The Monhegan Wildlands: Art, Ecology, and the Resilience of a Maine Island

• Thursday, May 1st, 20254:45pm-6:45pm
• Reception: 4:45pm-5:15pm
• Lecture and Q and A: 5:15pm-6:30pm
• Hannaford Hall, Abromson Center
• University of Southern Maine (Portland Campus)

Join the Co-Curators of The Monhegan Wildlands: Art, Ecology, and the Resilience of a Maine Island (on display at the Bowdoin College of Art until June 1st) for an evening of learning and discussion. With its rugged shoreline, magnificent Cathedral Woods, and rustic fishing village, Monhegan Island in the Gulf of Maine has long been a haven for artists drawn to the splendor of its ocean vistas and picturesque wildlands and for ecologists fascinated by its complex natural history. Over the last two centuries, artists and photographers have observed pastureland recolonized by white spruce, those white spruce devastated by parasitic dwarf mistletoe infestation, and, today, deciduous trees—birch, aspen and maple—coming to dominate declining white spruce woodlands. Scientists, too, have documented change on Monhegan, drawing upon the methodologies of forest ecology to describe what came before and to elucidate mechanisms shaping the trajectories of forest succession.Monhegan’s history offers lessons for us all. This lecture, drawn from the exhibition, brings together artworks, objects and representations of ecological inquiry, and historical documents (including maps) and photographs to chart forest conversion and recovery on the island, and to document decades of remarkable conservation and stewardship.

• Frank Goodyear, Co-Director, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and Co-Curator of The Monhegan Wildlands exhibition
• Jenn Pye, Director, Monhegan Museum of Art & History, and Co-Curator of The Monhegan Wildlands exhibition
• Barry Logan, Samuel S. Butcher Professor in the Natural Sciences, Bowdoin College, and Co-Curator of The Monhegan Wildlands Exhibition.

Frank H. Goodyear III is the co-director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine. Goodyear specializes in the history of photography and American art history. He is the author of a dozen books and exhibition catalogues, including most recently In Light of Rome: Early Photography in the Capital of the Art World, 1842-1871 (with John McGuigan, 2023); and Art, Ecology, and the Resilience of a Maine Island: The Monhegan Wildlands (with Barry Logan and Jennifer Pye, 2024). His most recent publication Gordon Parks: Herklas Brown and Maine, 1944 (with Carrie Mae Weems, 2025) investigates an important, though little-known, photographic series that the legendary photographer created at the height of World War II. Goodyear was previously a curator of photographs at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

Jennifer Pye is director and chief curator of the Monhegan Museum of Art & History. A year-round resident of Monhegan Island, she has been involved with the Monhegan Museum and immersed in the history and culture of the island since 2000. With a focus on community sustainability and engagement, she has overseen the development of broad-reaching virtual and in-person programs. Her ongoing aspiration to improve the preservation environment for museum collections in a challenging island climate has led to the facilitation of projects that embrace innovative passive and mechanical approaches to meeting the preservation needs of the museum’s holdings while remaining sensitive to Monhegan’s fragile island environment.

Barry A. Logan is the Samuel S. Butcher Professor in the Natural Sciences in the Biology Department and the Biochemistry Program at Bowdoin College, where he teaches at all levels of the curriculum with a focus on plant function, form and distribution. He earned his undergraduate degree at Cornell University and his doctorate at the University of Colorado – Boulder. Two areas of interest motivate his research: exploring the linkages between the optical and photosynthetic properties of plant canopies and discerning the mechanisms by which parasitic dwarf mistletoe K*ll mature conifers.

The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education Annual Ball Lecture

Image Credit: Rockwell Kent, Sun, Manana, Monhegan, 1907/ca.1950, Courtesy of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Also check out other Arts events in Portland, Exhibitions in Portland, Meetups in Portland.