News

Island Institute at 40 — Community Authenticity Remains Our Focus

11/29/2023 - This year marks the Institute’s 40th year. Maine’s islands and coast were very different places in 1983, yet as we reflect on those four decades, it’s satisfying to see consistent themes threading through the years. These days, we often describe ourselves as a community development organization. What does that mean? It means we recognize how essential those units of human congregation are; community coalesces around shared economic and cultural activity, and over time, it grows its own values and learns to identify threats. SEE MORE
Passengers board a Casco Bay Lines ferry in Portland. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

From here to there: why transportation matters

The people who live on Maine’s 15 unbridged, year-round islands are inspiring and a model of resilience. Despite the many logistical and resource-based challenges they experience from living separated from the mainland, they find solutions through cooperation and pure genius. Perhaps no other topic highlights this better than island transportation. At Island Institute, it’s impossible… Read more » SEE MORE
From the Sea Up

Working Waterfront

Maine islands are the frontier

For those of you who track island life, you’ll likely know there are 15 year-round, unbridged islands along the Maine coast. Distinguished by their differences more than their commonalities, these islands span the coast from Cliff Island, the smallest of the Casco Bay islands, to Matinicus, the most distant island located 20 miles off the… Read more » SEE MORE
The Island Reader

Working Waterfront

Island Reader’s offerings reflect passion for place

Every year since 2006 the Maine Seacoast Mission has published The Island Reader, a wide-ranging anthology of poetry, prose, and artwork by residents of Maine’s unbridged islands. And every year the literary/artistic smorgasbord reminds us that islands are special places that people call home. The 2023 edition, no. 17, gets right to the point with… Read more » SEE MORE

Island Journal

Island Institute at 40 — Community Authenticity Remains Our Focus

You’ve probably heard the term “elevator pitch,” right? It’s mostly used in business circles, capturing the idea that an entrepreneur needs to be able to explain a business concept in a timeframe equal to the average elevator ride. That journey provides the ultimate captive audience, and so a clever pitch in that short time might land an investor. Well, here at Island Institute, we sometimes crave an elevator trip up Burj Khalifa in Dubai, with its 163 floors, to give us time to explain where the organization has been and where it is going. SEE MORE
Maine Seacoast Mission’s Sunbeam docked in Northeast Harbor with the Planet Pan steel drum band.

Working Waterfront

Sunbeam heads south

At the end of July, Maine Seacoast Mission’s flagship vessel, the 74-foot Sunbeam, will host two open houses in the Falmouth-Portland and Boothbay Harbor regions. Both events are open to the public. Visitors can tour the boat and learn about the Mission’s continued commitment to Maine’s outer islands and the Downeast region. The first open… Read more » SEE MORE

Event

SHANE CHARLES: WAITING FOR THE SUN TO RISE

May 10 - 12, 2023 - As the culminating public component of his 2022-23 Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA) Artist Residency, Maine-based artist Shane Charles will present his public art projection, Waiting for the Sun to Rise, on the facade of The Island Institute and Archipelago storefront in downtown Rockland for a period of three hours beginning at sunset on May… Read more » SEE MORE