Maine Arts & Entertainment
The Olson House, best known for the Andrew Wyeth painting Christina's World, is a designated historic site at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine.
Vacationland is like your favorite greatest hits collection. Whether you are planning to summer on the pine-scrubbed coast or spend a leisurely weekend leaf peeping in mid October, discovering the best of Maine is indeed The Way Life Should Be. While lobsters, wild blueberries and rugged coastlines are Maine’s mighty trifecta, it is as well known for its legendary fairs and festivals, performing arts and high-class museums. Your basic challenge when planning a vacation in Maine comes down to this: Where should you start?
Fairs and Festivals
Maine is a tour de force of food, agriculture, music and cultural festivals. It does not matter what time of the year you decide to visit The Pine Tree State because the calendar is filled with heritage fairs, harvest festivals and food celebrations. Maine’s rural villages and coastal communities become week-long block-parties devoted to maple syrup, lobsters, livestock, baked beans, baked goods, chili and whoopie pies (and that is just the tip of the iceberg). Once Mainers start tuning up the old banjoes and fiddles for the annual bluegrass festivals, or hauling out the elegant, black lacquer Steinways for Bach fugues and classical concertos, you know the party is in full-swing. Read More >
Performing Arts
Dinner and a movie is fun, but hey, this is a summer vacation, right? After you crack your favorite crustacean and draw some warm butter at the lobster shack, why not up the ante and go out for a full-blown encore. From summer playhouses and year-round theater companies to ballets and symphonies, Maine has a wide variety of performing arts centers. It is time to retire the parrot-happy Hawaiian shirt and cut-off shorts for a well-dressed night on the town. Do not worry; after an evening of arts, culture and classical entertainment, your faded and beloved beach paperback will still be there in the morning, right beside the deck chair. Read More >
Museums
It is said the average person only spends about ten seconds in front of each painting when they visit a museum. Obviously they are just not going to the right museums. Maine’s artistic legacy is world-renown. From Thomas Cole’s renditions of Mount Desert Island and Winslow Homer’s turbulent seascapes to Andrew Wyeth’s desolate and haunting rural snapshots, Maine is art country. However, there is more in Maine than oil paint and stretched canvas. There are maritime, history and Native American museums. Portland has the lively and creative Children’s Museum, and transportation museums abound throughout the state. While Winslow Homer’s “Artists Sketching in the White Mountains” might be a little out of your price range, if you want to purchase some fine art for your living room or study back home, then gallery hopping or antiquing on Route 1 is the way to go. Read More >
Portland Head Lighthouse Museum in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.