PORTLANDOVATIONS's video: Starr Kelly w the Abbe Museum New Year New Works -Commissioned Maine Artist Virtual Conversation

We're honored to have the prestigious Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor as a project partner in the creation of a staging of Wabanaki Stories for Maine school and family audiences. Founded in 1926 as a small trailside museum privately operated within Acadia National Park, the Abbe is an exciting contemporary museum which in 2013 became the first and only Smithsonian Affiliate in Maine. The Abbe Museum’s commitment centers Indigenous people in their own histories, stories, and futures, correcting harmful representations of the past while realizing the values of decolonization in all its practices. The first institution in Maine to sponsor archaeological research in 1928, today the Abbe inspires new learning with every visit about the Wabanaki nations whose homeland Maine is. New Works, New Year is a series of five virtual, 30-minute, meet the artist style events, one at noon each day of that week at which the program’s participating artists will introduce themselves and their projects and be in conversation with the public. In late April and May 2021, the artists will make public work-in-progress presentations. Ovations will then produce and present the fully commissioned works over its next three seasons. As we continue together to face this pandemic, with its ongoing shut downs of the venues and gatherings at the heart of Ovations mission for community well-being, Ovations is re-focusing funding directly to support Maine artists and the creation of new and original work. ASL interpretation by Meryl Troop, Allison Stroshane, Chandler Guptill, Stephanie Crowley and Sarah Vigliano. portlandovations.org