Gallery 302 was established by the Bridgton Art Guild to display and sell works by local artists, including Elna Stone.
BRIDGTON, Maine -- Muralist Rufus Porter produced wonderful scenes for the walls of at least a dozen Bridgton homes in the 1800s. American modernist painters Georgia O'Keeffe and Marsden Hartley , a Maine native, drew inspiration from the local landscapes in the early 1900s. And the town has been a mecca for hundreds of other artists working in all types of media since the first art colony was established here more than a century ago.
"Anywhere you turn, there is something worth capturing: covered bridges, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, and wonderful historic buildings," says Nelle Ely , a local artist in her 70s. "It's a very picturesque place to be if you enjoy painting and the arts."
Works by Ely and other local artists are on display in galleries, museums, and public buildings around town. Bridgton also hosts a Cultural Heritage Series in July and its Rufus Porter Museum will be one of a dozen museums on the 2008 Maine Art Museum Trail, a program designed to highlight the state's best folk art.
"The art culture has been very strong here for many years, but until the Bridgton Art Guild came into existence in 2003, there was no real cohesive group to bring artists together," says Nancy Smoak , treasurer of the Porter Museum and Cultural Heritage Center and a member of the guild's board of directors.
The guild's most important accomplishment has been establishing Gallery 302, a nonprofit artists' cooperative that displays and sells work by more than 60 local artists in almost all types of media. Here you'll find woodcarvings, baskets, blown glass, photographs, sculpture, ceramics, and paintings of every variety.
The gallery includes work by established artists, like folk painter Donna Derstine and stained-glass artist Jane Croteau . It also welcomes up-and-coming talents, like jewelry maker Cathy Curry Starck, 19, who started exhibiting her work here four years ago, and photographer Alyce Clifford, 79, a summer resident who took up photography at 73 when she won a Nikon camera.
Several small galleries in town are not to be missed either. At Topnotch, artist Craig Jud sells watercolors that depict local landscapes, old buildings, and all things nautical; new mirrors crafted to look like they were made in the early 1700s; and handmade porcelain dolls produced by his wife, Janie.
Across the street, EFG Books and Art Gallery hosts single-artist shows in an exhibit space at the back of the store. Works by Bridgton artist Perri Black , 46, who produces small-scale, abstract collages, are on display through July 1. Her show includes a selection of mixed - media, two-dimensional collages depicting the temples at Angkor in Cambodia. Black uses materials such as handmade paper, feathers, decorative buttons, old books, and gold-leaf photocopies of photographs that she took while on a trip to Angkor Wat.
Learn about one of Bridgton's most notable folk artists at the Porter Museum . Porter (1792-1884), an artist and inventor, founded Scientific American magazine, patented more than 100 inventions, and produced hundreds of wall murals for homes throughout New England. The small museum contains his famous 1828 murals and a set of 15 murals, originally from a home in Westwood, that are the only signed and dated Porter works in existence.
The museum also houses antiques dating to the Porter period and works by other Maine artists, including John Brewster Jr. , who painted scenes of the Bridgton area and portraits of the town's founders; James Lombard , a farmer and carpenter from Bridgton who is known for his rooster weather vanes; and George M. Hathaway , who painted Portland lighthouses and beach scenes.
The Porter museum hosts a new exhibit each summer. This year, it features approximately 30 pieces of needlework produced by New England schoolgirls from 1700 to approximately 1840.
Lectures on needlework will be included in this year's Cultural Heritage Series, a three-day event sponsored by the museum that includes classes and talks on topics relating to the Porter period. Learn about folk painting, grain painting, faux finishes, and calligraphy, and see demonstrations in 19th-century spinning, woodcarving, silhouette cutting, and oil-on-wood painting. Bob Dunning of Bridgton will lead tours of old barns in western Maine, and Robert Hall of Needham will offer a living-history, illustrated talk on Porter's paintings, publications, and inventions.
One of the goals of this series, according to Smoak , is " to keep these techniques and traditions alive."
Next summer, Charles Burden, an active member of the Folk Art Society of America, and Ray Egan, a volunteer at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath , are putting together a program that aims to revive and celebrate folk art. They have convinced 11 museums around the state to hold simultaneous folk art exhibits.
"There's an awful lot of great folk art in Maine, much of which has never been exhibited," says Burden. "We thought why not have the museums put everything out at once? "
The multi-museum exhibit, which includes the Porter Museum, opens in June 2008 and will feature more than 500 works. Burden plans to produce a catalog with 100 of the best objects from these collections and a brochure with a road map and exhibit details for people who want to do the two- to three-day self-guided tour.
"This will give all the visitors who come to Maine and locals a chance to learn about Maine's wonderful folk art heritage," says Burden.
Kari J. Bodnarchuk, a freelance writer and photographer, can be reached at travelwriter@karib.us. 
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