TEMPOArt – TEMPOart

The Arts & Prosperity Study 6 Highlights Remarkable Impact on Portland’s Economy

In October 2023, the results of the Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 Study (AEP6) were released, offering a profound insight into the incredible economic and social impact of the arts and culture sector in Portland, Maine. The findings from this groundbreaking study revealed an astounding $86 million in economic activity generated by the nonprofit arts and culture organizations, showcasing the vital role that the arts play in building more vibrant and livable communities.

The AEP6 study, conducted by Americans for the Arts (AFTA), disclosed that the Greater Portland nonprofit arts and culture industry contributed a total of $86 million to the local economy in 2022. This impressive figure consisted of $58.2 million in expenditures by nonprofit arts and culture organizations and an additional $27.8 million in event-related spending by their audiences.

What makes these numbers even more impressive is the impact on job creation and government revenue. The arts and culture sector in Portland supported 1,872 jobs and generated $20.7 million in local, state, and federal government revenue. The spending by arts and culture audiences further fueled the local economy by providing valuable commerce to local merchants.

In a recent press release, Dinah Minot, the Executive Director of Creative Portland, expressed her gratitude to the participating nonprofit cultural organizations and emphasized the study’s importance in shedding light on the arts’ role in Portland’s economic, social, and creative wellbeing. She emphasized that the arts and culture sector is a key driver for Greater Portland’s economy, underscoring its undeniable value to the community.

The AEP6 study is part of a nationwide effort to document the economic and social contributions of nonprofit arts and culture organizations. Nationally, the study unveiled that America’s nonprofit arts and culture sector is a staggering $151.7 billion industry, supporting 2.6 million jobs and generating $29.1 billion in government revenue. These numbers highlight the significance of the arts as an economic driver of vibrant communities not only in Portland but throughout the United States.

The AEP6 study in Portland was a collaborative effort that spanned over a year. Data was meticulously collected from both the participating nonprofit organizations and the audiences attending performing arts events. This comprehensive approach allowed for a holistic assessment of the sector’s economic impact, encompassing everything from organizational expenses to audience spending.

Several nonprofit organizations played a pivotal role in contributing to the study’s findings, including TEMPOart and the Portland Public Art Commission. The involvement of many other nonprofit organizations showcases the collective effort that made this study possible and underscores the sector’s commitment to transparency and accountability.

The Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 Study has undeniably emphasized the profound economic and social impact of the arts and culture sector in Portland. The impressive $86 million in economic activity, job creation, and government revenue generated by this sector reinforces the importance of supporting and sustaining local artists and arts initiatives.

As these findings resonate locally and nationally, they serve as a powerful reminder of the vital role the arts play in building more livable communities, fostering creativity, and driving economic growth. The AEP6 study in Portland demonstrates that the arts are not just a cultural expression but a fundamental driver of prosperity and vitality in our society. TEMPOart is proud to contribute to that vitality through our mission to commission and support public art that sparks dialogue, builds community, and inspires our collective imagination.

Links to learn more:

AEP6 Results Summary

Press Release: Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 Study Results for Portland, ME

Summary of Findings: Portland, ME AEP6 Results

Complete Final Report: Portland, ME AEP6 Results

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

Late-Summer-Nights-Dream Download

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

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.

Occupied Wall by Christian A. Prasch

Occupied Wall asks us to break down barriers in the hope of creating community. The installation consists of a wall of modular, moveable blocks that can be transformed from a barrier into a gateway that leads to a community gathering space available for all. Join the artist, TEMPOart Portland, and the public at August’s First Friday Artwalk to participate in the transformation of the Wall!

Occupied Wall will be temporarily installed in Post Office Plaza during the month of August. The artist and TEMPOart Portland thank Bard Coffee for their additional support of this privately-funded project.

Prasch’s Occupied Wall is the third project in TEMPOart’s summer series UNDER REVIEW: The American Dream, and follows John Sundling’s Ghost Fence in the Franklin Street Arterial and Christina Bechstein’s Now We Plant: Seeds for our American Dream at the Boyd Street Urban Farm. All three projects commemorate the one-year anniversary of TEMPOart’s inaugural installation in Lincoln Park, Judith Hoffman’s The American Dream. The summer 2017 projects respond to Hoffman’s sculpture by offering ways to understand the meaning of the “American Dream” today.

The Artist
Christian A. Prasch is an artist and design professional who strives to instigate constructive interaction and community relationships through his design, and treats play and experimentation as his most important tools for developing and realizing his work. He has worked in Los Angeles with Michael Maltzan Architects, ProtoHomes, Design Hunter LA, and Kim Lewis Designs, and earned his Master’s degree from Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Prasch currently works in the Engineering and Infrastructure Group at the Portland Amec Foster Wheeler office.

#OccupiedWall #TEMPOartMaine

Ghost Fence by John Sundling

TEMPOart Kicks Off Summer Artist Series with
Ghost Fence by John Sundling

Ghost Fence, a temporary artwork by Portland’s John Sundling, will debut in the Franklin Street median at the corner of Congress and Franklin Streets as part of the First Friday Art Walk on June 3, 2017. It will be the first of three summer projects by Portland artists commissioned by TEMPOart Portland, the non-profit organization dedicated to energizing Portland’s public spaces through temporary art installations.

Sundling’s piece utilizes the visual language of surveying and construction, using flagging tape, simple wood poles and plastic sheeting to create a “ghost fence” that outlines the original boundaries of Lincoln Park.

In the late 1960’s, the City of Portland razed existing communities to create the Franklin Street Arterial and make the area more “functional” and “modern”. Sundling is interested in this lost physical and social space and wants to “create a simple and effective reminder of both past and present, as well as a place to envision the future.” “My goal is to create an awareness of the past and a place in the present to gather, share stories and create positive memories,” said Sundling.

Sundling’s June project will be followed on July 7th by Christina Bechstein’s Now We Plant: Seeds for our American Dream at the Boyd Street Urban Farm, and Christian Prasch’s Wall.., opening August 4th (pending City of Portland Permit) in Post Office Plaza. All three commemorate the one-year anniversary of TEMPOart’s inaugural project, Judith Hoffman’s, The American Dream, the Lincoln Park sculpture that will remain on view through the summer, and each new installation responds to that first sculpture by offering ways to understand the meaning of the “American Dream” today.

The Artist
John Sundling is an artist and designer, working in diverse disciplines including floristry, set design, sculpture, curation and custom fabrication. Recent work includes miniature sets for puppets in a feature film, and co-directing a “no-profit arts disorganization,” the Institute for American Art. His sculptural work has been primarily large-scale, often outdoors, with an emphasis on the effects of time and nature. The artist’s set design work has grown to become more environmental and sculptural in response to this exploration. Sundling is most interested in the blurry edges of his practices and how they inform each other.

TEMPOart Portland
TEMPOart energizes Portland’s public spaces through temporary art installations – engaging residents and visitors, enriching its creative community and enhancing Portland’s reputation as a world-class city. We provide opportunities for artists to experiment with new mediums, highlight current issues and engage a wide public audience. We partner with other on-profit educational and cultural institutions, using each project to inspire innovative learning opportunities for all ages. TEMPOart is a privately-funded 501-c3 non-profit organization and is administered by a Board of Directors.

#TEMPOartMaine #GhostFence

TEMPOart Receives Horizon Foundation Grant to Support Educational Programs Inspired by “The American Dream” Sculpture

The Horizon Foundation, based in Portland, Maine, has awarded TEMPOart a $10,000 grant to support public programming associated with “The American Dream” by sculptor Judith Hoffman. The 14-foot-tall steel and enamel sculpture representing typical American homes of different scales, stacked and inverted one on top of another, will be unveiled at 6:00 p.m. on June 3, 2016 as part of Portland’s First Friday Artwalk.

Horizon Foundation supports non-profit organizations that aspire to create and maintain sustainable, vibrant, and resilient communities by enabling children and adults to lead their communities in creative, healthy, and thoughtful ways.

The American Dream is the inaugural project of the privately-funded non-profit group TEMPOart, which selected Hoffman’s work because of its provocative questioning of what the idea of HOME means to our diverse community. The sculpture and TEMPO’s outreach programming are expected to stimulate reflection and dialogue about the fluid meaning of home within the context of the Portland community.

The Horizon grant will help fund TEMPOart’s plans to partner with other arts, education and cultural groups in Portland to reach a variety of audiences over the next twelve months. Collaborations will include:

Oak Street Studios’ “Side X Side” program will feature artists leading 160 third graders at East End and Reiche Elementary Schools who are studying Portland history in the fall of 2016. Field trips to see the sculpture will be a jumping off point for reflections about home and map-making that is part of the curriculum.
Mayo Street Arts will conduct a Sculpture Study Workshop at the Portland Public Library to connect 40 East Bayside children aged 7-11 with Judith Hoffman’s sculpture as part of its RAD (Reading, Art, Dance) program during June, July and August.
Greater Portland Landmarks will offer several walking tours, one aimed at youth that will explore the totemic nature of the sculpture through a hunt for unique architectural features along Congress Street, culminating in art-making projects at Oak Street Studios.

Countdown begins for “The American Dream” installation!

This just in: Judith Hoffman’s beautiful and fascinating sculpture is on its way to Portland. Here are a two photos of the disassembled, finished artwork before it was packed and loaded for shipment.

Mark your calendar to attend the unveiling in Lincoln Park on Friday, June 3rd, during the First Friday Art Walk.

“The American Dream” fabrication update!

TEMPOart has received some amazing progress photos from artist Judith Hoffman for the sculpture to be installed later this month in Lincoln Park—at the corner of Congress & Franklin Streets. Mark your calendars to attend the unveiling on Friday, June 3rd—and celebrate First Friday with us.