WISCASSET
If there’s a natural venue for the ArtWalk concept, it’s the “Prettiest Village in Maine.”
The magnificent Nickels-Sortwell House, the Sunken Garden across Main Street, the Wiscasset Bay Gallery and the waterfront are among the visual treasures, many from the period when shipbuilding and the maritime trade brought wealth and sophisticated tastes here. All these and more will be featured Thursday, June 27, when Wiscasset’s first-ever ArtWalk takes place.
The event will also be held the last Thursday of July, August and September, 5 to 8 p.m.
The Nickels-Sortwell House on Main Street is one of the region’s finest examples of high Federalstyle architecture.
Built by successful ship Capt. William Nickels, the house epitomizes the brief period when shipbuilding and the maritime trade brought wealth and sophisticated tastes to this coastal Maine village.
President Thomas Jefferson’s Embargo of 1807 devastated the town of Wiscasset, sending it into an economic decline that would last for years. The Nickels family was forced to sell the mansion in 1814 and, for much of the 19th century, it served as a hotel, catering to the growing number of summer visitors to Maine’s coast.
In 1899, the house was purchased by industrialist and banker Alvin Sortwell, the former mayor of Cambridge, Mass. The Sortwell family, which had Wiscasset roots reaching back to the early 18th century, lov- ingly restored the house over a period of years and decorated it in the Colonial Revival style with fine antique furnishings.
ArtWalks are free, self-guided walking tours that feature a different special event or gallery each month, as well as musicians, pop-up art displays, and in Wiscasset, the popular Alive on the River concert series on the Town Commons.
The first Wiscasset ArtWalk will feature the incredible work of assemblage artist John Sideli at his studio and gallery located on Water Street.
To get going, Wiscasset Art- Walk is seeking volunteers, participants and sponsors to join them. Volunteers can help with one event or several of these special evenings.
Wiscasset ArtWalk participants include artists interested in exhibiting in town, and local storefronts and businesses who are willing to host temporary exhibits.
Sponsors are needed to help fund the monthly events. Sponsors will receive thanks and recognition in Wiscasset ArtWalk publications and media. Any potential volunteers, participants or sponsors — or anyone else interested in learning more about Wiscasset ArtWalk — should contact event coordinators Lucia Droby at ludroby@rcn.com or Ann Scanlan at 882-8290.
lgrard@timesrecord.com
¦ WISCASSET ARTWALK
When: 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, June
27, and the last Thursday of July,
August and September.
ARTWALKS are free, self-guided
walking tours that feature a different special event or gallery each
month, as well as musicians, popup art displays and, in Wiscasset,
the popular Alive on the River concert series on the Town Commons.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
