Coffee and Crosswords
2025-08-12 09:00 - 09:30, 2025-08-19 09:00 - 09:30, 2025-08-26 09:00 - 09:30, 2025-09-02 09:00 - 09:30, 2025-09-09 09:00 - 09:30, 2025-09-16 09:00 - 09:30, 2025-09-23 09:00 - 09:30, 2025-09-30 09:00 - 09:30 (America/New_York) and 3 more dates | ME
Calling all puzzle fans! Start your Tuesdays off right with the New York Times Mini Crossword (and share your time, if you’re the competitive type) online or on our Portland campus. Sudoku fans also welcome! Coffee, while not provided virtually, is highly encouraged.

New Graduate Student Orientation - Fall 2025
2025-08-27 15:00 - 16:30 | Abromson Community Education Center, 88 Bedford St, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
The Office of Graduate Studies is delighted to welcome our new graduate students to the community at the University of Southern Maine!

Please join us for a New Graduate Student Orientation on Wednesday, August 27 from 3-4:30 p.m. in the Abromson Community Education Center, first floor, on the Portland campus.
Our event will include:

A resource fair featuring partners from across campus who are committed to helping graduate students succeed
A panel of current students providing tips and tricks for getting the most out of the graduate student experience
Delicious refreshments and USM swag
Welcome from USM leadership

This is a great opportunity to meet fellow graduate students, faculty, and staff, and get helpful information about graduate student life at USM.

If you’re an online student or can’t make it to the in-person event–or are interested in connecting virtually–join our Online Information Session for New Graduate Students to meet the Graduate Studies team, current students, and learn about University resources and opportunities. This will take place on Friday, August 22 from 12-1 p.m. via Zoom.

If you have questions about disability access or need to request disability accommodations (e.g. sign language interpreters, materials in electronic format, etc.), please contact the Office of Graduate Studies. Requests should be made as soon as possible to allow sufficient time for the accommodation process.

We hope to see you there!

Employer On-Campus Visits: St. Mary's Health System
2025-09-09 11:00 - 14:00 | McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success, 35 Bedford Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Network with local employers without having to leave campus! Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. on the first floor of the McGoldrick Center on the Portland campus, various employers will be on campus to talk about their work and answer any questions.

Employer On-Campus Visits: Spurwink
2025-09-11 11:00 - 14:00 | McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success, 35 Bedford Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States

Employer On-Campus Visits: Central Maine Healthcare
2025-09-16 11:00 - 14:00 | McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success, 35 Bedford Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States

Employer On-Campus Visits: Lewiston Public Schools
2025-09-18 11:00 - 14:00 | McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success, 35 Bedford Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States

"20 Walks" Exhibition Opening Reception
2025-09-18 17:30 - 19:30 | Art Gallery, 5 University Way, Gorham, ME, 04038, United States
The University of Southern Maine Art Gallery is pleased to announce the opening reception for 20 Walks, a solo exhibition by Maine-based artist Lin Lisberger.

20 Walks is a meditation on the somatic journeys that keep us grounded. Featuring sculptural contemplations in Lisberger’s primary medium, wood, this exhibition considers how our memory of place is tied to the physical, and what details our minds rely on to recall embodied experiences.

20 Walks is open from September 18th through December 20th. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Learn more about programming in tandem with the exhibition! Visit the Eventbrite page for the Why We Walk series featuring Lisberger and author Miles Howard on September 20th!

EVENT DETAILS
Parking is available in our University of Southern Maine Gorham campus lots G4, G4, and G6 at a rate of $1.05 per hour. You may reserve your parking ahead of time via the USM Parking Interface. Additionally, the Portland METRO Husky Bus picks up/drops off about a three-minute walk from the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery (Gorhamp campus). An updated bus schedule can be found on the METRO website and bus fair is $2 each way.

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Why We Walk: A Conversational Hike on the Frazier Preserve Trail
2025-09-20 11:00 - 12:00 | Frazier Preserve Trailhead, 41-99 Access Rd, Gorham, ME, 04038, United States
Why We Walk brings together artist Lin Lisberger (featured in the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery’s upcoming exhibition, 20 Walks) and author Miles Howard for a conversational hike. Howard and Lisberger will discuss the place of urban trails in our lives as they traverse the Frazier Preserve Trail. Stopping at natural discussion points, Howard and Lisberger will reflect on the trail’s infrastructure, its role in the Gorham community, and on the creativity and divergent thinking that walking engenders.

The walk will take place over the course of one hour on light terrain. Participants should plan to depart from the trail entrance located behind the Gorham High School baseball field and are encouraged to wear close-toed walking shoes, bring water, and a small trail snack if they like. Leave no trace principles will be observed. Please, no pets. In the event of light showers, the walk will still take place; if rain is heavy, it will be postponed to September 21st.

Capacity is limited to 20 participants! Please register via the Eventbrite link to reserve your place.
About the speakers:
Lin Lisberger has been a sculptor and woodcarver since the 1970s. She taught sculpture, drawing, and design at the University of Southern Maine from 1981 until her retirement in 2017. Lisberger has an MFA in sculpture from the University of Pennsylvania (1980) and a BA in Literature from the University of California at Santa Cruz (1973), and she lives and has a studio in Portland. Her exhibition experience is widespread, and she has work in several private and corporate collections. Her attention to form has been consistent, creating a foundation upon which an abstract narrative can be built, using narrative to emphasize her interest in humans and their journeys.
Miles Howard is an author, journalist, and urban trail builder based in Boston. In the summer of 2022, he founded the Walking City Trails; a network of walking trails visiting over 70 Boston parks and green spaces across 23 city neighborhoods. When he’s not in the field scouting new trail routes, he writes about public access to the outdoors. His work has been featured in National Geographic, Mountain Gazette, The New Republic, and The Boston Globe. He’s also the publisher of Mind The Moss, a weekly newsletter about the modern renaissance of walking and how traveling on foot can brighten our lives.
For more about 20 Walks, click here.

PARKING DETAILS
Parking on-site is free on a first-come, first-served basis. Limited parking is available directly outside of the Frazier Preserve Trail entrance located behind the Gorham High School Baseball Field. Once full, parking is available about a five-minute walk away in the Gorham High School Parking lot.

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Employer On-Campus Visits: The Iris Network
2025-09-25 11:00 - 14:00 | McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success, 35 Bedford Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States

Employer On-Campus Visits: Target
2025-09-30 11:00 - 14:00 | McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success, 35 Bedford Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States

Employer On-Campus Visits: General Dynamics Bath Iron Works
2025-10-02 11:00 - 14:00 | McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success, 35 Bedford Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States

Artist Talk with Janna Ahrndt and Christine Bruening
2025-10-03 13:00 - 14:00 | Arts Lab — Crewe Center for the Arts, 111 Bedford St, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Join exhibition artist Janna Ahrndt in conversation with fellow artist and collaborator Christine Bruening on memory’s digital trail. Ahrndt and Bruening together consider how technology fosters recollections and encounters obstacles of its own design. Their discussion will consider the limitations faced by digital replicas in any attempt to recreate the embodied recollections of an heirloom, and how corporate influence overshadows contemporary personal archiving. The conversation will at once expose the silliness of digital life and offer hopeful opportunities for the amelioration of technologically-induced malaise.

The artist talk will last approximately one hour in the Crewe Center Arts Lab. This event is part of the University of Southern Maine ArtsFest programming. Join us for a full day of art, music, and creative public activities.

What: Artist Talk with Janna Ahrndt and Christine Bruening
When: Friday October 3rd, 1pm-2pm
Where: Crewe Center for the Arts | Arts Lab
111 Bedford St. Portland 04103
Cost: Free

Event parking
Park for free in the University of Southern Maine Parking Garage (88 Bedford St., Portland, ME 04101) by selecting “Crewe Center Ribbon Cutting Day” when you start a parking session.
Get full parking details for October 3

Additionally, the Portland METRO Husky Bus and the METRO #4 pickup/drop-off are about a five-minute walk from the Glickman Family Library. An updated bus schedule can be found on the METRO website, and bus fare is $2 each way.

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Book Binding + Printmaking at the KCCCBA
2025-10-03 15:00 - 17:00 | Book Arts Studio — Crewe Center for the Arts, 111 Bedford St, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
We’re celebrating the new Crewe Center for the Arts on the University of Southern Maine Portland campus, and we’re inviting the public to join us in celebration! As part of the festivities, the Kate Cheney Chappell Center for Book Arts is hosting free book binding + printmaking activities in our brand new Book Arts Studio. Bring friends and family to explore the new space during the building-wide ArtsFest involving music, theatre, dance, book arts and more!

What: Book Binding + Printmaking activities as part of University of Southern Maine ArtsFest programmingWhere: Crewe Center for the Arts, 111 Bedford St. Studio 160, Portland, MaineWhen: Friday October 3rd from 3pm-5pmCost: Free!
This event is part of ArtsFest, which celebrates the grand opening of the Crewe Center for the Arts. ArtsFest activities are free and open to the public.

Event parking
Park for free in the University of Southern Maine Parking Garage (88 Bedford St., Portland, ME 04101) by selecting “Crewe Center Ribbon Cutting Day” when you start a parking session.
Get full parking details for October 3

Additionally, the Portland METRO Husky Bus and the METRO #4 pickup/drop-off are about a five-minute walk from the Glickman Family Library. An updated bus schedule can be found on the METRO website, and bus fare is $2 each way.

Octoberfest!
2025-10-04 12:00 - 15:00 | Parking Lot G8 — Russell Hall, 24 University Way, Gorham, ME, 04038, United States
Come enjoy our annual Octoberfest event! Featuring delicious local food trucks, carnival games, music, pumpkin painting, and more! Saturday, October 4th, from 12pm – 3pm, stop by anytime. This event is open to students, faculty, staff, alumni, and families – we hope to see you there!

Las Vegas Royal Casino Night
2025-10-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Lower Brooks — Brooks Student Center, 32 Campus Ave, Gorham, ME, 04038, United States
Join us for our annual Las Vegas Royal Casino Night! Enjoy snacks and mocktails while playing your favorites such as Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Texas Hold’em, and more. Happening 7-9pm on Saturday, October 4th, in Lower Brooks on the Gorham campus. Hope to see you there!

Wandering Book Artists: Making Books By Hand in the Digital Age Lecture
2025-10-08 17:00 - 18:00 | University Events Room, 7th floor — Glickman Library, 314 Forest Ave, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Please join the Kate Cheney Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts (KCCCBA) community in welcoming Peter and Donna Thomas for a public lecture titled Wandering Book Artists: Making Books By Hand in the Digital Age. This lecture is co-sponsored by the Baxter Society and is free and open to the public.

The lecture takes place on Wednesday October 8th, 2025 from 5pm – 6pm at the University Event Room (7th Floor) in the Glickman Family Library (314 Bedford St.). Refreshments will be served.

About the Artists:Peter and Donna Thomas are book artists from Santa Cruz, California. They work collaboratively, making both edition and one-of-a-kind books. They make the paper, print, illustrate, and bind their books, combining the precision of the fine press aesthetic with the structural creativity found in contemporary artists’ books. Between 2009 and 2019, they made four cross-country road trips, traveling in their artistic tiny home on wheels as the “Wandering Book Artists,” teaching classes and giving talks about the book arts as they visited universities and community-based book arts centers around the country. They are authors of More Making Books by Hand, and editors of 1000 Artists’ Books, and in 2021, The Legacy Press published a descriptive bibliography of their work: Peter and Donna Thomas: Bibliography, 1974–2020. Learn more here: http://wanderingbookartists.blogspot.com/
This event is free and open to the public, refreshments will be served.

Peter and Donna Thomas will be giving a public workshop on October 11th following the lecture. To learn more about their workshop, Making Miniature Books, please visit: https://usm.maine.edu/book-arts/workshop-series/

Event Details
Parking is available in our University of Southern Maine Portland Garages 1 and 2 at a rate of $4.15 per hour. You may reserve your parking ahead of time via the USM Parking Interface. Additionally, the Portland METRO Husky Bus and the METRO #4 pickup/drop-off about a five-minute walk from the Glickman Family Library. An updated bus schedule can be found on the METRO website and bus fair is $2 each way.

Job & Internship Fair
2025-10-09 11:00 - 14:00 | Sullivan Recreation and Fitness Complex, 66 Falmouth St, Portland, ME, 04103, United States
Meet with local employers in a casual setting and learn about local job opportunities and potential career paths! You’ll learn how to develop networking skills and be able to find out more about employer perspectives on today’s workforce. Representatives from multiple local organizations will be in attendance. All students who attend will also have the chance to win one of several prizes we will be raffling!
Where: Sullivan Gym, Portland campus
When: 11am-2pm

OPENING RECEPTION: Janna Ahrndt Does Not Dream of Labor
2025-10-09 17:30 - 19:30 | Great Hall Gallery — Crewe Center for the Arts, 111 Bedford St, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
The Crewe Center for the Arts Great Hall Gallery’s inaugural exhibition will feature the work of the Art Department’s newest faculty member, artist Janna Ahrndt. Tying together themes of technology and what makes us human, Ahrndt’s work offers a whimsical and at times humorous interrogation of the “efficiency” promised through automation across various domains, including memories, cleaning appliances, Furbys, and more. Read the exhibition essay HERE.

Join us for the Exhibition Opening on Thursday October 9th from 5:30pm – 7:30pm in the *new* Crewe Center for the Arts. This event is free and open to the public.
About the Artist:
Janna Ahrndt received their MFA in Electronic and Time-Based Art from Purdue University and is currently the Visiting Assistant Professor of Digital Art at Indiana University. They are part of a wave of new media artists rejecting the notion that craft and technology are directly opposed. Their work explores how deconstructing everyday technologies, or even making them for yourself, can be used to question larger oppressive systems and create a space for participatory political action. Her activist and social art practices blur the lines between the materiality of craft and the digital realm of new media technologies to create socio-political interventions.

Event Details
Parking is available in our University of Southern Maine Portland Garages 1 and 2 at a rate of $4.15 per hour. You may reserve your parking ahead of time via the USM Parking Interface. Additionally, the Portland METRO Husky Bus and the METRO #4 pickup/drop-off about a five-minute walk from the Glickman Family Library. An updated bus schedule can be found on the METRO website and bus fair is $2 each way.
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Making Miniature Books Workshop with Peter and Donna Thomas
2025-10-11 09:00 - 15:00 | Book Arts Studio — Crewe Center for the Arts, 111 Bedford St, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
The Kate Cheney Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts (KCCCBA) is proud to present a public workshop titled Making Miniature Books Workshop with Peter and Donna Thomas.
Date: Saturday, October 11, 2025Time: 9 AM – 3 PM (with an hour lunch break; please bring your own lunch)Location: Kate Cheney Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts, Studio 160, Crewe Center for the Arts, 111 Bedford St. Portland, ME 04103.Student Capacity: 15Price: $100

Workshop Description:This class will introduce participants to new and innovative book structures from simple and complex accordion books that have been developed or explored in depth by the instructors, while at the same time teaching the basic bookbinding skills required to create them. Participants will make two of the artist book structures described in Thomas’ book More Making Books by Hand published in 2004 by Quarry/Rockport Publishers.

About the Artists:Peter and Donna Thomas are book artists from Santa Cruz, California. They work collaboratively, making both edition and one-of-a-kind books. They make the paper, print, illustrate, and bind their books, combining the precision of the fine press aesthetic with the structural creativity found in contemporary artists’ books. Between 2009 and 2019, they made four cross-country road trips, traveling in their artistic tiny home on wheels as the “Wandering Book Artists,” teaching classes and giving talks about the book arts as they visited universities and community-based book arts centers around the country. They are authors of More Making Books by Hand, and editors of 1000 Artists’ Books, and in 2021, The Legacy Press published a descriptive bibliography of their work: Peter and Donna Thomas: Bibliography, 1974–2020.

Learn More: http://wanderingbookartists.blogspot.com/

Event Details:
Parking is available in our University of Southern Maine Portland Garages 1 and 2, or in Parking Lot P6, at a rate of $4.15 per hour. You may reserve your parking ahead of time via the USM Parking Interface. Additionally, the Portland METRO Husky Bus and the METRO #4 pickup/drop-off about a three-minute walk from the Crewe Center for the Arts. An updated bus schedule can be found on the METRO website and bus fair is $2 each way.

Walking Meditation: Walk with Lin Lisberger and Patty Dodd
2025-10-16 16:00 - 17:00 | Art Gallery, 5 University Way, Gorham, ME, 04038, United States
Walking Meditation brings together artist Lin Lisberger (featured in the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery’s upcoming exhibition, 20 Walks) and meditation teacher Patty Dodd for a calming stroll on the University of Southern Maine Gorham campus pathways. Departing from the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery (5 University Way, Gorham), Dodd will lead the pre and post walk discussions. Lisberger will lead the walk and discuss themes of walking as a practice.

The walk will take place over the course of one hour on light terrain. Participants are encouraged to wear close-toed walking shoes, bring water, and a small trail snack if they like. Leave no trace principles will be observed. Please, no pets. So that we may have an accurate headcount for the event, we kindly ask that you please register at the Eventbrite link below. Lin Lisberger will be available for questions at the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery following the Walking Meditation. Please join us for an intimate exhibition viewing.

Capacity is limited to 30 participants! Please register via the Eventbrite link to reserve your place.

About the speakers:
Lin Lisberger has been a sculptor and woodcarver since the 1970s. She taught sculpture, drawing, and design at the University of Southern Maine from 1981 until her retirement in 2017. Lisberger has an MFA in sculpture from the University of Pennsylvania (1980) and a BA in Literature from the University of California at Santa Cruz (1973), and she lives and has a studio in Portland. Her exhibition experience is widespread, and she has work in several private and corporate collections. Her attention to form has been consistent, creating a foundation upon which an abstract narrative can be built, using narrative to emphasize her interest in humans and their journeys.
In a local high school gym, in 1970, Patty Dodd took a Transcendental Meditation class. Sitting amongst many other students, she felt the magic of meditation and meditating with others. Patty has sought out this experience ever since. She has been a serious student of Tibetan Buddhism since 2010. Lama Willa Baker of Natural Dharma Fellowship, is her main teacher. Patty is primarily interested in body based meditations and meditating in nature. She finds that nature can meditate you.In 2017 Patty started teaching meditation to high school students. She also has held meditations for staff and teachers at Portland Adult Ed and hosts a Thursday night meditation group on Zoom and hybrid.You will find Patty meditating on the Eastern Prom many mornings. You’re always welcome to join her.
For more about 20 Walks, click here.

EVENT DETAILS
Parking is available in our University of Southern Maine Gorham campus lots G4, G4, and G6 at a rate of $1.05 per hour. You may reserve your parking ahead of time via the USM Parking Interface. Additionally, the Portland METRO Husky Bus picks up/drops off about a three-minute walk from the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery (Gorhamp campus). An updated bus schedule can be found on the METRO website and bus fair is $2 each way.

SUBSCRIBE to the University of Southern Maine Art Galleries newsletter!
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