News Release

Acadia National Park hosts 12 Artists-in-Residence in 2019

News Release Date: April 16, 2019

Contact: Christie Anastasia, 207-288-8806

BAR HARBOR, MAINE — The National Park Service (NPS) will host four dancers, six visual artists, and two writers for Artist-in-Residence opportunities at Acadia National Park in 2019.
 
“This year within the At-Large category, we’re exploring how dance, choreography, and movement can illuminate visitor experience at Acadia,” said Jay Elhard, program manager. “In future years, we may emphasize other areas, such as natural sounds recording, indigenous arts, and emerging technologies.”
 
More than 50 NPS sites across the U.S. offer artist residency programs. At Acadia, in exchange for as many as 14 nights of park-provided housing, participants lead one public outreach activity, and donate within a year a finished work of art that depicts a fresh and innovative new way for visitors to experience the park. At this time, virtually all of the program’s operational costs — such as artist housing, and supplies for outreach activities and public displays — are sustained solely by donations and a $25 fee paid by each program applicant.

Three dance residencies scheduled for August include:

• Dani Robbins, of Bar Harbor, ME, and Zoe Huey, of Oakland, CA
• CandiceSalyers, of Hattiesburg, MS
• Ann Van Kuren, of State College, PA

 
In the “Visual Arts” category, six invitations were accepted:

• Painter Erin Currier, of Santa Fe, NM, will visit in late September and early October.
• Graphite artist Zoe Keller, of Portland, OR, will visit in late July and early August.
• Assemblage artist Launi Lucas, of Vancouver, BC, will visit in September.
• Landscape photographer Howie Motenko, of Seal Harbor, ME, will serve as a Resident Artist for the year.
• Painter Robert Pollen, of Bar Harbor, ME — who was Acadia’s first Artist-in-Residence 26 years ago in October 1993 — will be a Resident Artist for the year.
• Eco-artist Mariah Reading, of Bangor, ME, and a first season Interpretive Ranger this summer at Denali National Park in Alaska, will visit Acadia in October.

 
In the “Writing” category this year, two applicants received invitations:

• Ingrid Hess, an assistant professor of graphic design at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, who is working with park educators on outreach products for children, will visit Acadia in June and July.
• Poet G.C. Waldrep, of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA, and a two-time recipient of the Pushcart Prize, will visit in August and November.

Learn more at http://go.nps.gov/AcadiaArt