Monson Arts, a new residency and workshop program was established by the Libra Foundation in 2017 in Monson, the last town before the Hundred Mile Wilderness on the Appalachian Trail. The Foundation's vision is to spur economic development through the arts in an area of the state hard hit by the loss of manufacturing. A sense of place and the heritage of Maine's North Woods have inspired the development of the programming.
In this special live digital conversation taking place on Zoom, Monson Arts' senior advisor Stuart Kestenbaum and Portland-based artists Tessa O'Brien and Celeste Roberge (both former resident artists in the program) will talk about the vision for and the impact of this new arts center.
About the Participants
Tessa O’Brien is a Maine-based artist whose colorful paintings record perceptions of place. Her work is shown nationally, including recent solo exhibitions at Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland, ME, & Elizabeth Moss Galleries in Falmouth, ME. Residencies include Tides Institute in Eastport, ME, the Joseph A. Fiore Residency at Rolling Acres Farm in Jefforson, ME, Monson Arts in Monson, ME, Haystack School in Deer Isle, ME, Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT, Hewnoaks in Lovell, ME, and the Stephen Pace House in Stonington, ME. O'Brien received her B.S from Skidmore College, and her MFA from Maine College of Art. In addition to her studio practice, Tessa O’Brien is a gallery director at Able Baker Contemporary in Portland, and co-owns a sign painting business called Better Letter Hand Painted Signs. O’Brien co-founded the Portland Mural Initiative with her partner Will Sears, with whom she currently resides in South Portland, ME.
Celeste Roberge maintains a studio in South Portland, Maine. She is Professor Emerita, University of Florida. Celeste has held artist residencies with The Arctic Circle in Svalbard, Norway, SIM in Iceland, Kohler Arts/Industries, MonsonArts, MacDowell Colony, Radcliffe Institute, and American Antiquarian Society, among others. She has received two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants, and two Florida Individual Artists Fellowships. She is the recipient of two Florida Individual Artists Fellowships. Celeste Roberge’s sculptures are included in the following museum collections: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Nevada Museum of Art, Portland Museum of Art, Farnsworth Art Museum, Harn Museum of Art, Runnymede Sculpture Farm, John Michael Kohler Art Center, and in numerous private collections. You can view an extensive portfolio of her work here.
Stuart Kestenbaum is senior advisor to Monson Arts, a project of Maine’s Libra Foundation. He served as the organization’s artistic director from its inception in 2017 until 2020, designing and implementing a program that includes residencies, workshops, and community-based programs. He was appointed Maine’s poet laureate (a five-year term) in 2016 and is the author of five collections of poems, most recently How to Start Over (Deerbrook Editions 2019), and a collection of essays The View from Here (Brynmorgen Press). He’s the host of the Maine Public Radio program Poems from Here and was the host/curator of the podcast Make/Time. The director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts from 1988 until 2015, he has written and spoken widely on craft making and creativity.
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