Obscura – thinking ahead
Five people in the midcoast Maine area have launched a non-profit named OBSCURA. Its mantra is: “…to support the arts and arts education through publishing, scholarships and grants.”
Spokesperson Matt Smolinksy tells me the founders/board of directors will “raise funds for scholarships for students, grants for producing important work, and publishing work that is both previously unpublished and that we believe has significant artistic and cultural value.”
The first book published for which all proceeds from the soft cover edition will support Obscura’s goals is Brenton Hamilton’s The Blue Poet Dreams and representing ten years of Brenton’s work. Recently taken on by Susan Maasch Fine Art in Portland and Director of the Certificate Program at Maine Media Workshops, Brenton is also the state’s expert on the history of photography and a gutsy, risk-taking artist. I talk about Brenton in another posting in this category “Maine Resources I Love”. Brenton is also on the founding board of directors of OBSCURA.
What’s not to like about people committing to the future photographers among us by helping them get schooling at a higher level? As for publishing, Matt says they are planning on publishing a series of “hand-made books” that will be available next year. What a cool bunch of people to be so interested in boosting the Maine fine art photography community in this quiet, scholarly way?
Why not sign on to their great blog and newsletter at http://www.obscuraweb.org/ so you can be the first to know about their next project and help spread the word?
May 27, 2010 at 10:58 am
Brenton’s work is, as you succinctly put it, “gutsy.”
Keep up the great work, OBSCURA and Vox!