Ashley Bryan PHOTO: COURTESY ASHLEY BRYAN CENTER

Working Waterfront

Ashley Bryan: The prophetic voice

In the fall of 2020, the Bates College Museum of Art mounted a remarkable exhibition, “Let’s Celebrate Ashley Bryan,” in honor of a gift of the award-winning author/illustrator’s work that came to the museum the year before from Henry Isaacs and Donna Bartnoff Isaacs, the artist’s longtime friends and Little… SEE MORE

From left, W.G. Sayre, Ren Albon, and Nancy Sayre.

Working Waterfront

Castine community rallies around childcare

In the December/January issue, the Rock Bound column included observations about the nonprofit childcare center created in Castine by mostly volunteer efforts. We felt the success of this endeavor was worthy of its own story. In 2017, a couple of college professors from Pennsylvania who retired to Castine found a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Equity can be workforce solution

“The neighborhood is changing” was the refrain from Lawrence Alexander, an equity educator who spoke at the Island Institute's Workforce Pathways Conference in October. The refrain suggests that if Maine is to thrive, it will be because we embrace change on almost every level, including changing who lives and works… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Equitable access to broadband is a worthy investment

The pandemic clarified what many already knew—your ability to connect to the internet is not guaranteed. Where you live determines the quality of the infrastructure you can access. Your ability to use that connection depends on whether you can afford internet service, if you have a device to use, and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Challenges with a purpose is island life

A newcomer to the island, upon hearing about some of the inconveniences and stressors of island life, asked me, in all seriousness, “So why do you stay?” There are times when I ask myself the same question. Like on a dark, rolling December ferry ride, shivering in my car (because… SEE MORE

Václava "Vendy" Hazuková poses withi senors used in her research.

Working Waterfront

UMaine student studies Greenland lakes

Next April, Václava “Vendy” Hazuková will go to an arid, treeless area in West Greenland to solve a puzzle. It’s not known how lakes there contribute to Arctic carbon cycling — the process in which carbon atoms move from the atmosphere to the Earth and back. Where carbon is —… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Contagiously positive’ Saltonstall honored

When it comes to climate change and our progress in addressing it, sometimes all we hear is how bad things are. It is, after all, a formidable situation which requires a serious attitude. Unfortunately, seriousness often takes the form of grimness, but that’s not how Sam Saltonstall, the Natural Resources… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

UMaine launches ‘blue economy’ program

The Maine Business School at the University of Maine will launch a graduate education and collaborative research initiative to support Maine’s marine economy with the help of a $50,000 award from the William Procter Scientific Innovation Fund. Together with UMaine’s Darling Marine Center, the Maine Business School is launching the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Canada’s Pelee Island gets $20 million internet upgrade

What is believed to be the longest freshwater fiber link in Canada —almost 75 kilometers (46 miles) in length—will soon be installed to create an upgraded broadband internet connection for every resident and business on Lake Erie’s Pelee Island. The federal and provincial governments will jointly fund the $20 million… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A commencement speech that might have been

This might have been this year’s commencement address, had there been a commencement: “You and I and many of the others gathered here have a great deal in common. We each finished high school in Vinalhaven and we each have the rest of our lives ahead of us. I hope… SEE MORE