✷ LIGHTS OUT NEWS ✷ LIGHTS OUT NEWS ✷ LIGHTS OUT NEWS ✷ LIGHTS OUT NEWS ✷ LIGHTS OUT NEWS ✷
Studio Incubator Open Call
We have space, and we want you to use it. The Lights Out Studio Incubator is an open call for an artist or group of artists who will use over 3,000 square feet of warehouse space to realize big projects this summer. This is not an exhibition opportunity or a live/work situation; it's for people with specific goals who need a workspace to accomplish them. If that's you, learn more below, and apply today.
Artists working in any medium may apply. A strong application will demonstrate concrete goals that align with Lights Out's facilities.
The incubator is free for participating artists. Artists should expect lots of unencumbered time and space and occasional visits from other artists, curators, and community members. A public lunch is provided every Wednesday at 1 pm. A group artist salon is held Sundays 2-5 pm. Figure drawing is held Wednesdays, 5-8pm. All community activities are optional.
The studio will be available from June 15th to October 16th. Artists may choose to occupy the studio for all or part of that time.
This is not an exhibition opportunity or a live/work opportunity. It is for artists with specific goals who need a workspace to accomplish them.
Studio Incubator Open Call will receive submissions between May 4th and June 4th, 11:59 pm. All applicants will be notified by June 12th.
The studio is a metal girder construction, with tall, sloped ceiling and plywood floors. The walls are plywood and MDF. Lighting is LED tracks and overhead fluorescent.
Artists have access to:
-
24 hour access to over 3,000 sq ft of warehouse space, 15 ft ceiling in the front, sloping to 10 ft in the back, with 10’ x 10’ loading dock and side porch
-
A one acre, industrial lot in downtown Norway
-
Our woodshop, with assistance from a technician
-
Our office with printers, scanners, and a live model drawing space
-
Heated and cooled breakroom
-
Possible studio assistant for 75 hours through the Maine Career Exploration Program
-
Studio equipment, including:
-
Printing press
-
Flat files
-
Work tables
-
Papercutter
-
3D Printers
-
Projectors
-
Easles
-
Materials such as canvas, lumber, etc. available on a case by case basis
-
More materials and tools are available. Artists are asked to inquire about specific interests.
-
Studio Incubator Jurors
Studio Incubator Jurors
Sarah Bouchard
Sarah Bouchard is a passionate advocate for the arts and artists. She is the founder of Sarah Bouchard Gallery and co-founder of International Artists Manifest, a non-profit arts organization that takes on the collections of brilliant, under-represented artists after they pass on. She has been curating exhibitions in both commercial and alternative spaces for over two decades - from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon. Her curatorial style is derived from an intense interest in how an environment can heighten or detract from a work of art. She strives to present work in a way that creates new connections between pieces and people while offering a decidedly considered experience for the viewer.
Reed McLean
Reed McLean was born and raised in Western Maine. He holds a BFA from Alfred University in 2018, where he received the John Wood Award in 2017 and was nominated for the SUNY Chancellor’s Award in 2018. In 2019 he co-founded Lights Out, seeking to broaden the vocabulary of Maine art at home and abroad. He is the principle curator for Lights Out as well as the creator of its artist interview series, now archived at the Colby Libraries. These videos and his curatorial perspective are identifiable by a distinct dramaturgical style and sensitivity to the individuality of each artist.
Photo courtesy of Pia-Paulina Guilmoth
Ashley Page
Ashley Page is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Portland, ME. She holds a BFA in Sculpture and a minor in Public Engagement from the Maine College of Art & Design. Her studio practice and curatorial projects serve as vehicles for storytelling, representation, and intergenerational exchange. She has received the Amelia Peabody Award for Sculpture from the St. Botolph Club Foundation in 2022, obtained studio project grants from Maine Arts Commission and MyMa, participated in residencies at the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, HewnOaks Artist Colony, and Able Baker Contemporary, and curated exhibitions at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Portland Public Library, ICA at Maine College of Art & Design, and more. Her artwork has been privately collected and exhibited at museums and institutions including, but not limited to, the Portland Museum of Art, Hunterdon Art Museum, the Tate House Museum, University of Southern Maine Art Gallery, University of New Hampshire Gallery of Art, Cape Cod Community College, the Center for Afrofuturist Studies, and the Abyssinian Meeting House. As a teaching artist, she has taught various workshops in textiles, papermaking, and printmaking at Peters Valley School of Craft, the University of Maine Orono, Waterfall Arts, Bowdoin College, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, the Farnsworth Museum, and Maine College of Art & Design. Page currently serves as the Studio and Programs Manager at Indigo Arts Alliance where she works within the intersection of art and social justice.
Photo courtesy of Sean Alonzo Harris
Virginia Valdes
Virginia Valdes' work deals with illusions, the denial of lived experiences, and the rift man creates with his natural environment. She employs different types of media and techniques in conjunction, including installation, video, sculpture, graphic design and photography. Valdes has been exhibited in the US and Europe at venues such as P.S.1/MOMA, Lincoln Center, Stuttgart FilmWinter Festival, The Black Maria Film Festival, FotoFest, PBS' Reel NY8, among others. She is the recipient of a Lef Foundation grant which aided her in creating her installation "Wasteland" for Bates Museum. Besides making videos and running a small design studio, she devotes her time to teaching Graphic Design, Photography and New Media techniques. In 2000 Virginia left NYC and ran off to the woods of Maine with her long time collaborator and husband, musician / luthier Laurent Brondel
If you have any questions, reach out to reed@lightsoutart.com.