Exhibit on Back Cove Opens

Editor's Note: The following release offers details on a multi-site exhibit that focuses on Portland's Back Bay. With interactive sound boxes marking an historic shoreline trail in Bayside neighborhood and other outdoor installations at Back Cove, it offers plenty of strong visuals. To arrange coverage, you can call curator Carolyn Eyler of USM at 775-3735, or Bob Caswell of USM Media Relations at the numbers listed at the top of this release.

Interactive sound boxes that mark an historic shoreline through the Bayside neighborhood, and a digital montage that includes a photosynthetic protein found in cove bacteria are among the works featured in a new series of exhibits that explores Portland's Back Cove and the coastal watershed to which it belongs.
The opening reception for the first exhibit and an accompanying public art trail will be held from 5 to 7 p.m., this Tuesday, July 10, at the USM Area Gallery, Woodbury Campus Center, Bedford St., Portland. Visitors also will be directed to experience the sound boxes on an historic shoreline trail through Bayside neighborhood and other installations at Back Cove.

For more information, call Art Gallery Director Carolyn Eyler at 775-3735.
The USM Art Galleries worked with numerous partners to develop the multi-disciplinary series, titled, "Back Cove, Heart of Portland." Organized by Art Gallery Director Carolyn Eyler, the project explores how art creates awareness of the interface between people and their environment. The exhibit will run for an eight-month period at the USM galleries in Portland and Gorham, on the Back Cove site and in Bayside.

The current exhibit presents more than 40 works from artists, scientists, and students. Contributions include: watercolors incorporating high-tech mapping technology by artist Aviva Rahmani; a poster advocating habitat restoration by Aviva Rahmani and geologist Irwin Novak; digitized drawings humorously relating the circulatory systems of humans and the Casco Bay sewage system by curator Carolyn Eyler; and digital prints of trash found coming from the city of Portland's sewage overflow by assistant curator Lauren Molyneaux, a Maine College of Art student intern. The exhibit also features works by schoolchildren as well as historic maps, photos, postcards, birding lists and biological specimens.

Art corresponding to the indoor exhibit marks the Back Cove site and an historic trail in Bayside. Sail-like sculptures by USM art student Barry Pitchforth are planted in the cove. Silk-screened images addressing ecological issues by Lauri Twitchell's Maine College of Art Junior Print class in collaboration with the city of Portland are attached to traffic signs on Baxter Boulevard and Bedford Street. Sculptor Tracey Cockrell has made interactive sound boxes that mark a shoreline trail through Bayside neighborhood.

This project is sponsored by: Maine Community Foundation, New Century Community Program, Shop 'n Save, Jay York Affordable Photo and Bernard C. Meyers Photography.