FLASH SIGN-UP SALE UNDERWAY: Only $5 each for the next 100 people to sign-up!!! ONLINE SIGN-UP ONLY. Support the Maine Craft Association and the arts in Maine with this new specialty plate. Click below to pre-register.

PAY ONLINE Click Here to Pay & Pre-Register for the State of the Arts Plate!

New Specialty Plate Process

The MCA seeks 2000 Mainers, with cars registered in their name, to pre-pay $29 for the specialty plate. Upon reaching that goal the Bureau of Motor Vehicles will release the plate to the 2000 pre-paid registrants and make the plate available for purchase at all Maine BMV’s.

New Maine Specialty Plate: The State of the Arts

The Maine Crafts Association and Maine Arts Commission seek pre-payments to offer a new specialty license plate supporting the arts in Maine.

The Maine Crafts Association, with the Maine Arts Commission as the sponsoring state agency, is proud to offer an exciting new Maine specialty license plate supporting the arts in Maine. The plate design features the artwork “LOVE” of long-time Vinalhaven, Maine resident and internationally recognized artist, Robert Indiana.

The specialty plate will serve as a fundraiser for the Maine Craft Association and will have a direct positive impact on the arts in Maine through the organization’s marketing, business and outreach programming. The Maine Arts Commission will receive a portion of the funds to put toward their statewide arts initiatives.

Robert Indiana Stands in Front of a Wall of License Plates as a Young Man

Robert Indiana was born Robert Clark in New Castle, Indiana in 1928, and after achieving fame in New York with fellow artists from the Pop Art movement, including Jasper Johns, Robert Lichtenstein, Ellsworth Kelly and Andy Warhol, he moved to Vinalhaven, Maine where he has made his home and studio for the past 45 years. In 2005 he donated a painting titled First State to the Augusta State house in his adopted state. Based upon the template of LOVE, Mr. Indiana designed the HOPE image for President Obamaʼs first campaign, which was unveiled outside Denverʼs Pepsi Center during the 2008 Democratic National Convention. All proceeds from the sale of reproductions of the HOPE image were donated to Obamaʼs presidential campaign, raising in excess of $1 million. A retrospective of the life and work of Mr. Indiana, “Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE”; will open at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York on September 26th through January 5th, 2014.

Maine Crafts Association 

The Maine Crafts Association, a non profit founded in 1983, is a Maine based arts organization dedicated to creating opportunities for Maine artists to develop their professional careers through educational and marketing programs, as well as to increase their income through retail and wholesale sales.

For over 25 years, the Maine Crafts Association has served craft artists across the state with educational activities such as workshops and conferences, subsidized marketing opportunities, Haystack Workshop Weekend, Master Craft Awards, exhibition and demonstration opportunities, and access to markets such as wholesale and retail tradeshows and seasonal stores and markets. In a state with a widespread population, MCA programming helps small Maine businesses intersect with Maine’s summer residents, visitors and larger marketplaces in Maine and New England.

The MCA’s most visible program, The Center for Maine Craft in West Gardiner, opened in 2008, and currently represents more than 350 Maine craft artists and small businesses. The Center has a successful year round retail location, proudly contributing over $250,000 annually to the incomes of Mainers.