Dear Editor:

Wiscasset voters will have many items to consider when they vote at the annual town meeting June 13. Two of the town warrant articles relate to the 1807 Old Academy building, the home of the Maine Art Gallery. We urge you to vote no on Article 73, a non-binding referendum question that would authorize the town to sell the building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

From 1958 onwards, the town of Wiscasset has leased the building to the Maine Art Gallery, and that pairing has been a vital part of Wiscasset’s heritage.

In recent years, the Maine Art Gallery has once again become a thriving artistic center for Midcoast Maine, as it was at its founding 65 years ago. Currently, until June 10, the gallery is hosting a critically acclaimed exhibition titled “Generations” that celebrates the gallery’s indefatigable founder Mildred Burrage and the famous Maine artists who showed their work there, and that also features well known and evolving artists of today. The curator of the show, the art critic Carl Little, says “Generations” represents “the evolving intergenerational Maine Art scene, as it was, as it is, and what it will be.“ The opening May 6 brought some 200 people to the gallery.

The Maine Art Gallery board and gallery members are dedicated to preserving and renovating the historic property. In fact, the citizens of Wiscasset in 2021 voted two to one to approve extending the town’s lease of the building to the gallery from five years to 20, to better attract grants for long term preservation.

Voters on June 13 can further that aim by voting yes on a second matter relating to the Old Academy building. Article 56 asks whether the town shall appropriate up to $28,800 to match grants obtained by the gallery for building repairs and restoration.

The town and the art gallery, working together, can ensure that the historic building is preserved and the Maine Art Gallery can continue its work there supporting Maine artists.

Wendy Ross

Wiscasset