Maine Arts Commission News

New Maine Arts Commission members welcomed

	New Maine Arts Commission members are welcomed during the 2004 Maine Arts Commission meeting. Photo by Hannah Brazee Gregory.

Three new members join the Maine Arts Commission this year. We welcome Richard A. Abramson, Hugh T. French and Katy Kline as members of the Maine Art Commission. We would also like to thank our outgoing members, Gail R. Scott and Peggy G. Golden, for their work.

RICHARD A. ABRAMSON, ARUNDEL
Richard is Superintendent of Schools for Union 42/Maranacook Community School District 10. In this position, he oversees the administration of schools in the Readfield area. Throughout his professional life he has worked as an instructor and education consultant in Maine and elsewhere in the country. In 2001, he was the Maine Department of Education's Distinguished Educator. Richard will help to link the work of the Maine Arts Commission's Arts in Education program with the education community in the state.

HUGH T. FRENCH, EASTPORT
Hugh is the director and co-founder of the Tides Institute and Museum of Art in Eastport. The institute is an innovative cultural center which combines a mixture of cultural resources (museum, research, art production facilities and workshops) with regional renewal. Located on the Maine/New Brunswick border, the institute focuses on the region's broader Canadian-American relationships, working as much in Canada as in the United States. Prior to his work in Eastport, Hugh was involved for 19 years with the establishment of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, and departed in 2001 as associate director. He holds a master's degree in history from the University of New Brunswick.

KATY KLINE, BRUNSWICK
Katy is the director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Prior to coming to Maine in 1998, she spent 15 years as curator and then director of the List Visual Arts Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She organized the American exhibition at the 1999 Venice Biennale. She has served on exhibition, fellowship and public art juries for many institutions including the National Endowment for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, American Association of Museums, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She serves on the advisory council of the PBS television series Art 21: Art for the 21st Century. She has written numerous articles and exhibition catalogues on modern and contemporary art and design. Katy will bring her understanding of contemporary arts management to her work as a commission member.