Creative Edge • Panoramas • Parish Map • Overlook Park • Architecture • Art Boat • Branding • Creative Works
Objective 1: Explore the possibilities of expanded and sustainable artist residencies and creative works space within Eastport’s downtown to provide further synergy to Eastport’s creative economic resurgence.
Objective 2: Ideally, any expanded related creative works space might involve the rehabilitation of a threatened or underutilized downtown historic space.
A series of artist residences – with Eastport Strings and with the Tides Institute & Museum of Art – provided dramatic evdence of the impact such public artist residencies can have. A short nine and a half minute documentary film on the U.S./Canada artist exchange held in Eastport in 2010 and produced by Hemmings House Pictures can be viewed here: Bon a Tirer.
After exploring many potential sites, the severely deteriorated and threatened historic Holmes building in downtown Eastport was selected for restoration and redevelopment as a StudioWorks facility. Working with Thermal Efficiency Eastport, architect, Kiel Moe of the Harvard Graduate School of Design developed complete finalized plans for the building that serves as a downtown demonstration model for energy efficiency using an alternative heating source (state of the art Austrian wood pellet boiler, radiant heat, and close cell spray foam installation).
Funding for the redevelopment of the Holmes building includes two awards from the national Artplace initiative, the Communities for Maine’s Future fund, and numerous private foundations and individuals. Additional funding is still being raised. The restoration and redevelopment of the Holmes building began in 2012 and the first phase has been completed. Work on the second phase continues. StudioWorks opened on June 1, 2013. The StudioWorks Artist in Residence Program has grown from four artists in 2013 to nine artists in 2016 (six from around the U.S. and three from abroad). More information about StudioWorks and the StudioWorks Artist in Residence Program can be found here: StudioWorks Facility and StudioWorks Artist Residencies
Photograph by Leslie Bowman