A dollar a day doesn’t go far, much less one a year. On a sale or lease, it’s a token to help document a deal. 

I like the fine arts, all of them, some more than others. My associate’s degree was in art, and I have only had good, memorable times in art museums and galleries, from Wiscasset and Brunswick to New York and Ohio. Being in one gives you the pause of walking in a forest. It resets your thinking and puts a soul back in place. 

For that and freedom’s sake, we need to value freedom of expression in all its legal forms. But maybe in Wiscasset’s and Maine Art Gallery’s case, it’s time to put some more value on the building housing those expressions. The longstanding dollar a year deal shows support for arts and artists, but not for the Wiscasset Academy building. The old red brick schoolhouse needs work and that’s part of a town’s job as a landlord; the board is looking at it, as Phil Di Vece reports this week.

Alna could give advice on getting grants to keep up historic buildings. Outside money is money saved. But other than that, or volunteer work and donated materials, which would be great, every dollar of repairs to Wiscasset Academy would be a dollar that won’t relieve taxes or meet another town need or service.

The lease is up in August, according to a letter the gallery sent the town. Our file stories show the town heard from a prospective buyer a few years ago. Wiscasset should probably keep the building and if so should fix it; raising the rent, even a little, would show a government thinking of its taxpayers and a nonprofit doing the same.

Maine Art Gallery will hopefully stay right where it is, as long as it wants to. May the fixes help the forest to flourish.