Dark the Night and Bright the Stars 🌌
What: Dark the Night and Bright the Stars opening
When: July 9th, 5:00pm-7:00pm
Where: Waterville Creates, Ticonic Gallery and Studios, 93 Main Street, Waterville, Maine
Dark the Night and Bright the Stars showcases visual art, textiles, sculpture, and traditional crafts, to focus on themes of ancestry, with each artist as a conduit for ancestral messages, both concrete and implicit. Featured artists include Gabriel Frey, Raphael Gribetz, Sarah Haskell, Daniel Minter, David Lonebear Sanipass, Avis Turner, and Maria Wolff, each bringing unique perspectives influenced by Passamaquoddy, Mi'kmaq, Jewish, Afro-Atlantic, Scandinavian, and Celtic ancestral roots. The exhibit will run July 9 – October 13, 2025 at Ticonic Gallery, with special events including storytelling, a community art project, and artist talks to deepen audience engagement with the artists' stories and heritage.
Can’t wait until July for an art show?
In the Mouth of Foxglove tonight!
When: Thursday, June 12th. 5p-7p
Where: The Waterford Inne, 258 Chadbourne Road, Waterford, ME
In the Mouth of Foxglove is opening for the second time, or if you prefer a time crunch, there will only be four more opportunities to see this show after this evening! Come enjoy a beautiful drive to Western Maine, the lupines are blooming, and so are we! The beautiful Tallulah’s in the Waterford Inne will be open and serving light bevvies and snacks.
Welcome our newest team member: Caroline Sheets!
Caroline Sheets is a student at Colby College, but has spent most of her life right in Oxford Hills. She enjoys photography, a hobby she inherited from her dad, and drawing, a passion she developed during her high school graphic design class. (Excitingly, she won the contest to design the Norway Maine Arts Festival poster in high school!) At Lights Out, she will be a design intern for the summer, where most of her work will be on the Dark the Night, Bright the Stars show opening in July.
Call for Submissions: The Maine Food Convergence Project
Call for Submissions: Share Your Voice in a New Maine Food Zine!
What does a thriving local food system look like? What if everyone could grow, cook, and eat food that is nourishing, meaningful, and rooted in community? The Maine Food Narratives Work Group is coordinating a zine—a small, creative grassroots publication that centers real voices and inspires action. The zine theme will uplift stories, art, and ideas surrounding food sovereignty, also known as food freedom, community food power, and having local control over our food systems.
Submissions are invited from Maine residents that explore themes such as: the meaning of food sovereignty, visions for land, water, and cultural food traditions, hopes for a just, people-powered food system, and the ways food connects people and supports a better future.Â
The submission period is open until July 18, 2025. Selected contributors will receive a $50 gift card or check and will be credited in the final publication. All submissions must reflect the theme of food sovereignty.
Whether it’s a poem, story, drawing, or reflection, this is an opportunity to help imagine a food system built by and for Maine communities.
Upcoming Programming:
Community Art Night
Sundays, 2pm-5pm in the Community Room at Lights Out!
Why make arts and crafts at home alone when you can do it with others! Bring your materials or some of ours to spend some time being creative! Recent projects have included, painting miniatures, mixing DJ sets, darning and sewing, watercolor journaling, beading, painting and drawing, clay sculpting, and more!
Community Lunch + Volunteering
Wednesdays, 10am-2pm in the Community Room at Lights Out!
We are in the midst of our spring cleaning! Join us for some weeding, organizing, and cleaning of our building. Georgia makes yummy lunch for anyone who volunteered, or, wants to stop by! This week she made a fresh salad with pickled veggies, options for meat, and delish yellow dragon fruit cut as celebration. If you are interested in volunteering or stopping by for lunch
In the Mouth of Foxglove
Thursday, June 12th, 5pm- 7pm, at The Waterford Inne, Waterford, ME
Pirate Radio Queer Dance Party
Friday, June 27th, 8pm-12am at the Wook Nook, Norway, ME
Come wear a silly little outfit, have a beautiful night dancing, support communities near and far, engage in art, and listen to music you won’t find around here with the community here in Norway. Everyone is welcome, always!
Atlantic Morning
First Fridays 5pm- 8pm and First Saturdays 12pm-4pm, in Woodhull at the Safford House, Portland, ME
Did you get to the end of this email and think, Wow, Lights Out sure has a lot of events and partnerships going on! Us too, don’t worry. We are passionate to be working to bring together the community and artists across the state. The scope and the time we put into these events would not be possible without you. Sharing our posts on social media, volunteering with us, inviting friends to our events, and submitting work to zines are valuable and important actions to support the work we do. Right now, we need your help financially to keep this vision alive and thriving. $5, $20, $50, or $100 ensures that we can keep supporting artists, local businesses, non-profits that we work alongside, and people who are working for us. Please consider donating today and supporting our life that we are building.