BANGOR, Maine — A $1.3 million dollar donation will allow the University of Maine Museum of Art to expand. Besides the expansion, the downtown Bangor museum will also now be known as the Zillman Art Museum.
This is thanks to the significant donation from Donald and Linda Zillman.
The donors had been educators and administrators for many years in the University of Maine system.
"They now reside permanently in Santa Fe, New Mexico but they've had a long-standing relationship with Maine and with the museum with Bangor," said Kinghorn.
Museum Executive Director, George Kinghorn, said the museum will now be able to expand its gallery space by about 40 percent.
"We are able to add an additional five galleries.. new construction to the museum! It's going to greatly improve the visitor experience and it's going to afford us with the opportunity to exhibit more works from our permanent collection of over 4,000 works of art, modern and contemporary works of art," said Kinghorn.
Kinghorn adds they hope to start working on the expansion project as soon as everyone gets back to work after the coronavirus pandemic is over.
Kinghorn said this expansion will allow the museum to bring more sole exhibitions of contemporary artists, all in an effort to expand the museums' reach and mission of bringing art to the citizens of Maine and the greater Bangor Are and international visitors.
The museum is located in downtown Bangor. It was moved to support the revitalization effort of downtown Bangor and to extend the universities' reach into the community.
"We are the only collecting art institution for the people of this region, so we serve a very important role in the cultural life of the community, and also bring the cultural resources of the University of Maine to the larger communities, so not the only service the university community, but we really are the art museum for people in this region," said Kinghorn.
The museum will continue to be free to visitors thanks to a donation by Deighan Wealth Advisors.
The new summer exhibition is expected to hopefully open soon.
