A week long celebration of the arts will culminate with the Farnsworth Art Museum's annual summer gala Saturday, June 27, on the downtown grounds.
At the gala, the Farnsworth will fete Vinalhaven artist Robert Indiana
as the recipient of the 2009 Maine in America Award.

The award, now in its fourth year, is granted by the
Farnsworth Art Museum's presidents council to honor an individual or
group who has made an outstanding contribution to Maine's role in
American art. Previous winners are John Wilmerding (2006), Andrew Wyeth
(2007) and Will Barnet (2008).

Actress Ann Foskett portrays one-time city resident Louise Nevelson in a staged reading of Edward Albee's "Occupant."

Indiana was born Robert Clark in New Castle, Ind.,
in 1928. In 1949, he entered the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
and, upon graduating in 1953, received a scholarship to the Skowhegan
School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. In 1954, he attended the
Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland.

In 1956,
Indiana moved to New York City where he became one of the key members
of the Pop Art movement, sharing a loft in Coenties Slip with Ellsworth
Kelly, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Andy Warhol used to stop
in for tea, and sculptor Louise Nevelson lived in an apartment nearby.

In
1962, Eleanor Ward's Stable Gallery hosted Indiana's first New York
solo exhibition. Though he sold nothing in that show, Alfred Barr, the
renowned director of the Museum of Modern Art, stopped by after the
show had been de-installed, and acquired Indiana's "The American Dream"
for the museum's collection. It was exhibited in the subsequent new
acquisitions showing at MOMA. By 1964, Indiana had come to national
prominence.

Although he had made letters and
numbers central elements of his works, a deeply personal and moving
tale often lay beneath the surface. Once such example is his 1964 "EAT"
sculpture, now on view on the Farnsworth's roof. Since that first
exhibition in 1962, Indiana has enjoyed solo exhibitions at more than
30 museums and galleries worldwide. He is best known for his iconic
"LOVE" sculpture. His works are in the permanent collections of
numerous museums including the Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum;
Metropolitan Museum of Art; Carnegie Institute; Detroit Institute of
Art; Baltimore Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and
the Farnsworth, among many others.

Robert Indiana (Photo by Michael K. Komanecky)

Last year, Indiana created an image similar to his iconic "LOVE,"
this time showcasing the word "HOPE." A stainless steel sculpture of
"HOPE," which was unveiled outside Denver's Pepsi Center during the
2008 Democratic National Convention, is on view at the Farnsworth as
part of the summer's "Robert Indiana and the Star of Hope."

Although
Indiana is rightfully identified with the work he created while working
in New York, he has lived and worked on the island of Vinalhaven since
1970. He moved there permanently in 1978 when he acquired the former
Odd Fellows lodge, The Star of Hope, facing Carver's Harbor on the
village's main street. In the past 30 years, Indiana has continued to
produce compelling and engaging work, some clearly reflecting the
impact his new home and environment has had on him.

The
Maine in America Summer Gala will feature catering by Swan's Way of
Lincolnville; music by Bruce Boege and his Bel Isle Trio and Mr.
Whoopee Band; and lighting and audio-visual designs by Ambience
Lighting Services. Dress is cocktail attire.

The Herald Gazette Art/Entertainment Editor Dagney C. Ernest