Access: Audio Description Tour of Acadia Artwork

Portrait of the artist with a wearable sculpture courtesy of Rachel Suzanne Smith

Visual Made Verbal

More than a dozen visual art pieces from the Artist-in-Residence program currently are displayed in public spaces in Acadia. To make the gallery experience more inclusive for people who have visual impairments, a recorded audio description and transcript are offered at the top of each artwork's entry in the program's online catalog. In this tour, each displayed artwork is presented in sequence along with directions to navigate the physical space.

Gallery placard for the Artist-in-Residence program at Acadia National Park

Description of Program Overview Placard

In each gallery, there is an 18 by 24-inch placard with overview information about the program. Across the top, there is a black overbar with a large title in white text, "Artist-in-Residence." Farther to the right, smaller text reads, "National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Acadia National Park, Maine." In the upper right corner is a National Park Service trademark logo arrowhead.

Along the length of the right side of the panel is a narrow vertical photograph of an artist outreach event in an outdoor setting. Filling the background is the historic Sieur de Monts spring house, with tall white narrow arches on each side and a domed ceramic tile roof. On a deep lawn in front of it, four people are gathered in conversation. Two women and a man hold sketch pads as they listen intently to a woman on the left.

In the bottom left corner of the panel is a QR code and URL for the artist-in-residence webpage: go.nps.gov/AcadiaArt

Heading text reads: Creating New Ways for Visitors to Experience Acadia through the Arts

Body text reads: Artists played a key role in the history of Maine’s Downeast region and Acadia National Park. In her study, Inventing Acadia: Artists and Tourists at Mount Desert, art historian Pamela Belanger writes that 19th-century Hudson River School artists like Frederic Church and Thomas Cole were integral to attracting the first “rusticators” to Mount Desert Island. When paintings from this landscape displayed in East Coast cities, viewers liked what they saw and made plans to visit.

More than a century later, the Artist-in-Residence program continues to create new and interesting ways for visitors to experience Acadia through the arts. In exchange for 14 nights in park-provided housing, participants lead one outreach activity for the public and donate within a year one finished work of art that conveys a fresh perspective of park experience for visitors. An online catalog surveys artwork donated to the program since it began at Acadia in 1993.

Caption text reads: Launi Lucas (left), a sculptor, painter, and biological illustrator from Vancouver, BC, leads a drawing activity for visitors at Sieur de Monts Spring during her artist residency in September 2019.

Navigating the Visitor Center Lobby

Three artworks currently are displayed in the main lobby of the Hulls Cove Visitor Center. As you pass from an entrance alcove into the main lobby, turn right and two pieces are displayed on a wall about 15 feet directly ahead.

• A display case item and photograph by Mariah Reading are on the left.

• A photograph by Jennifer Booher is on the right.

From here, turn around and travel about 30 feet back past the main entrance doors, a donation box, and a large digital display screen installed high on a wall on your left. A wide aisle and queuing space for the information desk will be to your right.

• Along the wall just right and below the digital display screen you will find a display case for a piece by Harlan Butt.
• A step or two beyond this spot is a large open entry into a separate gallery space for more artwork as well as three large orientation maps for visitor trip planning. Please be aware that one or two wood benches for seating are sometimes placed along this open entry to help delinate the two spaces.

Navigating the Visitor Center Gallery

A step or two to your right beyond the display case for Harlan Butt is a large open entry into a separate gallery space for more artwork as well as three large orientation maps for visitor trip planning. Please be aware that one or two wood benches for seating are sometimes placed along this open entry to help delinate the two spaces.

Turn left into this space and travel along the wall to your left to explore the gallery in a clockwise orientation.

• Along this short wall, you will first encounter an 18 by 24-inch program overview placard which is described in detail near the bottom of this webpage.
• A step beyond on your left is an illustration by Launi Lucas.
• Another step beyond is a night skies photograph by Imma Barrera.
• At the end of this wall, turn right. On your left, in the center of this short wall, is an illustration by Ben Matthews.
• Turn right again as you encounter a long wall. The first piece on your left as you travel to the right is a painting by Roxanne Everett.
• Next is a black and white photograph by Dan Grenier.
• A step or two beyond is floor-to-ceiling map of the park's hiking trails.
• A painting by Sue Charles is displayed near the center of this long wall.
• Another floor-to-ceiling map depicts the park's historic carriage road network on the east side of Mount Desert Island.
• Next, inside a large display case, is an example of wearable art by metalsmith Rachel Suzanne Smith.
• The last piece installed on this wall is a shadowbox by Johanna Finnegan-Topitzer.
• Turn right. A large map of road systems on Mount Desert Island is centered on this short wall. A few steps farther along, as the gallery space ends, are life sized mannequins of a hiker and a dog. Turn leff to enter the park store. Turn right to return to a wide aisle to the main lobby.

Navigating the Nature Center Gallery Wall

Three artworks currently are displayed inside the Sieur de Monts Nature Center. As you enter through the double doors, there are exhibit panels and a video screen above a narrow corner countertop at table height about 10 feet to your right. To your left, about 15 to 20 feet across stone flooring, is a staffed information desk about wait height situated as an island near the center of the space. Surrounding it are floor to ceiling exhibit panels installed on walls throughout the space. A small alcove behind the information desk houses additional displays.

The artwork is displayed on a wide stone wall formerly used as a fireplace. Walk into the space from the entry doors about 15 feet, turn right and this wall will be about 10 feet directly ahead of you. An 18 by 24-inch program overview placard, which is described in detail at the bottom of this webpage, is displayed in the center of the stone wall below the artworks.

• A black and white photograph by Howie Motenko is on the left.
• A woodcut by Sara Tabbert is in the center.
• A painting by Kevin Mack is on the right.