Middle Ground Collaborative
A traveling exhibit about the Maine North Woods

What is  the Middle Ground Collaborative?

What's new with the Collaborative?

(7/30/04)      

Click here for a copy of the final report of the Middle Ground project.. Finding Middle Ground Through the Arts: Using the Arts to Articulate a Balance Between "Wood" and Woods"

What is  the Middle Ground Collaborative?

The Middle Ground Collaborative is a group of citizens from central Maine who came together because they were concerned about the erosion of public dialogue and understanding around the many issues, changes, and uncertainties facing the Maine Woods. These concerns, raised by people who live and work in the region, resulted in a collaborative arts exhibition involving visual artist Bruce Towl, The Cooperative Hand, and John Wentworth, President of Moosehead Manufacturing in Monson, Maine.  

Since its initial showing in 2001, the arts exhibition has grown into  a traveling, multi-media, interactive art exhibit consisting of drawings, diagrams, photographs, sculpture, and text about society’s role in changing the forested landscape over the past 400 years. Through these mediums, visitors can step away from the polarizing debates that have been dividing the public to consider the variety of ways that they are connected to wooded lands. Using interactive displays, the exhibit offers a number of opportunities for the participants to articulate what they think this balance should look like. These opinions, stories and suggestions will be compiled and presented to those making decisions on forest policy.

Questions that will be answered as an outcome of the research process:

• How can we help people learn to articulate their connections?

• Is there a non-threatening way to get people to communicate about the woods?

• How do we get people to talk with each other¾those that don’t live here, those with littler understanding of the woods, the people who live in the woods?

• How many people believe balance is achievable?

• What does the balance look like, feel like, and sound like in the forested landscape?

Questions that will be asked of those who view the exhibit:

• As a ME resident, how do you see the North Woods evolving? What’s important to you? What’s not?

• Is there a gap between what people say they want and how they live?

• When you think about the ME woods, what one thing do you cherish the most? Tell us more. Tell your story.

• What do you fear may become lost from us in the ME woods?

• In order for us to have wood & woods, what has to change? What has to stay the same?

Partners in the Middle Ground Collaborative include: Forests for the Future, Inc., The Low Impact Forestry Project, Maine Appalachian Trail Club, North Country Healthy Communities, Penquis Higher Education Center, Piscataquis County Cooperative Extension, Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District, QLF Atlantic Center for the Environment, Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine, Western Mountains Alliance, The Cooperative Hand, and Moosehead Manufacturing, Inc. 

What's new with the Collaborative?

The Middle Ground Collaborative is currently showing two exhibits.  The main exhibit is currently housed at the Bethel Historical Society in Bethel, Maine.  In addition, there is a small exhibit that is in a storefront in Monson, Maine.  Both exhibits continue to receive input from comments by the public and other participatory research components.Bruce Towl, the exhibits’ artistic creator, has recently added a sonic timeline, which will present an auditory history of humankind’s relationship to the forest.  In addition, the collaborative is beginning development of a "The Making of a Kitchen Table" display, which will visually represents the economic exchanges in a community that depends on a continued supply of quality wood for its common wealth.  This component is being funded by the North East Foresters Association in cooperation with the US Forest Service State and Private Forestry.

In addition, according to the front page of the July 15th edition of the Bangor Daily News, the Monson exhibit was the most innovative gallery concept. According to the article, "More than mere window dressing, these are real - and provocative - art exhibits. The thought-provoking Middle Ground exhibit, whose installation titled "Are You an Average.. ?" encouraged passers-by to interact with the piece through surveys and open-ended questions, received a Maine Arts Commission and Maine Humanities Council grant last fall."