giving : art honors

Maine College of Art's Thirteenth Annual Art Honors Gala raised $87,000 in support of educational programs for young artists. The awards dinner took place on Thursday, May 15, 2008 at The Portland Company on 58 Fore St.— a raw space converted into a spectacular assemblage of fabric sculptures by Transformit, Inc. and multi-colored light forms created by Pandora LaCasse. The evening got off to a great start with a champagne reception in the "Room with a View" overlooking Casco Bay and progressed to a Maine Island Dinner produced by Aurora Provisions as a special tribute to the honorees for 380 guests.

Art Honors provides a platform for recognizing vision, leadership and entrepreneurship in the arts in Maine. This year, we honored Angela Adams for Entrepreneurship in the Arts and Alison Hildreth ’76 for Leadership in the Arts: two artists whose nature-inspired images are rooted in Maine’s iconic landscape, and whose hard work and illustrative lives are an inspiration to the thriving arts community in Maine. Holly Gooch, MECA BFA '08, designed and fabricated the awards, while New Media and Graphic Design students and faculty produced video profiles of the honorees, which were screened prior to the award presentations by James Baker, President of Maine College of Art. Candace Karu, Vice President of the Board of Trustees, shared the master of ceremony role, graciously acknowledging all the people and local businesses who contribute so generously to the evening's proceedings.

Congratulations and thanks for the huge success of this year's event go to our sponsors, particularly lead sponsor Diversified Communications, and to our 37 table hosts.

For more information, please contact Lindsay Hancock at lhancock@meca.edu or by calling 207.699.5020.