WISCASSET, ME (August 19, 2022) – Making music, learning to juggle, and watching hip-hop dancers are some of the sidewalk activities planned for Wiscasset Art Walk on August 25, 5-8pm. Galleries are offering new exhibits and visiting artists chat with visitors. Live music in the galleries and on the sidewalk makes this truly a multi-sensory evening!

A collection of hand-made percussion instruments – a raw log Amadinda and cajóns or box drums – will be set up on Wiscasset Village sidewalks with an invitation to visitors to tap out their own rhythms. The drums were constructed during the July WAW and now make their first public appearance on August 25. 

Liz Giles-Brown, principal of Learning on the Move in Boothbay Harbor, brings circus arts to the evening. Liz will be instructing visitors in the fun art of juggling. If the weather is calm, not even a breeze, she’ll use scarves. Otherwise, “anything you can toss and catch,” will work just fine; she’ll supply the bean bags. While juggling is fun, Liz’s instruction, especially in her work with children, has a greater purpose. She combines the science of learning and an understanding of how the brain creates new memory with learning to juggle. But in the end, she says, movement is the medium for having fun. 

Hip hop dancing, previously seen at WAW in August 2021, makes a return visit with Dancemaineia’s owner and instructor, Melanie Pagurko, and dancers Anna Stokes and Michaela LaCrosse to entertain WAW strollers. The dance company, based in Waldoboro, features “our own creative movement which pulls from everything out there. We create our own choreography,” Melanie explains. 

Although Melanie doesn’t refer to herself as having been a child prodigy, she did take her first dance class at three years old, crediting her mother’s wisdom in directing her energetic child into movement. Melanie started teaching break dancing at 13 when her brother turned down the job and then switched to jazz and added ballet. She’s passionate about her art and enjoys teaching all age groups. “I love teaching and getting people out of their day-to-day zone,” she says, and helping people, especially adults, have fun through dance.

 In the galleries, Wiscasset Bay Gallery is opening its new exhibition, Around the World in 22 Days, with a reception during WAW. The exhibit focuses on Impressionism from across the globe, including works from Egypt, Greece, and Russia, as well as France, Hungary, Italy, Holland, and Switzerland. Accompanying the art will be the sublime music of Jonathan Waldo playing classical guitar. Visitors are invited to enjoy light refreshments and a sip or two in the gallery’s lovely courtyard. 

Sylvan Gallery, featuring contemporary fine art, will be hosting award-winning plein air artists Neal Hughes and Crista Pisano. An exhibit of their work, Paintings Large or Small … We are Pleased to Have Them All!, is currently on display through September 4. Both artists are inspired by landscapes and Maine coastal views and are adept at talking about their creative inspirations and how they’re translated to the canvas. The soundtrack for the evening will be provided by Suki Flanagan playing harp, splendidly.  

More details about the evening’s offerings can be found on the touring map, which is available at participating shops identified by sparkling streamers at doorways.   

Wiscasset Art Walk 2022 is made possible by the generosity of Lead Sponsors Donna and Frank Barnako and Major Sponsors Ames True Value, Big Barn Coffee, BIRCH Home Furnishings & Gifts, Bradbury Art & Antiques, Carriage House Gardens, First National Bank, Fogg and Dalton Art Restoration, Industrial ME, J. Edward Knight Insurance, Newcastle Realty, Ozias, Peter Eaton at the Lilac Cottage, Red’s Eats, Rock Paper Scissors, and Sherri Dunbar/Tim Dunham Realty. Additional sponsor support comes from Cod Cove Inn. 

For more information about Wiscasset Art Walk, www.wiscassetartwalk.org or email to wiscassetartwalk@verizon.net. Wiscasset Art Walk is a program of Wiscasset Creative Alliance.

Below: Sylvan Gallery hosts award-winning plein air painters Neal Hughes and Crista Pisano during Wiscasset Art Walk on Thursday, August 25, 5-8pm. An exhibit of their work, Paintings Large or Small … We are Pleased to Have Them All!, is currently on view at the gallery. (Sylvan Gallery photo)