In the small midcoast town of Searsport, business owners and community leaders are turning to art as the next step in their community-driven effort to revitalize the downtown area.
That’s why they’re hosting an art walk Saturday afternoon. The one-off event will span throughout seven businesses and galleries and highlight the debut of two new exhibitions featuring local artists. But locals are really hoping what it will do is bring more people downtown.
The event represents a new phase for the area, which has seen a transformation of its downtown as new businesses have opened and coalesced into a thriving business community.
As interest in the town’s revitalization has peaked in recent months, community members saw a need for some event that would draw people in, said Laura Brown, owner of Trove, an artisan gift shop on East Main Street.
“You can’t just open the door and wait for all the people to come and walk up and down the street. It’s just not gonna happen,” Brown said.
Brown’s store, which opened in June 2021, was one of the first in a recent wave of new businesses. She said there hasn’t been a community-wide event in Searsport since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit. There’s been a growing interest in collaboration between new businesses, she said, and the artwalk seemed like the organic next step for the community.
“For such a little downtown and only a few storefronts, you can feel it’s starting to have an identity,” Brown said
The arts are a critical part of that new identity, according to Aaron Rosen, who runs the Parsonage Gallery on Elm Street. He sees the heightened focus on art as a sign of economic resurgence following an era that saw many of Searsport’s downtown businesses struggle or close down entirely.
“Art really is a sign of economic regeneration,” Rosen said.
Rosen draws a parallel between Searsport and neighboring Belfast, which experienced a sharp economic shift following the 1988 closure of Penobscot Poultry. That marked the beginning of the city’s transition from an industrial hub to an artistic and cultural center for the midcoast.
The Searsport Art Walk will be held on Saturday, July 1 from 2 to 6 p.m. and stretches from the Workshop + Gallery on West Main Street through several downtown venues, as well as The Side Street Gallery, which opened in May at 17 Mount Ephraim Road. The last stop on the walk is Rosen’s Parsonage Gallery.
