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| Photo By: Alex Boykov |
Portland, Maine – Next Friday as a part of First Friday Art Walk, the Portland Public Art Committee (PPAC) will feature the Art in Our Front Yard: Portland’s Public Art Collection with a discussion of the Maine Lobsterman located in Lobsterman Park on Temple Street (photo attached). PPAC member Patricia Murtagh will lead a discussion of the statue, its history and significance within the city’s collection. The public is encouraged to join the PPAC Friday December 7th and learn about the art in their front yard and share in a discussion of the unique place public art holds in our community.
Sculpted by Victor Kahill, the State of Maine commissioned the Maine Lobsterman for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City. The statue features a lobsterman kneeling while pegging a lobster, underscoring the humble dignity of the fishing industry and was designed to capture the spirit of Maine’s people and their
contribution to the economy. Harpswell lobsterman H. Elroy Johnson, a Bailey Island resident, was selected as the model for his efforts at the State House on behalf of the fishing industry. When the state failed to raised enough money for the completion of the work, Kahill painted the original plaster cast bronze and the sculpture was displayed at the state’s exhibit for the World’s Fair.
After the fair, the sculpture was displayed in Portland, but following some damage from the elements, it was placed in storage for several decades. When lobsterman Johnson passed away in 1973, the Maine Legislature appropriated funds to cast three bronze copies of the statue to be displayed in Augusta, Portland and Bailey’s Island. In 1977, the Portland City Council had the statue placed in Lobsterman Park at Temple and Middle Streets. Following a joint resolution sponsored by US Senators Edmund Muskie and William Cohen, the Cundy’s Harbour Camp Fire Girls raised enough money to have the Bailey’s Island statue moved to Maine Avenue in Washington DC.
In April 2000, the City Council established the Portland Public Art Program to preserve, restore and enhance the City’s public art collection. The Portland Public Art Program commissions art that engages with the surrounding environment to create, enrich, or reveal a sense of place, and to express the spirit, values, visions and poetry of place that collectively define Portland. Currently, the public art collection contains twenty-nine works of art that are permanently installed throughout the city, including works of historical significance dating from the nineteenth century, as well as contemporary pieces that reflect the diversity and spirit of the city. Of the twenty-nine pieces, twelve located within walking distance of the Arts District will be a part of the Art in Our Front Yard: Portland’s Public Art Collection series, which will resume this spring with a discussion of the Fireman Statue on Congress Street. For more information about the Portland Public Art Committee, visit www.portlandmaine.gov/planning/pubart.asp.
When: Friday, December 7, 2012
5:30 PM
Where: Lobsterman Park
Temple Street, Portland
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