Downtown Bangor Public Humanities Day to Feature Community Events Centered On Arts, Literature and History

January 5, 2015 Arts, Museums, Northeastern Americas: Humanities Research and Education, Outreach, Signature and Emerging Areas

The University of Maine Humanities Center will host the third annual Downtown Bangor Public Humanities Day at various locations Jan. 24 with a kickoff event Jan. 23.

Free events for participants of all ages will be offered at venues including the University of Maine Museum of Art (UMMA), Bangor Public Library and Maine Discovery Museum. This year’s Humanities Day is co–hosted by the Maine Folklife Center and UMMA.

The Downtown Bangor Public Humanities Day began in 2013 to create a better forum for connecting UMaine faculty, staff and students with the general public in the region, according to UMHC director and UMaine history professor Liam Riordan.

Local partners of the day are the Bangor Public Library and Maine Discovery Museum.

Free bus service will be available from the UMaine campus to Bangor and is supported by the UMaine Office of Student Life.

The events kick off 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23 with a humanities-themed PechaKucha presentation at Coe Space, 48 Columbia Street in Bangor. Speakers will include UMaine faculty and local cultural leaders. Refreshments will be provided and a $6 donation is suggested.

Events on Saturday, Jan. 24 are:

11 a.m.–11:45 a.m. at Maine Discovery Museum — Bangor Children’s Choir performance
Noon–12:45 p.m. at Bangor Public Library — Brown bag luncheon discussion of the “Future of the Book” with Michael Alpert of UMaine Press, Deb Rollins of Fogler Library, Joshua Bodwell of Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, and Barbara McDade of the Bangor Public Library
1–2:45 p.m. at University of Maine Museum of Art — Exhibit tour led by George Kinghorn, UMMA’s director and curator, at 1 p.m. and artist lecture by Brenton Hamilton at 2 p.m.
3–3:45 p.m. at Bangor Public Library — “Philosophy Tea” and group discussion of Edith Cobb’s “The Ecology of Imagination in Childhood” with Kirsten Jacobson, an associate professor of philosophy at UMaine, and members of the club, Philosophy Across the Ages
4–4:45 p.m. at Bangor Public Library — Screening by David Weiss, founder of Northeast Historic Film, of “An Oral Historian’s Work,” the legacy of Edward “Sandy” Ives, and discussion of the Maine Folklife Center and Northeast Historic Film

The UMHC has partnered with the Bangor Daily News on “My Maine Culture,” a project to celebrate Maine’s sense of place. In December, members of the public were invited to submit a digital postcard — an image or video with accompanying text — that captures participants’ Maine culture or what they love about the state.

The BDN will publish highlights from the digital postcard collection before the Downtown Bangor Public Humanities Day to contribute to the day’s events, and BDN editor Erin Rhoda will share examples during the PechaKucha event Jan. 23. The Maine Folklife Center also may choose to preserve the digital postcards in its archives.

The Downtown Bangor Public Humanities Day is one of several UMHC events planned for 2015. The UMaine Humanities Center, housed in UMaine’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences since 2010, advances the teaching, research and public engagement of the arts and humanities to create richer collaboration among Maine residents. More about UMHC is online.

For more information about the Downtown Bangor Public Humanities Day or to request a disability accommodation, contact Pauleena MacDougall, director of the Maine Folklife Center, at 581.1848 or pauleena.macdougall@umit.maine.edu, or visit the Facebook event page.

Contact: Elyse Kahl, 207.581.3747