Kinghorn speaks with Press Herald about UMaine Museum of Art attendance
George Kinghorn, director and curator of the University of Maine Museum of Art in downtown Bangor, was quoted in a Portland Press Herald article about arts-related tourism growing in Maine. The article mentioned a Portland Museum of Art exhibition that runs through Sept. 20 and features pieces from UMMA’s permanent collection. “Directors’ Cut: Selections from the Maine Art Museum Trail,” presents highlights of Maine’s art history from the state’s most-renowned museums, including UMMA, Bates College, Bowdoin College, Colby College, the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Monhegan Museum of Art and History, the Ogunquit Museum of American Art and the Portland Museum of Art. The state’s Office of Tourism has promoted the exhibit to out-of-state visitors, or people who are less familiar with the Maine art story, according to the article. Kinghorn said he thinks the promotional effort worked, and his staff tracked visitors from 24 U.S. states and 11 other countries, the article states. Both numbers are larger than expected, and many visitors said they had never been to the Bangor museum, Kinghorn said. “We’re telling people, ‘Go to the Portland museum and see the wonderful Alex Katz’ (paintings) and the Marins and Winslow Homers, and then come see us where we have works in our collection by a lot of those same artists with major ties to Maine,” he said. “We’ve definitely seen people come in with the museum trail map in their hand. They’ve made the route.”