PORTLAND, ME.- The Maine Art Museum Trail has launched a new website and brochure that showcases each of the seven art museums featured on the Trail. Both the website (www.maineartmuseums.org) and brochure include information and artwork from each museum, along with links to regional arts and cultural organizations on the website.

The Maine Art Museum Trail is an educational partnership of all seven of Maine’s leading art museums. The Trail museums include: Bates College Museum of Art (Lewiston), Bowdoin College Museum of Art (Brunswick), Colby College Museum of Art (Waterville), Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland), Ogunquit Museum of American Art (Ogunquit), Portland Museum of Art (Portland), and University of Maine Museum of Art (Bangor).

The Trail was created in 1997 by the seven museums with the assistance of the Maine Office of Tourism and support from the Davis Family Foundation, the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, and the Maine Arts Commission. The aim of the Trail is to increase public access to museums, educate residents and visitors about Maine’s cultural heritage, and assist museums with effectively promoting community development and cultural tourism.

As a whole, the museums’ permanent collections include works of art by the many artists who have summered or worked in Maine, such as Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Rockwell Kent, Louise Nevelson, Fairfield Porter, and Alex Katz. They also feature treasures ranging from European masterpieces by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, and Pablo Picasso to Greek and Roman sculpture, early American silver and furniture, and contemporary textiles, prints, ceramics, and sculpture.