SEE-January 2014
Photograph by Thomas Birtwistle

Art All Around Us
The South Solon Meeting House

Lately we’ve been thinking about the artwork that hangs or stands or just simply is throughout the state of Maine, always, awaiting an art-loving explorer. The South Solon Meeting House in particular is a place we just can’t seem to get out of our heads. From the outside it looks archetypal in its New England landscape—the white, simple structure built in 1842 can be found along a rural road in Solon. Inside, it is covered in fresco paintings. In the early 1950s, founders and faculty at the nearby Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture conducted three national juried competitions to select the artists to adorn the walls. The result is stunning: wall-to-ceiling, loose interpretations of the New and Old Testaments by contemporary artists, rendered in that chalky, warm material that conjures Tuscany more than Maine. And yet smack dab in the middle of the state you might find it. We are indebted to artists Sigmund Abeles, Alfred Blaustein, Edwin Brooks, Ashley Bryan, Willard Cummings, Sidney Hurwitz, William King, Tom Mikkelson, Anne Poor, Henry Varnum Poor, Judith Shuman, Sidney Simon, and John Wallace for making this montage. And to the South Solon Historical Society, the Maine Community Foundation, and so many others for its loving preservation.

121 South Main St. | Solon | 207.643.2541  |  southsolonmeetinghouse.org