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.