Taking Different Trails: The Artists’ Journey to Katahdin Lake

Art and Conservation Converge at Katahdin Lake
January 18-May 24, 2008

The Bates College Museum of Art presents the exhibition Taking Different Trails: The Artists’ Journey to Katahdin Lake. The exhibition opens the evening of Thursday January 17. The public is invited to attend.

This exhibition will feature the work of 20 contemporary artists and their views of Katahdin Lake in northern Maine. All of the participating artists were among those involved in the Katahdin Lake Campaign, which helped preserve a piece of Maine wilderness containing “pristine Katahdin Lake, an old growth forest, and a view that has inspired generations of artists.”

Through a partnership of local and national conservation organizations and approval by the Maine legislature, a year long fund raising effort was undertaken in 2006, highlighted by an art auction in July. The acquisition of 4,119 acres of land, including 649-acre Katahdin Lake, and its subsequent transfer by deed to Baxter State Park in December 2006 was an historic achievement for the people of Maine.

Accompanying the featured works will be a display of the Katahdin Lake Campaign, the Katahdin Lake Wilderness Camps, and works by some of the renowned artists associated with Katahdin Lake, including Marsden Hartley and James Fitzgerald. The rich history of the area also includes logging, trail making, sporting camps, and such notable visitors as the young Teddy Roosevelt and former governor and philanthropist Percival Baxter.

North Light Gallery owner/artist Marsha Donahue, artist David Little and Bates College Museum of Art curator Bill Low have organized an exhibition that focuses attention on Katahdin Lake and artists who have sought to work at and protect an important place in deep interior Maine. Accompanying the artwork will be short statements by the artists, photographs of the artists at work in the out-of-doors, and visual aids that help identify the topography and geological features of the area.

The goal of the exhibit is to celebrate the personal journeys of the artists, highlighting the merits, inspiration and difficulties of working in the North Woods of Maine. The organizers want to offer the public a closer look at the artists of the interior by providing a glimpse of their unique experiences in a location of unsurpassed beauty. Finally, this exhibition is a thank-you gift for all those who worked tirelessly to make the Katahdin Lake Campaign a success.

The exhibition is one in a year long series at the Bates College Museum of Art exploring themes related to environmental issues, such as sustainability, conservation, wilderness, and landscape. For further information on this and the other exhibitions, please visit the museum website at www.bates.edu/museum.