Sea Change Opens at Portland Public Library July 16
Posted: 7/11/16
On Saturday, July 16, Maine Maritime Museum will open a new exhibit Sea Change: Portland on the Edge of the New North at the Portland Public Library. The exhibit, on view through January 2, 2017, will explore Portland’s evolving significance in international shipping. The public is invited to attend a special opening during First Friday Artwalk, August 5 from 4 to 6 pm.
Portland’s unique geographic location has been repeatedly discovered, exploited, and abandoned in several economic cycles, at times in valuable proximity to world events, in other times a forgotten backwater as its maritime history rolls on. As long-sought northern sea routes from the Atlantic to the Pacific open up due to receding ice in the Arctic, Portland finds itself situated in useful proximity to potentially monumental changes in world shipping, again.
Drawing on Maine Maritime Museum’s large archival collections of maps and photography, Sea Change: Portland on the Edge of the New North will illustrate the port’s long history as the doorstep between Canadian/U.S. commerce to Europe, and how climate change and maritime innovation are writing the next chapters.
The exhibit coincides with the museum’s selection of Icelandic shipping company Eimskip as the recipient of the 2016 Mariners Award. The Mariners Award, given annually to an individual or organization that has made extraordinary contributions to Maine’s maritime heritage and significantly impacted the state’s culture and economy, will be presented to Eimskip at a ceremony in August.