FORT KENT, Maine – The Rivertown Community Arts Center has already seen steady growth since opening last September. In that time, the Fort Kent center has offered 200 programs and attracted 150 members.
Now, Rivertown plans to share resources and collaborate with an up and coming arts center in Van Buren.
Van Buren’s upcoming Acadian Arts Center facility was made possible through a $25,000 grant that will help fund winterization and roof replacement of the facility’s future building, which formerly housed the Main Street “Et Cetera” shop. This work will ensure the building is preserved while interior renovations take place.
Van Buren was the first Maine community to receive that funding through what’s known as a Lightning Stabilization Grant.
The art centers, located on two sides of the St. John Valley and separated by a roughly one-hour drive, will work together to bring more arts opportunities by livestreaming classes to each other.
Both facilities will be equipped with a 360-degree Owl Labs camera system, which is usually used to cover board meetings. The camera provides a wide view while automatically targeting whomever is speaking. Rivertown founder Jenna Jandreau and Van Buren Town Manager Luke Dyer say this work will ultimately offer more classes for more people.
Though there is still work to be done before the Acadian Arts Center opens, Van Buren will in the meantime start hosting livestreams from Rivertown in its newly opened CONNECT center meeting space.
Dyer said he found out about Rivertown after speaking to a member of the Maine-based Onion Foundation about an arts center. Dyer said he was excited to learn that Fort Kent had an arts center, but that the towns weren’t close enough to regularly work together in-person.
“We’re not really neighbors,” Dyer said. “So Van Buren people probably wouldn’t drive [to Fort Kent] on a constant basis for programming.”
Dyer and Jandreau later attended a Maine Arts Commission presentation, after which Dyer reached out about collaborating.
“You don’t realize that there are great initiatives happening a few towns over,” Jandreau said. “[Dyer] said he heard about us, and we talked about a few ways we could make it happen.”
They thought at first that some classes like pottery might not translate to an online lesson, but Jandreau said Rivertown recently held a successful class with a webcam.
Pottery is the most requested program at Rivertown and, to meet the demand, Jandreau said the center recently acquired a kiln to help participants solidify their clay creations.
“We can get creative with the way that we make it more available remotely,” she said. “I’m going to come up with a supply list for [Dyer] so they can have watercolor sets and maybe some clay over there, that kind of thing.”
In addition to streaming footage of the group, a camera will also be mounted over the current project to help viewers based at the other center.
“We’ve done basket weaving, we’ve done sculpting and watercolor, and it’s in high definition so you can really see what the instructor is doing,” Jandreau said.
Dyer said it is like a modern version of Bob Ross’ former television show, “The Joy of Painting,” in which Ross would walk viewers through a painting from start to finish.
“People waited until the afternoon, they had their supplies, and they watched Bob Ross paint a different picture every day, and they tried to follow along,” Dyer said.
Now, people will be able to talk to the art instructor and get direct feedback on their work.
Jandreau said some programs, like reading and writing poetry, will easily translate to an online session.
The centers are far enough apart that each can still thrive on its own, but close enough together that someone teaching or attending an online program at one facility could occasionally travel to the other.
Maine has several arts centers, but Dyer and Jandreau said they have not heard of two centers working together like this.
“I’m not sure there’s a model for this,” Dyer said. “I think we’re doing something together that’s going to be unique.”
Looking ahead, both Dyer and Jandreau hope to see the collaboration continue to grow along.
Jandreau said she envisions having future exhibits featuring projects created at both sites and encouraging occasional in-person visits from members of one center to another.
“Not so much that they would be coming to all of our programs or us going to [theirs],” she said, “but a few times a year, making a trek over to see all the people that you’re always seeing on the screen in real life. I feel like there’s just an immense amount of opportunity to expose the people in our community to each other in a different way.”
Rivertown has since moved from Main Street to Market Street, and is now situated in a larger building between a brewery and a barber shop. Artists and crafters are also on the building’s second floor.
“It’s a very creative space,” Jandreau said. “We’re all making something.”
The new space has a larger central area that makes it easier to hold classes with bigger groups, whereas the former Main Street space could easily get crowded. The shared space also reduces their heating costs. Jandreau plans to use those savings to eventually hire part-time help.
In just under a year’s time, Jandreau has already seen a growing community form at the center. Both she and Dyer hope to see this growth continue through their future collaboration.
“I’ve seen friendships formed in the last 10 months,” she said. “One woman comes up from Presque Isle and picks up her friend in Cross Lake and they come here for our open studio,” Jandreau said. “They bring all their supplies and they sit and spend four hours switching from one project to another, talking and chatting.”
Jandreau said she and board member Lo Taggett will often express amazement at the center’s quick progress.
“We often look at each other like, ‘It’s happening,’” Jandreau said. “We like to say that because it’s what you hope for, and that it comes to pass. It’s really fulfilling work.”
