BETHEL — The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum and Bethel Area Arts and Music (BAAM) are working together to co-commission Science Illustrator, Jane Kim, to create a mural that will be painted on the Chapman Street side of the Main Street, Bethel museum in mid to late 2023.
Kim will be in Bethel for a site visit and Artist Talk at the museum on Monday, June 27. In a radio interview about another project, Kim said, “We look for sites for the mural on buildings that have a lot of visual impact.”
Kim is the owner and the founder of Ink Dwell, a Bay Area studio that explores the wonders of the natural world. She is also the creator of the Migrating Mural campaign, a series of public installations that highlight wildlife along migration corridors it shares with people. BAAM member, Wade Cavanaugh, saw one of her migrating murals while visiting Ogden, Utah, and suggested Kim to the group for their next Bethel mural project.
BAAM’s first commissioned mural project was at the nearby Gem Theatre in 2021. Artist Ryan Adams, with planning and painting help from Bethel residents, created a mural that spans three sides of the Gem Theater. It is one of the biggest pieces of public art in Maine and carries a theme of togetherness. Cavanaugh is a co-owner of The Gem.
Regarding her migration murals and the iconic monarch butterfly currently threatened by changing ecosystems, the subject of one of Kim’s murals, she said, “Art is supposed to help us turn our perspective or have a moment of reflection.”
Kim has also produced works for the National Aquarium, the de Young Museum, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Weber State University, and others.
Kate Webb, of Canton, director of BAAM, said she and others, including Maine Mineral Museum director, Barbra Barrett, have been discussing a mural for a couple of years. The museum is rooted in three concepts: gems, minerals, and outer space. T
hey hope Kim will be able to convey these in her proposal which will include a design and a quote following her site visit. Webb said the committee will then (potentially) move toward securing grants and raising funds privately. Webb invited the Bethel Town Manager, Selectboard, and Planning Board members to the meeting with Kim. “This is open to the entire community”, she stressed.
The June 27 event at the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum, 99 Main Street, will begin with live music by Jazz Pianist Izzy Chase at 5 p.m. The Artist Talk with Jane Kim will start at 6 p.m. The event is free. Proof of vaccination is required.
To see more of Jane Kim’s artwork, visit www.inkdwell.com.
Jane Kim works on the 260-foot-long monarch butterfly mural in Central Ogden on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018. The new op-art mural is connected to the Monarch Building, which is being restored as an arts and event center along 25th St. Photo by Ink Dwell Studio
Kim was inspired by John James Audubon’s illustrations when she created her large-scale and best-known mural, “Wall of Birds” at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY Photo by Ink Dwell Studio
The Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep was the subject of Kim’s first Migrating Mural, a series of six installations along California Highway 395. Found only in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains and one of only three bighorn species, the sheep’s population plummeted to around 100 individuals in the 1990s due to a domestic sheep disease. Thanks to conservation efforts their population has now grown to more than 500 sheep. Photo by Ink Dwell Studio Cody Tuttle
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