Carousel Cosmos Community Opening

You are invited to our 2023 Community Opening! 

Join TEMPOart and artist Chris Miller on Thursday, June 15 at the installation site on the Western Promenade to celebrate the opening of Carousel Cosmos. There will be music by The Maine Squeeze Accordion Ensemble and fun for the whole family!

This celebration is free and open to the public.

This event is weather dependent. The rain date is
THURSDAY, JUNE 22 from 5:30-6:30pm.

Here’s a sneak peek of the animals in Chris’s workshop!


You’re Invited to Catalyst 2023

This exciting event will include a sneak peek of this year’s installation, Carousel Cosmos, by Chris Miller! We’ll also enjoy a performance of Watermelon Ice by our 2022 artist Pamela Moulton and Jes Ellis! We’ll be joined by TEMPO artists past and present, as we bring the TEMPOart community together for the first time in four years.Tickets include light bites and drinks.

BUY TICKETS

2023 Host Committee Meg and Rob Adams
Rachael and Justin Alfond
Noni and Charlton Ames
Kate and Aaron Anker, Running with Scissors 
Christine Beneman
Braden Buehler
Richard Bilodeau and Scott Choquette 
Barbara and Bill Burgess 
Kate and Tom Chappell
John and Linda Coleman
Vera Correll
Sarah Daignault
Anna Dibble
David and Jil Eaton
Taffy Fields
Laura Freid
Alison Gibbs and Loren Kessel
Anna Ginn
Kent Gordon
Betsy Griffin and Dustin McLellan
Cyrus Hagge and Jessica Tomlinson
Rachael Harkness
Bruce Hazard
Alison Hildreth
Kate Howe
Angus King III and Cricket King
Gregg Lipton and Sara Crisp
DeCourcy McIntosh
Margaret Morfit
Ah-Kau and Sally Ng
Dawn Ng
Malcolm and Susan Rogers
Frank and Susan Ruch
Jenny Scheu and John Ryan
Jim and Lynn Shaffer
Alice and Dick Spencer
Aaron Stephan and Lauren Fensterstock
David and Ann Swardlick
Caroline Teschke
Kristin and Warren Valdmanis
Stuart and Karen Watson
Rosie Williams
Kathryn Yates
Caron ZandIt’s not too late to join the host committee!
Tickets are available on our website

Support TEMPOart this year

Since I founded TEMPOart in 2015, I have been constantly amazed by the support of our local community. We are grateful to the many donors who have already contributed this year to further our mission to champion public art in Portland. Your generosity allows us to support local artists and offer robust, free programming for people of all ages to accompany our installations.

Public art presents a platform for people to gather. To start a conversation. To encourage deeper thinking. To enliven a public place with community engagement.

If you have not already made a gift this year, I invite you to donate today in any amount that is meaningful to you and your family. With your help, TEMPOart will be able to continue grow and create more ambitious, impactful public art for years to come.

Thank you for believing in TEMPOart and for your support.

Sincerely,

Alice Spencer, Founder and Chair TEMPOart
TEMPOart is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization. We are funded primarily by private donations. No goods or services were exchanged for this charitable contribution.


DONATE TO TEMPOart


Late Summer Night’s Dream

Date: Friday, September 9, 2022
Time: 6pm – 7pm
Rain date: Sunday, September 11, 2022

Location: This event is located in Payson Park, Portland, Maine. Click here to view the exact location in Google Maps. Parking is available in the adjacent lot.

About the event

TEMPOart invites you to join us for our final event of the 2022 season – Late Summer Night’s Dream, a celebration where poetry and music will come to life beneath Pamela Moulton’s illuminated pink sculptures in Payson Park, entitled “Beneath the Forest, Beneath the Sea”. From 6p – 7p on Friday, September 9, six poets and a musician will perform pieces inspired by the sculptures.

Poetry by Megan Grumbling, Zina Mohamed, Jefferson Navicky, Betsy Sholl, Martin Steingesser, and Maya Williams. Featuring music by Carl Dimow.

This event is FREE and OPEN to the public.

This event is part “Every Tree Tells a Story,” TEMPOart’s summer series of events in companion with Pamela Moulton’s installation, Beneath the Forest, Beneath the Sea in Payson Park. Curated by Pamela Moulton, each event explores the artwork’s themes of sustainability and community.

Poetry featured in Late Summer Night’s Dream

About Pamela Moulton

Pamela Moulton’s installations are large-scale, playful, hands-on, exploratory and mysterious…Moulton is a multi-disciplinary artist, whose newest human-scale immersive environments are built entirely from salvaged commercial nets and ropes. Her interactive spaces may be crawled through, climbed upon and occupied, allowing the public to explore its environmental consciousness in a direct, material way. These lost materials – haunt our oceans. They are durable, outdoor materials designed for human handling, connected historically and commercially to Portland’s development. Moulton uses them to pull her visitors into spaces which are evocative, sensory, and contemplative. World-building and collaboration are the bases of Moulton’s practice.

www.pamelamoulton.art


Pink Picnic

Dates: Saturday, August 20, 2022
Time: 4pm – 6pm
Rain date: Sunday, August 21, 2022

Location: This event is located in Payson Park, Portland, Maine. Click here to view the exact location in Google Maps. Parking is available in the adjacent lot.

About the event

Pink Picnic is a community picnic focusing on everything pink. Adorn your most whimsical pink outfit, or try on one of the costumes created by artist. Join the Pink procession, play with the interactive pink installations, and be ready for spontaneous pink pop-up performances that will delight your senses! Gather your favorite pink foods, and celebrate at the site of Beneath the Forest, Beneath the Sea for a feast to remember.

This event is FREE and OPEN to the public.

This event is part “Every Tree Tells a Story,” TEMPOart’s summer series of events in companion with Pamela Moulton’s installation, Beneath the Forest, Beneath the Sea in Payson Park. Curated by Pamela Moulton, each event explores the artwork’s themes of sustainability and community.

About Pamela Moulton

Pamela Moulton’s installations are large-scale, playful, hands-on, exploratory and mysterious…Moulton is a multi-disciplinary artist, whose newest human-scale immersive environments are built entirely from salvaged commercial nets and ropes. Her interactive spaces may be crawled through, climbed upon and occupied, allowing the public to explore its environmental consciousness in a direct, material way. These lost materials – haunt our oceans. They are durable, outdoor materials designed for human handling, connected historically and commercially to Portland’s development. Moulton uses them to pull her visitors into spaces which are evocative, sensory, and contemplative. World-building and collaboration are the bases of Moulton’s practice.

www.pamelamoulton.art

Photo by Kerry Constantino

Think Pink: Art-making Event

Dates: Sunday, July 24, 2022
Time: 1pm – 3pm
Rain date: Friday, July 29, 2022

About the event
Let’s make art together! Join artists Pamela Moulton and Margaret (Peg) Maxwell to create works of art using abandoned fishing gear, known in the industry as ghost gear. Surrounded by Pamela’s whimsical installation Beneath the Forest, Beneath the Sea, come create a pink net and rope collage, a wearable accessory, a rope bracelet, a colorful drawing, and even try your hand at musical paper making: Roots to Paper. Seeds to Trees. Come hug the sculptures and make art! All ages welcome!
Moulton.

This event is FREE and OPEN to the public.

Location: This event is located in Payson Park, Portland, Maine. Click here to view the exact location in Google Maps. Parking is available in the adjacent lot.

This event is part “Every Tree Tells a Story,” TEMPOart’s summer series of events in companion with Pamela Moulton’s installation, Beneath the Forest, Beneath the Sea in Payson Park. Curated by Pamela Moulton, each event explores the artwork’s themes of sustainability and community.

About Pamela Moulton

Pamela Moulton’s installations are large-scale, playful, hands-on, exploratory and mysterious…Moulton is a multi-disciplinary artist, whose newest human-scale immersive environments are built entirely from salvaged commercial nets and ropes. Her interactive spaces may be crawled through, climbed upon and occupied, allowing the public to explore its environmental consciousness in a direct, material way. These lost materials – haunt our oceans. They are durable, outdoor materials designed for human handling, connected historically and commercially to Portland’s development. Moulton uses them to pull her visitors into spaces which are evocative, sensory, and contemplative. World-building and collaboration are the bases of Moulton’s practice.

www.pamelamoulton.art


“YOU ARE GOING TO BE HEALED” with Imaginary Island

Dates: Friday, June 24, 2022 + Saturday, June 25, 2022 

Time: 8pm – 9pm

Location: Payson Park at the site of Pamela Moulton’s Beneath the Forest, Beneath the Sea

Rain date: 6/26/22

About the event

As a mental health counselor and a craniosacral therapist, respectively, Kristen Stake and Hannah Wasielewski have felt tremendous pressure, during these times, to HEAL their clients–on demand!–while also going through their own challenges with Covid, climate change, white supremacy, and the threat of nuclear war. This juxtaposition of helping while hurting, has led them to ask themselves: How can we leverage these unrealistic expectations to catapult ourselves into a realm where true connection and healing are possible?

Equipped with fake Tarot cards, intake forms, and fluorescent wigs, the two therapist-dancers will guide the audience through an interactive experience in Payson Park using sacred and mundane objects to perform the problem of community, to cast spells, abolish bad energies, and invoke ancestors for karmic healing. This performance is part of a lifelong choreography project centered around healing, grieving, and improvisation. 

This project has received generous support from the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Maine Arts Commission, Casco Bay Movers, and Hewnoaks Artist Residency.

General info

The performance duration is 60 minutes and will have optional participatory elements. There will be some chairs on site, but you may want to bring a picnic blanket and an extra layer of clothing.

Performance material is not suitable for children.

This event is part of TEMPOart’s summer event series, Every Tree Tells a Story, curated by Pamela Moulton.

This event is FREE and OPEN to the public.

About the Company

Imaginary Island is an experimental dance company started by Kristen Stake and Hannah Wasielewski located in Portland, Maine. Imaginary Island is a nod to Ram Island Dance (a modern company active from 1968-2001). Located somewhere in the Casco Bay, Imaginary Island is home to the dance that can’t be erased because it exists in our collective imagination. Their work is influenced by the trials and tribulations of Contact Improvisation, the “fake healing” scores taught by Keith Hennessy, the effervescent spirit of (d)ancestor Kathleen Hermesdorf, and the experiential community gatherings of Anna Halprin. Through this project, they embark on a lifelong dance process centered around healing, grieving, and improvisation.

www.imaginaryisland.art

About the Artists

Hannah Wasielewski

Hannah Wasielewski (she/her) is a dancer, performer, educator, and biodynamic craniosacral therapist based in Portland, Maine.  She has been engaged in choreographic practice as a soloist and in collaboration since 2012, working throughout North America and abroad in Europe.  Her current collaboration, (ii) Imaginary Island, with Kristen Stake, is a lifelong dance process centered around healing, grieving, and improvisation. Previously based in the Bay Area, she works with her sister, Amy, and has performed with Sara Shelton Mann, FAKE Company/Kathleen Hermesdorf, Kinetech Arts/Daiane Lopes da Silva, and Sara Kraft/ KraftyWorks.

Kristen Stake

Kristen Stake is a dance artist in Portland, Maine. Rooted in DIY values, her work explores ritual, memory, and emotional-relational dynamics. She has danced with Melinda Buckwalter, Vanessa Anspaugh, Terre Unite Parker, Katarina Eriksson, and Michael Figueroa.  From 2016-2020, she was the director of the Living Room Dance Collective. She has held many jobs in the “helping” fields and currently works as a mental health counselor. 

Aretha Aoki and Meredith Glisson provided invaluable dramaturgical support.


Dedication Ceremony for PINECONE

Wednesday, September 8, 2021 5:00 – 6:00 P.M.
(rain date September 9)

Deering Oaks Park at the site of the Sculpture of PINECONE

You’re Cordially Invited

Join TEMPOart on Wednesday, September 8 at 5:00 P.M. for dedication ceremony in honor of PINECONE. The ceremony will be at the installation site in Deering Oaks Park (near Deering Avenue side of the Park)  PINECONE, by artist Patric Plourde, is constructed of 146 recycled steel shovels and has been gifted to the Portland Public Art Committee by TEMPOart in honor of Alice Spencer. Over 25 years ago, Alice Spencer was appointed to the first Portland Public Art Committee. Since then she has tirelessly championed public art in Portland – making an impact and delighting us all! Alice founded TEMPOart Portland in 2014 and through the organization she helped make Portland a city rich in public art. The installation of this eight foot long, permanent sculpture of a PINECONE in Deering Oaks Park will be a forever reminder to all who happen upon it about Alice’s hard work.  

Brief remarks from members of TEMPOart, Friends of Deering Oaks Park, Portland Public Art Committee, and Alice Spencer. Statement from artist Patrick Plourde by June LaCombe.

Light refreshments and musical performance by Con Fullum – Pihcintu. 

This event is FREE and OPEN to the public.
Reservations are required.


“Gloaming” with Riley Watts and Heather Lyon

Date: August 20

Time: 7-9pm

Location: All Gathering Stones events will be held at Fish Point on the Eastern Promenade, Portland, Maine. See location on Google Maps.

About the Event

Gloaming refers to the transitional time between day at night – the liminal space between the light of wakefulness and the dark of a sleeping world. You’ll be invited to participate in a short meditation followed by a performance in a distinct atmosphere energized by the performers and their connection. Each stone will be activated as a choreographic “station” that will guide you toward empathetic healing after an intense year of isolation. 

About the Artists

Heather Lyon is a performance, video and installation artist born and working in Blue Hill, Maine. Combining her interest in the meanings of materials (ranging from rebar to sequins to milk to ash) and the question of the human body, she investigates relationships and the ways in which we negotiate longing, loss, desire, and vulnerability. She holds a BFA (2002) and MFA (2004) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has recently been exhibited and performed at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, Maine, TEDx Dirigo, Portland, Maine,

The Danforth Gallery, University of Maine Augusta, Cynthia Winings Gallery, Blue Hill, Maine, Space Gallery,

Portland, Maine, Zaratan, Lisbon, Portugal, “The Picnic Pavilion” a parallel project to the 58th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, The State Silk Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia and at Artisterium 10, Tbilisi, Georgia, for which she received an Emergency Artist Grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York.

Riley Watts is a dance artist based in Portland, Maine. He studied dance at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and The Juilliard School, where graduated in 2007 as a Princess Grace Award winner. He has danced professionally with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Bern Ballet, Netherlands Dance Theater 2, and The Forsythe Company, and now freelances from his home state of Maine. He has appeared in numerous works of choreographer William Forsythe both on stage and in museums since 2010, including video work Alignigung with Rubberlegz, A Quiet Evening of Dance and Sylvie Guillem’s Life in Progress farewell tour. In Forsythe’s DUO2015, Riley and Brigel Gjoka were named Contemporary Dancers of the Year by the Positano Prize, Italy 2015. He has toured the world extensively to perform in venues such as the Sydney Opera House, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and National Theater of Taiwan, and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, among many others. His choreography has been performed at Bates Dance Festival, SPACE, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, and the Bangor Arts Exchange.

As a dance artist, Riley’s own work centers around states of consciousness through the body in motion and the psychology of dance. His art practice begins with dance but spans various media and modes of making, including improvisation, video art, sculpture, music, and live installations. Riley has been an artist-in-residence at SPACE Gallery, Bates Dance Festival, Hewnoaks Artist Colony, and the Ellis Beauregard Foundation, and since 2010 has been invited throughout the USA, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and the UK to teach improvisation and embodied dance thinking.

Photo by Luis Rodrigues

“Fairy Sighting” with Amelia Garretson-Persans

Date: August 29

Time: 7:00PM – 9:00PM

Location: All Gathering Stones events will be held at Fish Point on the Eastern Promenade, Portland, Maine. See location on Google Maps.

About the Event

Fairy Sighting is an opportunity for visitors to experience something magical in their peripheral vision. Using light, shadow and performance, Fairy Sighting plays with the relationship between magic and theater and our desire to be taken in by mystery. One night only, looped live performance in and around the stones. Choreography collaboration from Dana Dotson.

About the Artist

Amelia Garretson-Persans is an interdisciplinary artist, community collaborator, and mother based in Maine. She received her BFA in Studio Art from Concordia University in Montreal and her MFA from the Maine College of Art in Portland, ME. She has shown work in Maine, New York, Tennessee, Quebec and elsewhere. Her residencies include the Digital Narratives residency at the Banff Centre in Alberta and the Stephen Pace House in Stonington. She lives in South Portland with her partner and frequent collaborator, Ian P. Hundt, and two children, Paul and Lily.