Upcoming Exhibits

THE MILL-ENNIAL: Celebrating the Art and Artists of the Cities on the Saco

April 3 through June 13, 2010
The Saco Museum is pleased to announce the debut of the 2010 Mill-ennial, a new juried biennial exhibition of local contemporary art. Sixty-one works by 39 artists connected to Saco, Biddeford, and Old Orchard Beach were selected by juror Frederick Lynch and are on view throughout the exhibition. The exhibition is on display at the Saco Museum, with featured works presented at North Dam Mill in Biddeford, from April 3 through June 13, 2010.

The Mill-ennial was conceived by the Saco Museum as an ongoing series of exhibitions showcasing new work by living artists connected to Saco, Biddeford, and Old Orchard Beach. The works on display present a full range of artistic media, from traditional painting and photography to assemblage sculpture. Two large-scale installations by Biddeford native Celeste Roberge—whose sculptures are in the collections of the Portland Museum of Art, the DeCordova Museum, and Runnymede Sculpture Garden, among other public collections—are among the works installed at North Dam Mill. The mill’s “Project Space,” a 6,000 square foot industrial room with 11-foot ceilings, will provide an apt setting for Roberge’s multi-media pieces, which explore issues of environmental fragility and sustainability. Whimsical and provocative carvings by George Hughes of Saco are also displayed in the Project Space. Following is the complete list of Mill-ennial artists, including those whose work is displayed at the Project Space and the Saco Museum:

Susan Amons
Nick Anagnostis
Susan Barnes
Wendy Barrett
Melissa Bear
Peter Bennett
Christy Bergland
Pat Campbell
Donna Caron
Michele Caron
Sara Chadbourne
Sally Orth Chandler
Tammy Charles
Laura Lee Dobson
Laura Dunn
Rachael Eastman
Gayle Fitzpatrick
Tanya Fletcher
Omer Gagnon
Sarah Gorham
Rick Green
George Hughes
Pamela Johnson
Kathy Angel Lee
Diann L. Libby
Anna Low
Robin Puleio
Deborah Randall
Cheryl Rau
Kelly Sue Rioux
Celeste Roberge
Meryl Ruth
Nancy Bell Scott
Noel Squires
William T. Stewart
Nora Tryon
B. Andrew Valliere
Anastasia Weigle
Diane Bowie Zaitlin

This exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue available on-line at lulu.com.


The juror for the 2010 Mill-ennial is Frederick Lynch, a nationally renowned painter and resident of Saco. Lynch received his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and his Master's of Education degree from Westfield State College in Westfield, Mass. He has taught at the University of Southern Maine, Colby College, and the Haystack School of Crafts on Deer Isle. His work is in the collections of the Portland Museum of Art, the De Cordova Museum, and the Farnsworth Art Museum, among others. “I was very pleased to be asked to participate in the selection of work for this first Millennial,” said Mr. Lynch, “and very gratified to be witness to so many unique, expressive and significant works of art.”

The cities on the Saco have overlapping histories of industrial and creative activity, and the Mill-ennial seeks to celebrate that history by presenting the exhibition in both a traditional museum setting and a former industrial space. Presentation of the Mill-ennial also coincides with the May 29 grand opening of the Saco Museum’s new long-term reinstallation of its permanent collection, entitled Making History: Art and Industry in the Saco River Valley. Together, these two exhibitions will convey the breadth of creative endeavors in this region from the 17th century to the present day.

The 2010 Mill-ennial was organized by the Saco Museum in cooperation with North Dam Mill, with additional support from TDBank. Juror's award sponsored by Saco Spirit. Mill-ennial logo designed by North40Creative.