Keith Plummer art exhibition launches Puddle Dock Village Festival
Installation view of sculptures by Keith Plummer, the first of three festival art exhibitions. Courtesy of Peter Bruun
Artist Keith Plummer demonstrates his sculptural technique, one of six events during the eight-day run of his exhibition. Courtesy of Peter Brunn
Installation view of sculptures by Keith Plummer, the first of three festival art exhibitions. Courtesy of Peter Bruun
Artist Keith Plummer demonstrates his sculptural technique, one of six events during the eight-day run of his exhibition. Courtesy of Peter Brunn
The first-ever Puddle Dock Village Festival launched over the holiday weekend at Alna’s Puddle Dock Village School, featuring an opening reception for Damariscotta artist Keith Plummer’s first solo exhibition on Saturday evening, followed by a demonstration of his repoussage sculptural technique on Sunday.
Located at a rural crossroads just behind the Alna Post Office, the 19th-century schoolhouse-turned-art-gallery is an unexpected setting for world-class art exhibitions serving as catalysts for community dialogue around themes including trauma and substance use disorder, incarceration and reentry, and the importance of wellness and self-care practices.
Plummer readily acknowledges that he would never have become an artist had his nephew Mike, a victim of childhood sexual abuse, not died of an overdose in 2006. “I needed some place to put all those feelings,” he said.
Invoking characters from mythology and spirit worlds, Plummer’s sculptural figures, crafted from wood, bone, copper, brass, and stone, function symbolically as guardians: protectors and heralds now occupying a former classroom.
“It’s meaningful that this installation is in a school building, a place where our children are cared for,” says Peter Bruun, Executive Director of Studio B, the organization behind the festival. “As children, Keith’s family members experienced harm, and that was missed at the time. Implicitly, Keith’s work invokes the need for us as a community to pay attention and raises the question, who’s taking care of our children?”
In addition to the exhibition, festival programming over the course of its 8-day run (July 5–13) explores themes embedded in the artwork. On Wednesday, July 9, just a mile away at the Alna Meetinghouse, the festival presents “Thrive Together: How Creativity & Connection Build Youth Resilience.” Sponsored by Hearty Roots, with additional in-kind support from Maine Youth Thriving. The 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. gathering brings together youth programs, teens, and families to explore what young people need today and how the broader community can help.
The exhibition concludes on Saturday, July 13, with “Art & Resilience: A Sharing” from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Alna Meetinghouse, featuring music and words by Baltimore musician QueenEarth, Portland writers Cody Mower and Maya Williams, and Waldoboro musician Laetitia Brundage. An audience conversation about the healing power of making art follows their performances, after which the participants will return to the schoolhouse for the closing reception for Plummer’s exhibition, from 5 to 7 p.m.
The Puddle Dock Village Festival continues through Aug. 3, with two additional solo exhibitions – Ed Epping’s work on the criminal justice system (July 17–24), and Phylicia Ghee’s video installation on ritualized self-care (July 26–Aug. 3) – and a range of community programs. For full details, visit https://puddledockfestival.org.
