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Updated 6/17/2024

SPACE Gallery

  • M

    ME

Institution/Business Type: Arts Center

Based in the heart of Portland, Maine, SPACE is a nonprofit contemporary art center featuring visual arts, live music and performance, film, lectures, community events, and more. SPACE is an organization that supports contemporary arts projects, champions artists, and encourages an open exchange of ideas. Grounded in the belief that vital communities are activated by experimentation, conversation, and camaraderie, SPACE engages a wide audience with provocative arts programming and categorydefying events. As a nexus for curious minds, we collaborate with original thinkers and invite the public to participate in the ongoing pursuit of adventurous ideas. In 2015, SPACE bought the building that housed it, preserving 30 artist studios in downtown Portland, a collective printmaking studio Pickwick Independent Press. SPACE piloted an artist residency program out of one of these studios in 2016, bringing national artists to work and participate in conversation with the cultural community of Portland.

Find Me

Kelsey Halliday Johnson (she/they)
Job Title: Executive Director
Phone: 207.828.5600
Fax: 207.828.5600
Address:
534-538 Congress St.
Portland, ME 04101

About

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Arts Center

Legal Status:

Nonprofit - Independent

Year Founded:

2002

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Arts Center

Legal Status:

Nonprofit - Independent

Year Founded:

2002

Disciplines

Primary Discipline:

Multi-Disciplinary

Activities and Services

Activities and Services:

  • Public Art Projects (In Free, Public Spaces)
  • Art Sales
  • Artist Market
  • Community Arts
  • Exhibitions
  • Film Showings
  • Performance / Concert / Reading
  • Residency - Community
  • Virtual Events
  • Wedding / Parties / Private Gatherings
  • Funding
  • Venue Rental
Seasons Active: spring, summer, fall, winter
Events Per Year: 200

Communities

Populations Engaged:

  • Adults
  • Artists
  • Businesses
  • Elders
  • Families
  • General Public
  • Immigrant Populations
  • Incarcerated (or Formerly Incarcerated) individuals
  • LGBTQ Populations
  • Native American Tribes
  • Nonprofits
  • People with Disabilities
  • School Groups
  • Teens

Geographic Reach:

  • Town / City
  • County
  • Multi-County Region
  • State
  • Multi-State Region
  • National
  • International

Accessibility of Services

Accessibility of Services:

  • Access accommodations for people who use a wheelchair and have limited mobility
  • Access accommodations for people who are blind, partially sighted, and have low vision
  • Access accommodations for people who are Deaf and hard-of-hearing
  • Accessible website and/or multimedia for people with sensory disabilities

For ASL interpretation requests please email info@space538.org, movies which are subtitled are always marked as such.

Media Gallery

I Have Worked With

Scapegoat Garden

Performing Group

Date: 01/2023-12/2023

Working to present Deb Goffe's work in 2023, SPACE previously hosted her collaborator Arien Wilkerson in residence and presented Equators in 2018.

MAINE ACADEMY OF MODERN MUSIC

School of the Arts

Date: 06/2022-06/2023

SPACE participated in the inaugural Resurgam festival, has hosted MAMM groups, and collaborated on community programs together. MAMM awarded SPACE one of its gold record community awards for our pandemic emergency relief grantmaking efforts to musicians.

Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity

Arts Center

Date: 05/2022-07/2022

Co-presented the Afrocolombian music group Kombilesa Mí, on a 2022 tour in the US. Collaborated on a digital multi-lingual artist talk which Bombyx translated and SPACE published on its website.

Vigorous Tenderness

Performing Group

Date: 05/2020-09/2022

SPACE operates as Vigorous Tenderness's fiscal sponsor for outside grants and has collaborated on the marketing/presentation of multiple solstice/equinox happenings outside.

Affiliations and Accomplishments

Professional Associations

Professional Associations:

  • Common Field member

Professional Associations

Professional Associations:

  • Common Field member

Awards

Awards:

  • Portland Buy Local Hall-of-Fame, Best Artistic Leader
  • Portland Phoenix, Best Art Gallery, Best Non-Visual Art Space, Best Art House Theater, etc 2003-2018
  • Andy Warhol Foundational, Warhol Initiative

Special Designations

Special Designations:

  • NEFA Grant Recipient
  • New England Presenters (NEP) Member

Venues for Rent/Use

SPACE Gallery
Venue Address: 538 Congress St. Portland, ME 04101
Venue Phone: 207.828.5600
Venue Type: Multi-Purpose Room
Venue Fee Range Minimum: $300
Venue Fee Range Maximum: $2500
Venue Capacity: 300
Venue Accessibility: Facility is physically accessible (such as parking, entrances, accessible restrooms, seating, backstage).
Stage Details: Thrust Stage
Venue Seasons: Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall
Venue Features: Dressing Room(s), Green Room, Movie Screen / Projection Capabilities, Sound System
Additional Comments: We only rent a few times a year, pending our schedule of mission-driven programs.