Museum L-A presents new awards at annual meeting

AUBURN –  Museum L-A presented four new awards as part of its third Annual Board Meeting and Dinner held April 28 at Martindale Country Club. Eighty people gathered to hear about Museum L-A’s progress from Founder Elliott L. Epstein, Board Chair Edward Cormier, Executive Director Rachel Desgrosseiliers, and Scott Slarsky of DesignLAB architects, the Boston firm doing pre-design work on the Museum’s future home at the former Camden Yarns Mill. U.S. Representative Michael H. Michaud also spoke as did Diane Jackson representing U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe and Carlene Tremblay representing Senator Susan M. Collins.

Board Chair Ed Cormier presents Armand Cote of Cote Crane and Rigging with the Museum L-A 2011 Business Support Award. Also accepting the award was Dan Cote, right.

In his remarks to the gathering, Cormier made note of the Museum’s many accomplishments and plans for the future :

-Exhibit and office space for the museum has grown from 3,000 square feet to 12,000 square feet with additional space for collection storage.

-A  strategic planning process is under way to set a direction for the Museum’s future.  An interpretive-planning consultant, a museum design consultant, an economic-impact consultant, and architects and engineers are currently engaged in the process.

-Through the generosity of board members and the community, the mortgage for the Museum’s future home at Camden Yarns Building was paid off.
Epstein, Cormier, and Desgrosseillies each presented awards to the 2011 honorees:

Inspiration and Innovation Award to Raymond D’Amour – a textile designer at Bates Fabrics and Minette Mills for 50 years. He was the Museum’s first volunteer, and a most valuable adviser and mentor. Ray strongly believed in Museum L-A’s future as a vibrant part of the community and the education of our children.   Georgette D’Amour accepted her husband’s posthumous award.

Heritage Award to Robert Roy Jr. for his commitment to the heritage of the community as clearly evidenced in the restored beauty of the Ironhorse Court complex at the former Maine Central Railroad passenger depot, now known as the Royal Oak Room. It is a showcase of the best of the old, updated with the requirements of the new.

Revitalization Award to Thomas Platz for his vision and dedication to the revitalization of the mill buildings in the Bates Mill Complex and other architectural gems in our community. Also for his long-term support of Museum L-A, providing the space in Mill 1 for Museum exhibits and offices.

Business Support Award to Cote Crane-Rigging for the many times it has helped Museum L-A to preserve equipment stored in Lewiston’s old mills by moving it to safe storage. Cote Crane has moved heavy machinery from the textile and shoe industries and also has helped move equipment from the site of the future Museum L-A.

Desgrosseilliers’ presentation focused on the museum’s role in the community. “We are not just about the PAST,” she noted. “We are about inspiration that leads to innovation. We don’t have to go very far to find the giants who give us that inspiration. We look to the stories of our ancestors – workers who built the community.

“It is time for the community to celebrate with great pride what it was many years ago, the many strides it is making in reinventing itself, and move once again toward being the soul of the state of Maine – the Creator, the Inventor, and the Innovator of the Future. Our awardees believed.

“I thank each and every one of you and, this is what I ask of all of you. I want you to be believers and I am counting on you. We can do it.”

Museum L-A exhibit goes international

LEWISTON –  Museum L-A’s role as a “museum without walls” reached to Canada recently when Concordia University of Montreal hosted the popular exhibit “Weaving A World: Millworkers of Lewiston, 1920-2008.”   The exhibit was part of Concordia’s “Current Issues in Museums, Heritage, and Public Cultural Work” lecture series where former Bates College professor David Scobey spoke about his partnership with Museum L-A in the creation of “Weaving A World.” Scobey was formerly the Director of the Bates College Harward Center for Community Partnerships and is currently executive dean of the New School for General Studies in New York.

Museum L-A’s “Weaving A World” exhibit at Montreal’s Concordia University's J.W. McConnell building

 The exhibit’s Montreal installation, sponsored by the school’s Centre for Ethnographic Research and Exhibition, was the first of several expected stops. “Our millworkers’story is going places,” said Rachel Desgrosseiliers. “We’ve had inquiries from several New England venues. It’s wonderful to see such interest in this exhibit.”

 Over the course of three years, Museum L-A staff along with Bates professors and students worked with retired weavers, the children of weavers, community historians to conduct oral-history interviews, find photographs, collect artifacts, investigate archives, and recover the story of the millworkers’ world. “Weaving A World,” with its thematic panels of text and photographs, touches on war and strikes, technology and business. But mainly it recounts the lives of the people who worked in the mills, their families, and the community they made. The exhibit traces the millworkers’ world from the hard times of the Great Depression through prosperity and upward mobility after World War II to the mill closures. It is a story of survivance – resilience and tenacity in the face of momentous change.

Walking Tall: A Tour of Today’s Shoe Industry in L-A

LEWISTON -   Join Museum L-A on Thursday, May 5 for a morning of tours showcasing three facilities still engaged in manufacturing in the shoe industry.  Participants will get a first-hand look at the innovation and the tradition that gives these companies their edge. There is no fee to join the tour, but pre-registration is required. 

A bus will leave from Museum L-A and visit Falcon Performance Footwear, Pamco Shoe Machinery, and Rancourt & Company Shoecrafters, returning to Museum L-A after the final tour. The entire program will run from 9 a.m. to approximately 12:30 p.m.

Hand-sewer at Rancourt & Company Shoecrafters in Lewiston

“Museum L-A wants to show that work involving highly-developed skills, creativity and innovation is not only part of Lewiston-Auburn’s past but is still happening today behind closed doors in our community,” said Rachel Desgrosseilliers, Museum L-A’s executive director. “This tour is a chance for people to see that the local shoe industry is still very much alive,” Desgrosseilliers continued.

Falcon, which recently moved from the Roy Continental Mill in Lewiston to an Auburn industrial park, has been making footwear locally for 45 years. Starting with the manufacture of children’s shoes, Falcon shifted its focus to work boots in 1990. In 2007, Falcon formed a strategic alliance with Globe Firefighter Suits to manufacture a revolutionary new boot for firefighters. Falcon introduced the Mining boot in 2009 and introduced two new boot styles last fall at the National Safety Council Show in San Diego.

 A leader in the re-manufacturing of shoe machinery for over 50 years, Pamco prides itself on the highest quality remanufactured shoe machinery in North America. Tour participants will see how still-in-demand antiquated machinery is being rebuilt for the footwear industry. Pamco recently started manufacturing its own parts and have gone global.

At Rancourt & Company three generations of shoemakers are at work manufacturing hand-sewn shoes for men including father and son, Michael and Kyle Rancourt. Since 1964 the Rancourts have been making traditional moccasins the same way moccasins have been constructed for over a hundred years. Rancourt exports shoes globally and its high-end clientele includes Ralph Lauren.

The tour is limited to 18 participants and space is filling fast.  For more information or to register, call Museum L-A at  207-333-3881.

L.L.Bean and New Balance – Shoemaking in Maine today

LEWISTON – There is no more shoe making in Maine…Not true, as evidenced in Museum L-A’s next installment of its “Voices” lecture series on April 14 at 7 p.m.  “Stepping into the Future: Shoes for Today and Tomorrow” features representatives from two of Maine’s best known companies – L.L.Bean and New Balance – sharing their insights about innovation, design and manufacturing of footwear.  The program is being held in conjunction with the Museum’s current special exhibit: Portraits & Voices: Shoemaking Skills of Generations. 

“In preparing the shoe exhibit, it was heartening to see that there are still skill sets needed to do hand sewing of high-end shoes as well as specialized boot-making and the art of creating sport shoes,” said Museum L-A Executive Director Rachel Desgrosseilliers. “Companies are facing the challenge of convincing the younger generation that the shoe industry is alive and well as they search for engineers and skilled people to help them keep up in their new technologies and product development.”

 The “Voices” panel will be comprised of Jack Samson, Senior Manager of L.L. Bean’s manufacturing facilities in Lewiston and Brunswick, and Raye Wentworth, New Balance’s plant manager in Norridgewock. They will talk about the history of their companies, how their products have evolved and how their companies are meeting today’s challenges.

“Museum L-A is not just about the past,” Desgrosseilliers continued. “We are all about connecting – connecting generations but also connecting the past with the present and future as well as communities with the great inspiration and innovation still found in existing, highly-recognized manufacturing firms.  This program will show that quality shoe making is not only central Maine’s legacy but is still a vibrant and important industry today.”

All are invited to come and learn the future of shoemaking in an awakening of skill sets highly prized in the past that could open the door to great possibilities for the future.

Museum L-A celebrates with mortgage burning bonfire

LEWISTON -   The public is invited to join Museum L-A staff, board and supporters for a celebration on Saturday, April 16 to burn the mortgage marking the retirement of the debt to their new home at the former Camden Yarns Mill. “The Museum now owns the land and building free and clear and we’d like the community to help us celebrate since they helped us make it happen.,” notes Rachel Desgrosseilliers, Museum L-A’s executive director.  “It’s a big step forward for us and for the community,” she added.

 The April 16 event will run from 6-8 p.m. at the Beech Street location, adjacent to Simard-Payne Memorial Park – formerly known as Railroad Park.  The centerpiece of the evening will be a bonfire for the burning of a replica mortgage.  The bonfire will be built with the help of Abenaki District Boy Scout troops and their time helping will be credited toward their community service requirements.  They will also be in charge of roasting marshmallows for s’mores and serving hot chocolate.  Other activities include music for all to walk or dance across the nearby trestle footbridge to celebrate a bright future for the Twin Cities and Museum L-A; a bridge and candle lighting program; the unveiling of a sign marking the site as “Future Home of Museum L-A” and  meeting the icon who has been chosen to represent the future Museum.

 As part of a fun activity, Museum volunteers will have a 50 gallon drum at the site and are challenging the community to each come with a dollar bill as we try to fill the drum with dollars that will go toward the next phase of the project. The Museum staff and Board also challenge local businesses to collect dollar bills at their place of business and come down to drop their marked “bags of money” to help fill the drum.  “Don’t be shy,” says Desgrosseilliers, “because if it starts filling up, we will find a way to make more room in the drum.

“We are going to have a lot of fun and we hope the community will join us,” Desgrosseilliers said. “Paying off the mortgage in these difficult economic times in such a short time is a remarkable accomplishment and well worth celebrating.”  Now that the mortgage is paid off, the Museum will focus on raising funds to move into the next phase of development of the property which is the Interpretive Plan of the Exhibits and the Schematic Design of the new Museum L-A.

Museum L-A has just completed a structural evaluation of the Beech Street building.  Selected demolition and stabilization work will be happening throughout the summer and fall. The plan is to preserve as much of the original structure as possible and plan enough space in Phase I of the project to transfer existing Museum activities.

Parking is available at the garages on Chestnut and Lincoln streets as well the lot behind Yvon’s Supersonic Car Wash on Lincoln Street and at the corner of Lincoln and Cedar streets.

Volunteers are needed to help in preparation for the event as well as at the event itself.  All interested should call 333-3881 or email info@museumla.org.

 Parent Agency sponsoring Museum L-A classroom tool

LEWISTON -  More schoolchildren will have the opportunity to experience Museum L-A’s hands-on learning classroom tool thanks to the generosity of United Insurance Parent Agency of Lewiston.  The agency will sponsor a two-week rental of the Museum’s Traveling Trunk for one class each month for 12 months. Teachers are urged to sign up soon as sponsorships will be awarded on a first-come basis.

Ron Guerin of United Insurance Parent Agency with Museum L-A Executive Director Rachel Desgrosseilliers, right, and Educator Joan Beal. The Parent Agency is sponsoring one classroom visit per month of the Museum’s educational Traveling Trunk as seen in the photo.

Parent Agency Senior Vice President Ron Guerin offered to sponsor the Travel Trunk while spotting it at the Museum awaiting its next classroom trip.  “I immediately saw its value as a teaching tool,” Guerin said. “We are pleased to help the Museum get this out to more classrooms,” he continued.

 The Traveling Trunk is a colorful, portable trunk filled with activities, games, audio CD’s, costumes and projects relating to the textile industry, child labor, and the Industrial Revolution. Most of the Trunk materials and activities are unique and designed by Museum L-A educators. The activities are coordinated with Maine Learning Results for grades 3-5 and  meet many of the grade 6-8  descriptors. Its creation was made possible through a donation from the Lewiston-Auburn Rotary Club.

 Teachers may reserve the Travel Trunk by contacting Museum L-A at 333-3881 or emailing Educator Joan Beal at jbeal@museumla.org

Museum L-A resumes the popular “Voices” lecture series on March 24 with the documentary film Roughing the Uppers, The Great Shoe Strike of 1937 followed by remarks by noted Maine labor leader Ed Gorham. The program is being presented in conjunction with the museum’s current special exhibit Portraits & Voices: Shoemaking Skills of Generations. There is no admission fee for this program, which begins at 7 p.m. in the museum’s first floor gallery.

 Produced in 1992 by the late Bates Professor Robert Branham, Roughing the Uppers documents the Lewiston-Auburn Shoe Strike of 1937 through interviews with local historians and residents who lived through the events.

Gorham is well known for his 40+ years of service to the labor movement in Maine, 35 of which was with the AFL-CIO. He began as the organization’s Legislative Liaison, was elected Secretary-Treasurer in 1977 and the Maine AFL-CIO President in 1999. He retired in 2009.  His work led to major legislation to benefit Maine workers.

Future looking bright for Museum’s new site

LEWISTON -  Museum L-A is getting closer and closer to reaching its goal of owning the former Camden Yarns Mill property. The property sits on the downtown riverfront next to the Continental Mill. Work is under way to structurally shore up the building and prepare it for future renovation. In addition, the final phase of environmental cleanup is 90 percent complete toward a completely green and environmentally-safe site.

The Museum is encouraged by the support it is receiving from the community and has an opportunity to enhance donations with a 49 percent grant match for operations. The grant ends on Dec. 31 so the timing is tight. “This is a great challenge and an investment opportunity.  Every dollar donated becomes $1.49 because of this hard-won grant,” said Rachel Desgrosseilliers, Museum L-A’s executive director.

“The 49 percent match gives us a real boost toward owning the building outright,’’ she continued, noting that the Museum is approximately $35,000 away from owning the property.  Any tax deductible contribution for 2010 would be greatly appreciated.  It will be an amazing accomplishment for the Museum to have our land and building paid for. It will allow us to go to the next phases of design and interpretive planning of exhibits and move in sooner,” Desgrosseilliers said.

Meanwhile, the Museum has contracted Smith Reuter Lull Architects of Lewiston to do a structural evaluation of the Beech Street building as well as demolition and stabilization review and work at the site. The plan is to preserve as much of the original structure as possible.

Cleanup of a small oil spill at the exterior of the building is being made possible through a Project Grant Fund received through a City of Lewiston EPA Assistance Grant. Contaminated soil has been removed and replaced by ENPRO Services, Inc. of Portland. Webster Tree Service donated its services to clear the site of brush and trees to make it ready for the contract work.

Michael Stephens, left, and Eric Dube of Casco Bay Engineering take some measurements on Dec. 13 at the future home of Museum L-A – the former Camden Yarns Mill. The property is located at 1 Beech Street in Lewiston along the river and next to the Continental Mill. Work is under way to stabilize the building and complete the site’s environmental cleanup

Eric Dube, left, and Michael Stephens of Casco Bay Engineering check on work to be done inside the building

Homemade Santa Reflects Bates Mill History
LEWISTON -   When Therese Morissette Deschenes went home after the third shift at Bates Mill 50 years ago, she found she had worn her apron, filled with the curled lint that she had cleaned from Spinning Machine Number 4.  Since it was near Christmas, the idea occurred to her to make a large Santa head from cardboard, using the curled lint as his beard.   Deschenes now resides in Schooner Estates and her Santa creation, which hung on her garage window for decades worth of holiday seasons,  is now part of Museum L-A’s collection. It is on exhibit through Dec. 23 to celebrate the holidays and the creativity of  millworkers like Theresa.

Museum L-A receives “Leaders in Innovation Award”

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Museum L-A received the “Leaders in Innovation Award” on  Nov. 5 at the annual meeting of the New England Museum Association for its exhibit Rivers of Immigration: Peoples of the Androscoggin. The exhibit and related programs showcased the cultural diversity of the Twin Cities in the past and present-day with a focus on the immigrant experience. Rivers of Immigration was on exhibit from October 2009 through August 2010.

Museum L-A Executive Director Rachel Desgroseilliers holds the New England Museum Association’s “Leaders in Innovation Award” presented by NEMA Executive Director Dan Yeager, right. The award ceremony took place on Nov. 5 as part of the NEMA annual meeting in Springfield, Mass

“It is an honor to not only have the opportunity to be judged by your peers, especially being such a young museum in the making, but to win the top award brings honor to our whole community” says Rachel Desgrosseilliers, Executive Director.  “Congratulations goes out to all who took part in making this unplanned exhibit a reality, from the Board of Directors who took the risk of allowing a second exhibit to be created, especially in hard times, to all who worked so hard to make the different parts come together so that the community could learn more about itself, past and future.”

Selection criteria for the initiatives were:  Innovation for originality and creativity; practicality as could it be done by different types of museums; connection to mission as to it furthering the mission of the museum; impact on community (local, regional, national) as to providing benefits beyond the institution; and, impact on the museum field as to in what ways does the exhibit push the boundaries of the profession, cross disciplines and respond to new trends in a different way.

 NEMA was extremely pleased to have the support of two highly-qualified judges along with their staff member to judge very different entries submitted by museums of various sizes and disciplines, said Dan Yaeger, Executive Director of New England Museum Association. 

Rivers of Immigration, as one judge commented, is “a terrific project that clearly used the museum and the exhibition as a catalyst to bring together many parts of the community through the common thread of immigration” and “the project serves as a timely model for the field to think more broadly about the role of the museum/community partnerships that are possible.”

NEMA will be spotlighting details of this project in a forthcoming issue of NEMA News and on its website, and provided a session timeslot to further explore this model at next year’s annual conference.  “Thank you for sharing this innovative model with the New England museum community” said Yaeger.