Exhibit Opening Tour: “Of Cod and Communities” with Linda Buckmaster

On Saturday, August 3 at 4 p.m., Linda will give a half hour “tour” of the banners to offer an overview of the project of adapting her book “off the page.” She will comment on the content, and explain the process for choosing and using the over 30 images.

The associated exhibit, “Of Cod and Communities” by Linda Buckmaster, will be on display during the month of August in the Picker Room Gallery.

The exhibit is adapted from Linda’s book Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands, a Finalist in the Maine Literary Awards. For the exhibit Buckmaster collaborated with Portland designer Lori Harley to create eight 3′ x 5′ soft fabric banners printed with text and images. They are designed to hang in community spaces such as libraries to reflect the centuries-long interrelationships between the North Atlantic cod and humans. 

The exhibit is traveling to coastal libraries over the year. Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport is a co-sponsor of the exhibit, which is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Linda Buckmaster has lived within a block of the Atlantic most of her life, growing up in Florida and living in midcoast Maine for fifty years. She is former Gulf and Atlantic Editor for “National Fisherman.” Her poetry, essay, and fiction have appeared in over forty journals. Two of her pieces have been listed as Notable Essays in Best American Essays 2013 and 2020. Her memoir, Space Heart. A Memoir in Stages, was published by Burrow Press in 2018. Her hybrid, Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands (Huntress Press 2022) was a Finalist in the Maine Literary Awards. Her traveling banners exhibit adapted from Elemental, “Of Cod and Communities,” is in libraries along the coast this year, and will be at the Bangor Library in October and November.