WATERVILLE — Jessecca Craig had already cast her vote, but she couldn’t stop watching patrons place stickers on the poster of animal sculptures in the library lobby.
“For me, I was really gunning for the seal,” Craig, a librarian at Waterville Public Library, said. “But there’d be moments where in the beginning certain art pieces were not getting as much attention, so I was waiting, like: ‘Is somebody going to put a sticker on that one today?'”
It made the day go by a little faster.
More than 700 community members voted at the library and other locations around Waterville on their favorite sculptures by Maine artist Bernard Langlais, who repurposed scraps to create hundreds of wooden animal sculptures during his lifetime. The 20 winning sculptures are included in the “Love Your Langlais: A Community Curates” exhibit, which opened June 18 downtown at Colby College Museum of Art’s gallery at the Paul J. Schupf Art Center.
Langlais was a springboard for the museum’s first-ever community curated exhibit, Kiko Aebi, museum curator, said.
“He makes these amazing, fantastic animal sculptures that are really fun, really interesting in terms of the way he uses materials,” Aebi said. “We decided to open up the curatorial process, something that usually happens behind closed doors and has a sort of mystique to it. We decided to open that up to the community.”
Children, families and community partners attended the gallery opening June 18, which welcomed guests with a menagerie of animal crackers and fish-shaped gummies.
In the center of the gallery room, a wooden dog kept watch over two birds and a pair of tiny giraffes. The seal, which won the library voting contest, spun on a string suspended from the ceiling.
Garry Rosenblum, librarian at Colby College, also spun in a circle as he tried to recall which sculptures had won his vote.
“I likely voted for this dog,” Rosenblum said, pointing. “I voted for the bear, actually, and I think there were some birds that I voted for that I don’t see. But that’s OK. There were a lot of options, obviously, and I appreciate just knowing some people voted for things.”
The Waterville Public Library, the South End Teen Center, the Children’s Discovery Museum, the Schupf Center and Colby’s campus hosted voting posters. Nearly every sculpture was an animal, and nearly every animal had at least one sticker.
Serena Sanborn, outreach manager at Waterville Creates, said she watched community members become invested in the show through the voting posters.
“I think having community curate exhibits is a way to get people to come enjoy art,” Sanborn said. “It’s powerful to have choice, and I really think art is for everyone, even though people think it may not be for them. When you let people have a little choice and power, I think they’re going to come see what they voted on.”
Community partners were also chosen to write the labels for each art piece. Partners included local teenagers, Colby students, librarians and a variety of community leaders, including Sanborn.
“I think the process was really cool, because at first, you’re like: ‘What am I going to say about the thing?'” Sanborn said. “And then what I’m noticing, anyway, is how we each uniquely made these labels and answered the question of ‘What is this work?’ in the ways that we most love.”
For Sanborn, it was a historical deep dive on the great auk. For Craig, it was a series of reflection questions about the cheeky complexion of the seal. Other plaques sprinkled in state facts or biographical details about Langlais.
Langlais passed away in 1977. In 2010, after the death of his wife, Helen Friend Langlais, Colby College received a bequest of thousands of his artworks, which Aebi said are rotated through the galleries frequently.
“We try every few years to show a portion of that collection, since his work has such wide appeal,” she said. “He’s a Maine artist, many people have personal stories of having met Bernard Langlais, of helping to source wood for him, and so since he is so familiar, we like to really lean into that and lean into the strength of our collection and show his work.”
Langlais is also the artist behind the 62-foot-tall Skowhegan Indian sculpture, a local landmark that the Skowhegan Regional Chamber of Commerce recently listed for sale for $1. The successful buyer must have a plan for annual maintenance and a budget.
The Langlais Art Trail maps out his artworks in museums, schools, libraries and parks across the state. In the lobby of Waterville Public Library, Craig said a wooden cut-out of a lion and two small bugs rouse interest in the artist.
“We do have a lot of passionate community members who knew him, or know of him,” Craig said. “Waterville library patrons in particular are very passionate about Maine history and Maine culture, and I know that there was a lot of discussion from the patrons around the posters. I fully expect to see many of them checking out the exhibit.”
The exhibit runs through Oct. 20, open six days a week from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Waterville Creates’ Art in the Park series is also returning June 26. Two Langlais-inspired art activities are slotted for the summer: Assemblage sculptures July 3 and animal self-portraits July 10, 3-5 p.m.
Rosenblum, still rotating around the exhibit, took in every sculpture and corresponding label. He said it was powerful to see how both elements of the show were curated by the community.
“What’s cool about this show is we’re not hearing one authoritative voice, whether that be the museum or the curator,” Rosenblum said. “I think by having folks write the wall text, their voices are in the show, very presently. I really appreciate that.”
Sanborn said the exhibit is an example of how museum art can be accessible to people of all ages, backgrounds and experience levels.
“I think everyone should see it,” she said.
