The Bates College Museum of Art was founded in 1955 as the Treat Gallery with a magnificent bequest: the Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection. This unique collection of Maine's most renowned artist includes drawings, oil sketches, personal photographs, collected artwork, and his writings, which are in the College's special collections. With the opening of the Olin Arts Center in 1986, the Treat Gallery became the Bates College Museum of Art, enabling the Museum to organize major scholarly exhibitions of historic and contemporary artists.
Currently the museum welcomes 14,000 visitors annually, organizes three major exhibitions and publications a year, and hosts an annual thesis exhibition by senior art majors. The upper gallery is dedicated to changing exhibitions, while the lower gallery provides long-term exhibitions that highlight, and expand our knowledge of, a permanent collection nearly 5000 works of art strong.
Along with campus and public events, the Museum maintains an active presence in local schools, conducting collaborative programs that integrate the Museum into their curricula. Through programs like the Thousand Words Project, which uses exhibitions and collections to teach writing skills and visual literacy, the Museum reaches every middle school student in Lewiston and Auburn: the second largest population center in Maine. The Museum is also intimately linked to the curriculum of higher education at Bates and other nearby schools, serving as a resource to courses in fields from Asian Studies to Biology.
Lectures, demonstrations, workshops and programs are open to the public without charge unless otherwise noted.
For more information and to schedule tours, call 207-786-6158.
Museum hours:
Tuesday - Saturday, 10 AM-5 PM
Mailing address:
75 Russell Street, Lewiston, Maine 04240
Phone: 207-786-6158
Fax: 207-786-8335
Email: museum@bates.edu
