Meeting Halls: Inspiring Maine’s Collective Future
Visual artists Michelle Hauser and Sally Eckhoff will co-create four pop-up exhibitions to be held in historic meeting halls during open-house events. Free and open to the public, the artists will present recent work and invite people in to explore the question: What is the fate of our democratic systems and collective future. Dormant halls will be enlivened by presenting these artists work along with guest speakers. The goal is to ignite the collective imagination and conversation, and to recognize artists’ potential in using these civic forums to reach audiences outside of mainstream galleries or museums. The team hopes to inspire artists to become stakeholders in repurposing these halls—to change the fate of these endangered buildings through social engagement and make them more relevant today.
Artist bios
Michelle Hauser's Meeting Hall project unites many indelible influences, from growing up in Illinois in a house filled with her father’s large formats prints of Chicago’s architecture to being surrounded by the cities iconic architecture while earning her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. At Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, (where she met Eckhoff) they explored the South Solon Meeting House. For a few years they escaped New York City summers to live and paint in a former Odd Fellows Hall in Mount Vernon, Maine. After which Hauser continued to do so, becoming a year round resident in 1995. Along with her artist husband Andrew Flamm (who she first met at this hall), Hauser opened an antique shop specializing in the material culture of American Fraternal Organizations. Together they began documenting Maine’s meeting halls before his passing in 2018.
Sally Eckhoff is a visual artist and writer. Her animation “The Innocent By Stander” interprets Dan Hicks’ song of the same title. Since its premiere in 2020 it has been shown at film festivals from France to California. She’s exhibited her paintings in New York to Bologna. Her written work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, the Village Voice and Artforum. F*ck Art (Let’s Dance), her first book, is a memoir of ten years of rollicking downtown life and art through the eyes of an outsider/insider in Manhattan’s East Village. She currently resides outside of Hudson in Upstate New York and visits Maine regularly.
Social media
Michelle Hauser | website | Instagram
Sally Eckhoff | website | Instagram
Cover image: “Collection of Twelve Meeting Halls with Gabel Roofs” Former Arlington Grange no 528, Whitefield, ME. Evening Star Grange no 183, Washington, ME. South Sangerville Grange no 335, South Sangerville, ME. Gov. Brooks Odd Fellows Hall no 142, Brooksville, ME. Mystic Tie Grange no 58, Kenduskeag, ME. Valley Grange no 144, Guilford, ME. Former Grange Eastern Star no 1, Hampden, ME. Vernon Valley Masonic Lodge no 99, Mt. Vernon, ME. Pleiades Masonic Lodge no 173, Milbridge, ME. Castine Grange no 250, Castine, ME. Union Hall, Vienna, ME. Former Progressive Grange no 513,Winslows Mills, ME. Archival Digital Pigment Print on Canson Infinity Rag Size: 30” H x 30” W Date: 2024