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The Tides Institute will showcase work by artists working in the 1920s and 1930s in the Passamaquoddy Bay region. The level of artistic activity in the region was bolstered by the presence of New York’s Grand Central School of Art’s summer program, based in Eastport, which attracted student artists and instructors from across the country. Directed by George Pearse Ennis, a former pupil of William Merritt Chase, the school’s primary focus was in painting and watercolor instruction. However, printmaking opportunities existed both at the school and outside of it, especially in lithography, a form of printmaking commonly used in the area’s sardine industry to make labels and advertisements. Many of the artists and instructors took advantage of these opportunities, producing etchings, woodcuts, and lithographs during the time. One artist, Stow Wengenroth, was first introduced to lithography in Eastport; he went on to produce a well known body of work in lithography, namely small-town scenes and landscapes from across the country.

The New York Times noted on July 1, 1928, “Eastport has been selected for the Summer school because of its unspoiled landmarks, according to Edmund Graecen, President of the school, which calls the Maine resort the ‘Brittany of America.’ Brittany has nothing to offer more interesting than the figures of the lobsterman and the boats and fishers of the sardine fleet,’ Mr. Greacen declared. ‘There is nothing in the Old World more fascinating than in the town itself, with its rambling streets, its old homes, its quaint shacks, and the drama of its waterfront.’ ”

The drama of the area’s appeal attracted artists not associated with the school, such as Howard Cook and Nellie Augusta Knopf, who came to the region for similar reasons. Artists who will be represented in the exhibition include Hilton Leech, Howard Cook, Augusta Knopf, Stow Wegenroth, George Pearse Ennis, Robert Craig, and Stevan Dohanos.