Press Releases

Selections of photography work by University of Maine at Presque Isle professor H. Anderson Giles were chosen for inclusion in a recent invitational photo exhibition at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA) in Rockport. The exhibition titled Photographing Maine: Ten Years Later was a comprehensive review of current topics in contemporary photography in Maine. All photographs selected were taken in Maine between 2000 and 2009. The exhibit continued the legacy of CMCA’s landmark exhibition, Photographing Maine: 1840-2000.

The Kinsey Sicks, the Dragapella Beauty Shop Quartet, will take the stage at Wieden Auditorium at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 29, to deliver a night full of a cappella singing and comedy.

Since 1993, the Kinsey Sicks has served up a feast of music and comedy. The group’s award-winning a cappella singing, sharp satire and over-the-top drag have earned them a diverse and devoted following. The evening’s performance is sponsored by the Campus Activities Board, Cultural Events Committee, Diversity Committee, Gay Straight Alliance, and Student Organization of Social Work.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Fine Art Gallery will feature the works of several Aroostook County artists as part of JUST LINE, a juried exhibition connected with a statewide drawing initiative. The JUST LINE exhibition will be on display from Feb. 27 to April 2. JUST LINE is one of many exhibitions that will take place throughout Maine in 2011 as part of Maine’s statewide initiative Where to Draw the Line: The Maine Drawing Project. The Maine Drawing Project was developed through the unique collaboration of Maine arts organizations called the Maine Curators Group. Twenty venues will offer exhibitions that celebrate the medium of drawing throughout the 2011 calendar year and range from drawing directly on gallery walls, to computer algorithms, to sketches of the northern Maine winters. This is the first time a statewide initiative concerned solely with drawing in its many forms and mediums has been undertaken.

University of Maine at Presque Isle Art professor Renee Felini recently took part in a slideshow event that has taken the world by storm. Felini served as one of 10 presenters at the city of Waterville’s first PechaKucha Night held last fall at the Hathaway Creative Center. More than 200 people turned out for the event. PechaKucha, Japanese for chit-chat, was created in 2003 by Tokyo architects Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein. Presenters are allotted 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide, meaning that once 6 minutes and 40 seconds are up, so is their talk. People have embraced this “short slideshow” concept and PechaKucha nights have been held in cities around the world, from Beijing and Paris to San Francisco and Boston.

Officials at the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI) have announced that the hometown premiere of John Cariani’s Almost, Maine, is scheduled for March 18 and 19, at the university’s Wieden Auditorium. The performances reunite the production’s director, Barbara Frick Ladner and Cariani, in director and actor roles, respectively.

Cariani is no stranger to Presque Isle stages with numerous roles in Presque Isle High School (PIHS)productions; Calamity Jane under the direction of Dan Ladner was Cariani’s first high school musical. Other PIHS performances included roles in Grease, Cabaret, The Wizard of Oz, and Juvie. He also performed with university students and community members in Pioneer Playhouse productions of Oklahoma, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, and South Pacific at the university’s Wieden Auditorium.