“Blue Eye Girl,” by Annie Lee-Zimerle (2019, acrylic on canvas) Submitted photo
FARMINGTON—The UMF Emery Community Arts Center is opening a first of the year event with an exciting pair of exhibitions.
“I don’t like gardening, but I do it anyway, mostly for my neighbors,” an exhibition of paintings, ceramics, book arts and works on paper by Annie Lee Zimerle and Brian Zimerle. This Flex Space Gallery exhibit runs from Sept. 7 – Nov. 2, 2023. An artist talk will be featured on Wednesday, Sept. 20, at 1 p.m.
“The Elliot Schwartz Memorial Practice Rooms Project,” a large sound installation by retired UMF music professor Philip Carlsen and sound engineer Steve Drown. This installation is in the ramp area and runs from Sept. 1 – 30. The soundscape is active at 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The public is invited to a joint opening reception Thursday, Sept. 7, from 5-7 p.m. All events are free and open to the public
In their new multi-media exhibition, “I don’t like gardening, but I do it anyway, mostly for my neighbors,” Annie Lee and Brian Zimerle consider the act of gardening as engaging an intention of domesticity, from the literal domestication of wild flora to the more common ideal of making a home a home.
“The Elliott Schwartz Memorial Practice Rooms Project,” a tribute to one of Maine’s leading composers and teachers, was conceived and directed by Philip Carlsen, in his role as head of the Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival at the Portland Conservatory. In 2020, the concert at the conservatory featured eight pianists as they played the spread-out ensemble pieces, about five minutes each, that had been written especially for the occasion by nine different composers.
The recording engineer Steve Drown, along with his associate Noah Cole, recorded the event with a complicated setup of twelve microphones, a big mixer and lots of cables. It is with that multi-track recording, played back through widely separated speakers, that Drown and the Emery Center staff aim to recreate the original sonic experience in Emery’s large public space.
The Emery Arts Center gallery is located on Academy St. (between Main St. and High St.) in downtown Farmington.
Fall open hours are Monday-Friday, 12 p.m.-4 p.m. and Saturday, 12 p.m.-6.p.m. Closed on Sundays, holidays and university breaks. For more information contact Ann Bartges, director of UMF Emery Community Arts Center at ann.bartges@maine.edu or 207-778-7461.
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