FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 16, 2024

FMI Contact:
Suzanne Watson
Executive Director, Meetinghouse Arts

director@meetinghousearts.org
207-712-3016

FMI about Our Town, A Community Self-Portrait visit: Meetinghousearts.org/OurTown2024

Meetinghouse Arts presents Our Town: A Community Self Portrait

Exhibition: Oct 25-Nov 3: Meetinghouse Arts Gallery, 40 Main St. Freeport, Maine

Celebration & Community Conversation: Meetinghouse Arts Gallery & Stage October 30th at 6pm 

Meetinghouse Arts is proud to open the exhibition of Our Town: A Community Self Portrait, a community driven documentary project funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Throughout the summer of 2024, this initiative invited Freeport residents, businesses and organizations to capture and describe the town’s essence through photography and words. 

The collective commentary and snapshot of this time is the basis for exhibits to be held Oct. 25-Nov. 3 at the Meetinghouse Arts Gallery, 40 Main St. Freeport, the Freeport Community Library, the Freeport Town Office, Visit Freeport, and Freeport Community Services. The Freeport Historical Society will also be exhibiting selections of this work later this fall. 

The idea of a town’s self portrait as created by its residents was inspired by the recently completed Freeport Downtown Vision Plan and the current Comprehensive Planning process. As with these initiatives, the Self Portrait broadly encouraged residents to help articulate a Town identity that reflected their values, their concerns as well as to capture the rhythms of daily life in Freeport. 

At 6pm on Oct. 30, Meetinghouse Arts will host a reception at the gallery, followed by a Community Conversation facilitated by Eric Smith, Director of the Freeport Historical Society and Libby Bischoff, History Professor at USM, Director of the Osher Map Center and herself, a photographer. 

The public is invited to view the exhibition and join the conversation about what this collective view of Freeport might tell us about life here in 2024.  Local fare, treats & drinks will be served.

The Freeport Community Word Salad project, led by Mandana MacPherson, will be featured at the Meetinghouse Arts Gallery as part of the Oct 30th celebration for the Our Town: A Community Self-Portrait Exhibit, giving attendees a chance to contribute words or create a poem. A book of collected poems from the nine-month Freeport Community Word Salad project will be available for sale in the Gallery with proceeds benefitting the Meetinghouse Arts Our Town project. More info at https://mandanamacpherson.com/word-salads 

Participants in the Community Self Portrait were able to register and submit their materials online or borrow digital cameras and journal kits provided by Meetinghouse Arts. This process resulted in more than 1400 images and written submissions. While selections from this collection will be exhibited, the entire body of work will join the existing historic photo archives of the Freeport Historical Society. 

“There’s a lot of joy and pride expressed in this self portrait .” says Evan Haynes, Director for the project. “There are also concerns for changes that affect the environment and the social livability of this place we call home. The project has engaged people in a fun and thoughtful way, contributing to a dialog about what is meaningful and authentic about Freeport.” 

About Meetinghouse Arts
Meetinghouse Arts’ mission is to cultivate Greater Freeport as a vibrant center for arts and culture by fostering creative collaborations, expanding access to arts and cultural resources, and amplifying the arts and culture as tools to economically strengthen, educate, and connect the community.