to position the arts as a quintessential Maine experience — one that is unlike anywhere else in the country — and it has been invaluable to have the Maine Office of Tourism by our side throughout this process.”
“The ultimate goal,” she added, “is to bring more people — from Portland, from Maine, and from around the country — into the conversation and ensure everyone has a place at the table. Through positioning the PMA as an epicenter for arts and culture in the northeast, we can strengthen the appeal of Maine for visitors looking for unique experiences, but also potential new residents who are considering establishing homes, businesses, and families in our community.”
First impressions
Ralph Hendrix, chief operating officer of Macpage LLC, an accounting firm with 100 employees in South Portland, said his company has been hosting rotating art exhibits inside its office for the past four years. It not only provides a venue for local artists, he said, it has become a much-appreciated element of the workplace for Macpage employees who have interesting artwork livening up the walls.
The PMA does the same thing for the greater community, he said.
“I grew up in Portland,” he said. “Coming to the museum give you a nice break from the hectic-ness of life. It’s a nice positive thing for the business community to see this happening. When you re-brand yourself, you re-energize yourself.”
Drew Sigfridson, managing partner of CBRE | The Boulos Co., agreed.
“What the museum has been doing is opening itself up to the community, it’s the opposite of the traditional notion of a museum being a closed-off special place,” he said. “Under Mark’s leadership, the museum is turning that notion around, it’s inviting people in from all sectors and is really making itself a more interesting welcoming place for them to visit.”
Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling, who lives within walking distance of the museum, said the museum’s reimagining effort carries significance to the broader business community.
“Growing and adapting to change, that’s what all businesses need to do,” he said. “Our city is changing and growing. The Portland Museum of Art is on the cutting edge of our community’s efforts to grow and adapt to change.”
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