artscope magazine: May/June 2009 Welcome Statement: Brian Goslow, managing editor Letters to the Editor ARTSWorcester's BIENNIAL 2009 GRIDWORK: Further explorations into the urban landscape featuring new work by Robert Maloney and Sean Thomas BEN ARONSON - LIGHT AND GEOMETRY: The Urban Signature RADKA DONNELL: THE WORK OF TOUCH DOROTHY SIMPSON KRAUSE: LOSING GROUND NATURAL WORLD: A BRICKBOTTOM ARTISTS' ASSOCIATION MEMBERS' EXHIBITION JOE FIG: IN THE PAINTER'S STUDIO POINT OF VIEW: OUTDOOR SCULPTURE GALLERY-BY-THE-FALLS THE SIXTH SENSE: CONTEMPORARY JEWELRY FROM KOREA Featured Artist: Dominique Boutaud FéLIX DE LA CONCHA: PRIVATE PORTRAITS/PUBLIC CONVERSATIONS 2009 PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART BIENNIAL SCULPTURES IN LOVE WITH ARCHITECTURE JESSICA GONACHA at YES Gallery and Studio THE BRIGHT & SHINING LIGHT OF IRREVERENCE: RICHARD SAJA AND THE HISTORICALLY INACCURATE SCHOOL WHERE HISTORY AND CONTEMPORARY MEET BRATTLEBORO-WEST ARTS PREMIER GROUP EXHIBITION SCOTT PRIOR (ongoing) and LARRY PRESTON / GREG GILLESPIE and LEONEL GóNGORA ANDIAMO! Art on the Hill Destination: Federal Hill, Providence’s Little Italy THIRD ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF ENCAUSTIC PAINTING AXIOM CENTER FOR NEW AND EXPERIMENTAL MEDIA CAPSULE PREVIEWS

WHERE HISTORY AND CONTEMPORARY MEET Elena Sarni The George Marshall Store Gallery 140 Lindsay Road York, Maine;/br> The Banks Gallery 420 Court Street Portsmouth, New Hampshire;/br> Under the cloud of the current economic crisis exists a developing business model that just may save some historical museums from having to close their doors. This model consists of art galleries pairing with historical museums, and vice versa. The George Marshall Store Gallery in York, Maine, is located in a picturesque building owned by the Museums of Old York. 2010 will mark the Gallery’s 15th anniversary. Despite its traditional appearance, it’s not your typical historic building; inside the former general store, the walls pop with contemporary art. The gallery has a strong and consistent following, one that Museums of Old York Director Scott Stevens describes as a “different, but related audience segment.” The gallery shares a portion of its profits with the museum. Gallery founder Mary Harding describes the gallery as “where history and contemporary art meet.” The riverside building retains authentic remains of its original purpose, including the hoist that would lift merchandise from the wharf into the store, but the rest of the building’s nooks and crannies are filled with contemporary art. Harding states “what’s going on in contemporary art now is our culture today, and as a historical society, or agency, or museum, it’s important to promote it (our culture today) and preserve it.” Harding works primarily with artists from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, and enjoys subtly challenging her audience. “A lot of people think that art has to be in the format of a 4” x 6” image and hang on the wall, (but) if you stretch people a little bit with one show, they’ll be ready for the next.” An exceptionally popular series has been the gallery’s Accord exhibits, which Harding curates along side the museum’s curator. These exhibitions involve juxtaposing items from the museum’s furniture collection with contemporary art — the pairings based thematically, or around a color scheme. The George Marshall Store Gallery 2009 season kicks off with the annual “Momentum” show, now in its seventh year. “Momentum” showcases the winner and finalists of the prestigious $30,000 Piscataqua Region Artist Advancement Grant. This year’s winner, Ross Cisneros, tests the relationship between video, sculpture and performance. Amy Brnger’s domestically inspired paintings, “Sense and Sensibility,” are also on view. Both exhibits run Read the entire article in our magazine pages...