Expressing Creativity at The University of Maine Museum of Art

Today, more than ever, the arts and culture are needed to promote safe outlets of expression, communication, exploration, imagination and form cultural and historical understanding.

George Kinghorn is the director of the University of Maine Art Museum located in downtown Bangor. The museum is located on the bottom of Norumbega Hall, right across from the Bangor city hall.

Kinghorn is responsible for the overall management of the museum, including artistic programming, planning art education and making sure the museum’s collection stays safe. The museum has over 7,000 various works of art in its permanent collection.

The museum is a very important part to Bangor; it plays an important roll in the community and to its members. The museum helps to make Bangor a livelier place while giving citizens and visitors an opportunity to see new art forms. The museum is able to bring in art that is displayed in larger markets such as Boston, New York and even Miami. This is also important for the university community, as it helps expose students to what is happening in the larger art world.

According to Kinghorn, “education is certainly central to the mission of the University of Maine museum of Art.” The museum also provides summer and winter art camps. These programs provide hands on art making opportunities for children.
During these camps, instructors make sure that children have plenty of time in the galleries looking at the art and thinking about their own art in response to these pieces. The art that students create is modeled after what is in the museum at the time. This makes each camp experience unique.

To make things more fun, they play various art games and have art scavenger hunts. One of their new games is an art bingo where students learn about various elements of art in fun ways. The children are learning while having fun, and sometimes don’t even realize they’re learning many new things.

Lisa Trimper’s family has always been involved with athletics, but she decided it “would be a really great experience to introduce them to the arts,” said Trimper. This is her second year sending her daughter to the camp and it has been a really great experience. She even plans on sending her children to the weeklong summer art camp.

Kinghorn takes great joy in seeing children in the museum. He says it creates a livelier environment and is a very comfortable and safe place. The children add a “freshness” to the museum environment said Kinghorn. Being able to see the creative process take place is very exciting.

Sarah J. Nelson Does Mercury Research in Acadia

Mercury is a heavy metal that can appear in several forms. It can appear as a vapor, a liquid metal or as methylmercury as found in fish. Scientists have been studying mercury for years trying to learn its effects on the environment, in animals and in the human body. University of Maine Research Professor Sarah Nelson specializes in the study of mercury in the environment.

Mercury is both naturally occurring in the environment and also a product of coal burning across the globe. The United Stats receives most of its mercury from emissions put out from factories in Asia. The mercury travels in the air and then settles here in trees, dirt and water.

Nelson has done extensive mercury testing in the Acadia region. It was found that Acadia actually contains fairly high levels of mercury, despite being viewed as a pristine national park. This prompted scientists to study the Acadia landscape to see if it plays a roll in the storage of mercury. Starting in 1998 a watershed research project began in Acadia.

The scientists picked two watersheds to study. A watershed is an area of land that collects rainwater and then funnels that rain out through a stream. Scientists picked an area that was burnt in a wildfire in 1947 and also picked an area that was not burned. They studied the levels of mercury going in and out of these two watersheds. Mercury enters the water through the forest canopy. This is the area underneath a tree where water drips off it and onto the ground.

Nelson and her team discovered that softwood trees, such as pine trees and spruce, which there are a lot of at Acadia, are better at “scavenging mercury from the atmosphere,” Nelson says, “Even when it’s not raining, there are dry mercury particles and dust floating around and those trees capture it.” The mercury sticks to the foliage. These trees have foliage on them year-round, meaning there is more time for the foliage to gather mercury. Hardwood trees such spruce and maples do not have foliage in the winter months, this cuts down on the mercury they collect. They also have less surface area, which also reduces the amount of mercury they can collect.


Nelson also looked at mercury in wetlands. Wetlands are very important because they are great ecological systems. They retain water and prevent flooding from happening. They are great for both animals and plants, but because they are a special environment and contain anoxic places, places without oxygen, they can be a “hot spot” for mercury methylation, the conversion of mercury into its most toxic form.


Nelson and her team also decided to investigate the presence of mercury in snow at Acadia. Not much research had been done, and the theory was that there was no mercury in snow. Because this hadn’t been extensively tested Nelson decided to do her own research into the issue. “The going statement from some scientists was that they didn’t think there was very much mercury in snow,” says Nelson, “So we wanted to test that for sure because nobody had explicitly checked.”

They put up samplers to collect snow and went out as quickly as possible after every snowstorm to collect the samples. They were set up under various types of forests. They also left one sampler out for the entire winter and collected some snow samples off the ground. They tested and compared the various samples for mercury.

They found that when snow was collected right away, it contained the highest levels of mercury, much higher than the other samples. They think it is because “mercury can turn into a gas and volatilize, or blow right back up into the atmosphere when it is it by UV light, or it could have something to do with heating,” according to Nelson. By collecting the samples right away and closing up the samplers, they trapped the mercury inside. The samples that were left out, or collected from the ground had time for the mercury to escape into the atmosphere as a gas.

Mercury in Seafood

Mercury levels in seafood have become a growing concern for many. The mercury found in seafood is methylmercury, mercury’s most toxic form. Fish ingest mercury from their environments; this mercury then enters our bloodstream when we consume these fish. Consumers should be aware of mercury levels in various types of fish, and make sure they do not exceed healthy limits.

The EPA has estimated a safe intake of mercury to be .1 micrograms/kg of body weight per day. The FDA has put together an extensive list of fish and the average levels of mercury that they contain.

Rather than sitting down with a pencil and paper to calculate mercury intake before dinner, consumers should visit www.GotMercury.org. This website provides a free mercury calculator. You simply enter your body weight, the type of fish you are consuming and how much you are eating. It will then tell you how much mercury you are ingesting out of your weekly maximum.

Fish are still an essential component to a healthy diet. They contain lots of high quality protein, are low in saturated fats and contain Omega 3 fatty acids. Consumers should eat up to 12 ounces of seafood that is low in mercury per week.

AT&T, The Fastest and Most Reliable 3G Network

AT&T provides the nation with the fastest and most reliable 3G data network.

I created an ad for a MOFILM competition. The ad promotes AT&T as the nations fastest and most reliable 3G data network.

The Bangor Landing Remediation

Bangor is nearing the completion of a three month remediation of the Riverfront. The remediation is beneficial to both humans and animals. A PDF of frequently asked question can be found here.

Clip Reel

Assignment 17

Old Town High School Chemistry teacher Ed Lindsey has taken a different approach to teaching his students. He is giving them a hands on learning experience, one they are really enjoying.