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In this issue...
Project Spotlight: Center Theatre Project
The Center Theatre project in Dover-Foxcroft receives a $100,000 grant! To learn more about the project click here... |
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Looking for Conferences and Professional Development Opportunities?
Check out the calendar on our website . This helpful tool lists heritage related training events, conferences, upcoming meetings, and more! |
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To Learn More,
Contact Us Today!
Mountain Counties Heritage
P.O. Box 508
Farmington ME 04938
(207)778-3885
(207)778-5095 Fax
info@mainemountains.org
Mountain Counties Heritage serves as the coordinating agency for the Maine Mountain Heritage Network. |
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sent this electronic mailing to people who have an existing
relationship with us and also to people whom we think the information
will be of interest. We DON'T share your information with anyone - view our Privacy Policy. |
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Celebrating Maine's Mountain Heritage
Welcome to NETWORK NEWS!
Happy New Year from the Maine Mountain Heritage Network!
Network
News is the official e-Newsletter of the Maine Mountain Heritage
Network. Published once a month, Network News will be filled with
updates and articles about what is happening in the Maine Mountain
Heritage Area.
The Network is an open association of businesses,
non-profit organizations, government entities and interested
individuals focused on supporting heritage-based economic and community
development in Oxford, Franklin, Somerset, Piscataquis and Northern
Penobscot Counties in Maine. The Network is governed by a steering
committee of fifteen people representing many interests and areas
within and beyond the region. Mountain Counties Heritage, Inc. serves
as the coordinating agency.
If you have questions about the Network or want more information, visit our website at www.mainemountains.org, or call Mountain Counties Heritage at (207) 778-3885.
We welcome your story ideas! E-mail us at info@mainemountains.org.
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December Update
For
some of you, this newsletter will be your first opportunity to learn
about the Maine Mountain Heritage Network and our heritage area
intitiative. For many others, this is a chance to get caught up with
Network activity that has occurred over the past several months.
In April, the Network steering committee
voted to establish the Maine Mountain Heritage Area as a platform for
organizing and supporting development and marketing activity across a
number of sectors. It was an exciting moment, signaling the beginning
of the implementation phase after almost three years of planning. Since
then we have been active on a number of fronts.
 We have established a marketing and communications committee
that is charged with reviewing early Network communications efforts and
with overseeing development of a long range marketing plan.
We
have moved ahead with our recreation planning efforts, most recently
joining forces with the University of Maine at Orono to undertake a
large landscape analysis designed to identify natural, material, and
experiential values associated with different parts of our region (and
development potential attached to those values). This analysis will
guide our recommendations for conservation and recreation development
in the future.
The Economic Development Districts serving our
region (EMDC, KVCOG, AVCOG) have agreed to lead the community
investment program which is intended to position service center and
destination communities to serve as hubs for regional tourism
development. Meetings in eight communities across the region have
revealed a number of very exciting investment opportunities.
Western
Oxford Foothills Cultural Council is heading up the Network’s “creative
economy” initiative (intended to gain more exposure for our region’s
creative people and enterprises), and the Northern Forest Center is
leading the effort to establish continuity of message and image among
the various interpretive and visitor information centers being proposed
for the area. More about those projects in future issues.
So –
there is a lot going on, and we hope that you will want to support
these and other efforts of the Network. If so, please consider
“joining” the Network by signing up on our web site www.mainemountains.org. |
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Visitor & Travel Information For the Maine Mountain Heritage Area
Have you seen our website at www.VisitMaineMountains.com? It features frequently updated information about heritage based events to attend, sites to visit, information about the region's Scenic Byways and much more. |
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Unveiled: The Network’s Very Own Logo
By Jennifer Kierstead, Public Service Communications
The Maine Mountain Heritage Network’s membership and internal business is growing daily.
 To
identify our work at a glance, we decided to come up with a good logo
quickly to use on our electronic newsletter, The Network News, on our
funding proposals and on our correspondence, for starters.
Those
of you who have developed logos know that the phrase “logo quickly” is
an oxymoron, but we had a lucky break early. Perusing an encyclopedia
of quilt patterns, we came across the stunning, unusually dynamic,
circa 1890 New England pattern entitled “Lady of the Lake,” (shown
left). It readily translates into black and white (for faxing and
xeroxing) and has both a mountain and network feel to it. Turning to
local graphic designers Victor and Marjorie Cormier from Chesterville,
Maine, we asked them to develop a logo inspired by this pattern.
Twenty-one versions later, we arrived, happily, at this. Rangeley
weaver Caroline Bates-Hoffman happened to be in the Mountain Counties
office when we were reviewing this option and said she thought that the
square itself is named “Mountain.” We don’t know for sure, but this
would certainly be a wonderful coincidence. 
So,
drum roll, here it is: the original 1890 “Lady of the Lake”quilt
pattern together with the logo for the Maine Mountain Heritage Network
that it inspired. Whenever you see this, you’ll know it’s Network
business. We hope you like it.
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Project Spotlight: Dover-Foxcroft’s Center Theatre
 Teaming Creative Economy with Downtown Revitalization
By Erika Bohlman, Mountain Counties Heritage, Inc.
The
renovation of a unique historical and architectural asset in downtown
Dover-Foxcroft is helping to re-establish a “physical heart” in this
northern Maine community.
The Center Theatre for the Performing
Arts renovation project could have a positive impact beyond the
immediate Dover-Foxcroft downtown area. “By teaming creative economy
with downtown revitalization, the Center Theatre renovation project is
rebuilding Piscataquis County’s local sense of pride and place,” stated
Rollin Thurlow, who has been involved with the project since its
inception back in 1997 and is now the theatre group’s Chairman of the
Board.
This project holds a multitude of benefits for a broad
range of people. “It is not just patrons of the arts, local students
and schools, or summer people who are excited about what a renovated
Center Theatre in downtown Dover-Foxcroft means for the entire county,”
said Thurlow. “Economic developers, town selectmen, local businesses,
and state and federal legislators all see the huge potential of the
Center Theatre for the Performing Arts to help revitalize and stimulate
our struggling woods-based economy.”
 The
Center Theatre for the Performing Arts, which is of a 1940’s art deco
style, was built in 1941 after the Star Theater that was across the
street burned down. According to Tracy S. Michaud Stutzman, Co-Chair of
the project’s Capital Campaign, the project recently received a
$100,000 grant from the Maine Department of Economic and Community
Development and the campaign committee has already raised over $800,000
of the $1.3 million needed to restore the theatre. The work includes a
major renovation of the building, which involves completely gutting and
remodeling the interior, and installing a new electrical service and
plumbing, a new stage and dressing rooms, a fire alarm and sprinkler
system, handicap accessibility changes and more.
Phase one of
the work’s three major phases has recently been completed. John Gordon
is the architect and Nickerson & O’Day is the General Contractor;
both are hired locally from Bangor. In addition, the Charleston
Correctional Facility has participated with a crew of inmates that work
in the community at no cost to non-profit groups. They have saved the
project tens of thousands of dollars by doing most of the demolition
and helping to construct a basement for the bathrooms. The crew is
scheduled to do more work in the later phases.
Stutzman believes
that the Center Theatre will draw young people and families back to the
region to live by offering arts programs that will enhance the quality
of life. As a result, this region will become an even more compelling
and interesting destination for visitors who have already come to enjoy
the area’s unmatched natural beauty. Please contact Tracy Stutzman at
207-564-0041 or by e-mail tracy.stutzman@mail.maine.edu if you would like more information about Dover-Foxcroft’s Center Theatre project. |
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Do you have a story idea?
If
you are are familiar with a heritage-related project and would like us
to consider it for inclusion in our "Project Spotlight" section of
Network News, please send us an e-mail at info@mainemountains.org. We also accept images! |
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Coming in January 2004...
- January Network Update
- What Exactly is a Heritage Area?
- Hot Grant Opportunities
- plus more!
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