The Public Art Team creates and promotes visual arts throughout Bayside to enhance the neighborhood’s cultural identity and sense of place. The team is actively seeking funding for public art projects, including an innovative initiative to transform material from a historic oak tree that was removed from Oxford Street into community artwork. The team has supported Portland Downtown’s utility box painting program and is working to revive the BNA Black Frame Art Sale fundraiser, a beloved event that previously showcased local artists while raising funds for neighborhood initiatives. Through these efforts, the team aims to make art accessible to all residents while celebrating Bayside’s creative spirit and adding beauty to streets and public spaces throughout the neighborhood.
Kincaid Pearson, Team Lead — Betsy Boyd, Board Liaison
Contact arts@baysideportland.org for more information
Thank you to Levitt Family Foundation for supporting The BPM Traditional Drum Festival! @levittfoundation partners with changemakers and nonprofits in towns and cities across America to create joyous, inclusive destinations where the power of free, live music brings people together of all ages and backgrounds, creating healthy, connected, and thriving communities. Learn more: levitt.org
The Bayside Neighborhood Association presents the first inaugural BPM Traditional Drum Festival on the Bayside Trail this summer thanks to a generous grant from the Levitt Family Foundation which leverages the power of free, live music to strengthen the social fabric of communities, creating places people love while amplifying local pride, activating underused public spaces and fostering more healthy, equitable, and thriving communities one city, and one concert, at a time. A perfect fit for Bayside!
This will be the first inaugural year for the BPM Drum Fest. Many block parties, fairs and community events over the last 25 years have brought us to this moment. We also have strong partners at the City Office of Sustainability,
Portland Downtown, and other community organizations who have helped us in the past. We’re looking for volunteers, fiscal sponsors, and other collaborative partners to help make this dream a reality. Can you help? Contact eventsteam@baysideportland.org
There’s still room for a couple more vendor tables, and they’re free! If you’re a non-profit org, local business, or artist, we’d love to have you join us! call “too oh seven, sicks five oh, five sicks three fore” for more info.
Join us…
Please help us make the inaugural event the best it can be!
Shoutout to Levitt Family Foundation for their support of The BPM Traditional Drum Festival! A social impact funder at the intersection of music, public space and community building, The Levitt Family Foundation supports changemakers and nonprofits nationwide to build healthy, connected, and thriving communities by making live music accessible and bringing people of all ages and backgrounds together. Learn more: levitt.org For a little inspiration, here’s a quote from their website:
“Creative placemaking is a community-driven process that situates arts and culture within broader community vitality strategies and builds upon a community’s existing assets. With partnerships, cross-sector collaborations, and community-engaged design and activation at its core, creative placemaking can help shape the physical, social, and economic qualities of a neighborhood. A collaborative process that connects people with each other, as well as connects people to place, creative placemaking is a collective reimagination of the way people experience a place. With creative placemaking, the arts serve a dual role, both as an activity for participation and also as a conduit or catalyst for other desired outcomes: increase economic vitality of a community; foster greater livability and vibrancy in a community; and build a community’s social capital and civic connection.”
Learn more: levitt.org
The BPM Fest is coming up soon! Our team put together this design for a 10-foot banner to be displayed at the Bayside Trail leading up to and during the festival. We’re looking for one or two more local sponsors to defray the cost of printing and show their support for local arts and music. Please forward this to anyone who may be interested and reach out to eventsteam@baysideportland.org as soon as possible to take advantage of this partnership opportunity. Sponsorships may start as low as $100 for local businesses. Sponsor logos will appear on the right side of the banner (as shown) and also featured prominently on our webpage here: BPM Traditional Drum Festival
Thanks to all our sponsors, especially to the Levitt Family Foundation for a grant to pay the performers. For a little inspiration, here’s a quote from their website:
“Creative placemaking is a community-driven process that situates arts and culture within broader community vitality strategies and builds upon a community’s existing assets. With partnerships, cross-sector collaborations, and community-engaged design and activation at its core, creative placemaking can help shape the physical, social, and economic qualities of a neighborhood. A collaborative process that connects people with each other, as well as connects people to place, creative placemaking is a collective reimagination of the way people experience a place. With creative placemaking, the arts serve a dual role, both as an activity for participation and also as a conduit or catalyst for other desired outcomes: increase economic vitality of a community; foster greater livability and vibrancy in a community; and build a community’s social capital and civic connection.”
Hope to see you all there!
Get ready for the Bayside Gnome Roam! 🧙♂️
What a night! During April’s First Friday, dozens of neighbors and friends packed Maine Clay Collaborative for our Gnome Roam prep event — and the results were magical. Scores of handmade clay gnomes are now drying, ready to be fired up and let loose on the streets of Bayside.
So what happens next? The fine folks at Maine Clay will fire all those little characters in the kiln. Then we’ll fan out across the neighborhood and tuck them into nooks, perch them on stoops, and hide them in plain sight — ready for neighbors to discover during Bayside Week, April 25th through May 2nd. Find one, photograph it, share it. It’s part art project, part hide-and-seek, and totally Bayside.
Bayside Week is shaping up to be something really special. Get a head start on the Gnome Roam by showing up at our kickoff cleanup event from 10am-noon on Saturday April 25th at the Bayside Community Garden. Check out everything that’s happening at www.baysideportland.org/community-calendar/ — and if you have an event to add or want to get involved, reach out to the events team.
Let’s show everyone why Bayside is the Playside!
Thank You Maine Clay Collaborative!
Drop by Maine Clay Collaborative during this coming First Friday, April 3rd from 5 to 7pm to help us get ready for the Bayside Gnome Roam during Bayside Week (4/25-5/2)
What’s a Gnome Roam? All through Bayside Week, handmade clay figurines will be tucked into corners, perched on stoops, and lurking in plain sight all across the neighborhood. You make them and the folks at Maine Clay will bake them. Next we’ll hide them so neighbors can find them, photograph them, share them. It’s part art project, part hide-and-seek, and totally Bayside.
Bayside Week is coming this spring — April 25th through May 2nd — and the Gnome Roam is just part of what’s happening. Find out more at www.baysideportland.org or contact the events team to add an event or join in the fun. Help us celebrate the neighborhood you love and show why Bayside is the Playside!
The Bayside Neighborhood Association presents the first inaugural BPM Drum Festival on the Bayside Trail this summer thanks for a generous grant from the Levitt Family Foundation which leverages the power of free, live music to strengthen the social fabric of communities, creating places people love while amplifying local pride, activating underused public spaces and fostering more healthy, equitable, and thriving communities one city, and one concert, at a time. A perfect fit for Bayside!
We believe that the BPM Drum Festival is the first EVER to synchronize the beats of several groups performing simultaneously. The impetus of the idea, however, came from another unique local festival called Vigorous Tenderness which features avant-garde chamber music in plein air. Both festivals invite the audience to move freely along a route from one sonic space to another, sometimes blending performers’ work, as well as the surrounding sonic environment. The idea for using drums came naturally from the plethora of ethnic drum groups in our culturally diverse neighborhood, as well as a wildly successful tree-hugging event we staged on the Bayside Trail featuring a local
Penobscot tribal drum group.
Bayside is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the State of Maine. Long neglected and red-lined by cynical city policies, it is now the subject of intense land speculation. Meanwhile the vacant lots and unkept promises can make it
hard for residents and visitors to enjoy our few greenspaces. The Bayside Trail was designed to connect the neighborhood and create positive change, and the Bayside Neighborhood Association is committed to making that promise a reality. The BPM Drum Festival is our chance to do just that, and celebrate our shared hope for the future.
This will be the first inaugural year for the BPM Drum Fest. Many block parties, fairs and community events over the last 25 years have brought us to this moment. We also have strong partners at the City Office of Sustainability,
Portland Downtown, Creative Portland and other community organizations who have helped us in the past. We’ve reached out to several drum groups who are excited to participate, including the Keepers of the Penobscot Drum, Taiko Maine, Namory Keita, and others. We’re looking for volunteers, fiscal sponsors, and other collaborative partners to help make this dream a reality. Can you help? Contact eventsteam@baysideportland.org
Vacant Storefront Art Initiative–Call for 2D Art Submissions
Owners of vacant commercial storefronts in Portland’s Pedestrian Activities District (see map below) are encouraged to allow the City to install 2D art reproduced on window clings. This will be provided and installed by the City at no cost to the property owners.
The theme of this call is “Downtown Resurgam.” (Resurgam is Portland’s motto, and is a Latin word that means “I will rise again,” signifying renewal and the overcoming of adversity.)
To that end, we are accepting art submissions to be reviewed and selected by a jury. Property owners will then be able to choose selected art to display in their windows on a first come, first served basis. A stipend of $300 will be paid to the artist for each piece of artwork that is chosen to be displayed. Submitted artwork can be new or existing art. They can be drawings, photographs, paintings, or any other kind of 2-dimensional art.
Artists may submit up to 5 pieces.
Eligibility Requirements:
– Artists must live in Maine, with preference given to artists in the Greater Portland area.
— Priority will be given to underrepresented artists.
– Up to five (5) designs by each artist may be considered.
– Designs will be selected by a juried selection panel.
– Proposals must be received on or before February 1, 2026.
– Artists will be notified by February 28, 2025 if their designs are selected by the juried selection panel.
— Artists will receive a stipend of $300 for each piece of artwork that is chosen by a property owner to be displayed in a vacant storefront window.
— The City will keep the reproduced art to display in other windows as needed.
— The size of the art may be altered to fit the window, but care will be taken to retain its original aspect ratio in order to prevent distortion of the image.
— AI-generated artwork is not permitted.
Want to get updates on programs like this? Join the BNA Public Art Team! contact arts@baysideportland.org
Thanks to Betsy Boyd of Portland Downtown, Lily Phillips Carter of Ladybird Glassery, and Kincaid Pearson of 82Parris Gallery, Bayside Portland is a little more colorful now that the BNA Public Art Team was able to bring a PDD-funded utlility box painting program to our neighborhood. Check it out on the corner of Cumberland Ave and Preble Street.
The “Painting Outside the Box Portland Project” is a public art initiative by Portland Downtown that enlists local artists to paint utility boxes to beautify the city. The project transforms ordinary utility boxes into colorful, original works of art. Selected artists receive a stipend for their work.
The contract for the utility box on Cumberland Ave in Bayside was awarded to Lily Carter, whose design was chosen by BNA Public Art Team Lead Kincaid Pearson over more than a dozen applicants, noting “I thought it was a fitting one because it’s based on a quilt and the Bayside neighborhood feels like the most diverse and similar to a quilted network of residents.”
for more information about the BNA Public Art Team, contact arts@baysideportland.org
Another First Friday is upon us, and it looks like the rain will hold off until afterward!
A new neighborhood gallery and performance space is joining us at 47 Portland Street, on the 3rd floor. Open Systems Studios‘ current exhibit “arhythmias” went up last month and was a great hit. If you haven’t seen it come down tonight and check it out before December’s new offering.
Happy first birthday to Maine Clay Collaborative! In addition to the usual Friday free clay play open studio event, they’ll be serving up birthday cake while it lasts. Join us!
First Friday November 7th. Adding Mayhem at 52 Alder Street and Open Systems Gallery at
47 Portland Street, 3rd floor.
Public Art Painting has begun on the utility box on Cumberland Ave and Elm Streets. The contract was awarded to Lily Carter, whose design was chosen by Kincaid over more than a dozen applicants, noting “I thought it was a fitting one because it’s based on a quilt and the bayside neighborhood feels like the most diverse and similar to a quilted network of residents.” Rain has stalled the work but it should be done before snow flies.
