Calendar of Events

The Art of Perception: Seeing What Matters
2025-11-04 17:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success, 35 Bedford Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Please join us on Tuesday, November 4th, from 5:00pm-7pm at USM’s McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success Salons (2nd floor) as we welcome lawyer and Art Historian Amy Herman to Portland.
The Art of Perception program teaches leaders across professions and around the world to analyze works of art to strengthen their observation, perception, and communication skills. In this highly interactive presentation Amy Herman will demonstrate how examining works of painting, sculpture, and photography can serve as a powerful tool for tackling complex problems—as well as everyday challenges by using a different lens to see what is there and what we are overlooking. Prepare to have your eyes opened in ways you didn’t realize they were closed.
Reception: 5pm-5:30pm
Presentation: 5:30pm-6:45pm
Book Signing/Meet and Greet: 6:45pm-7:15pm
This event is free and open to the public.

This event is sponsored by the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education and the Department of Public Safety, University of Southern Maine

Creepy & Curious Collections: A Pop-Up Exhibition
2025-10-30 15:00 - 17:00 | Osher Map Library — Glickman Family Library, 314 Forest Ave, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Please join us for our annual ‘Creepy & Curious Collections Pop-up Exhibit’

The Osher Map Library
Thursday, October 30, 2025
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

The Reading Room will be full of creepy and curious items from the collection. With Eerie Entertainment in the Cohen Classroom, giving you the chance to create your own Origami Bat and Macrame Skeletons!
Light refreshments will be provided, this event is FREE and open to all! Exhibition

USM Employee Art Exhibition - Opening Reception
2025-09-18 16:30 - 18:30 | Glickman Family Library, 314 Forest Avenue, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Save the Date!
The Library & Learning Exhibition Committee is incredibly excited to announce the 2nd USM Employee Art Exhibition! This exhibition, found on the 5th of the Glickman Library, showcases the variety and breadth of artists found throughout the University of Southern Maine staff and faculty.
Please bring your family, friends, and colleagues to view this work and enjoy a reception with the artists! (No formal programming, please stay as long or as short as you can.) This exhibition will be on display until December 7th, 2025.

2025 International Map Collector’s Society Conference
2025-09-11 - 2025-09-14 | Osher Map Library — Glickman Family Library, 314 Forest Ave, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education
in Portland, Maine, is hosting the 2025 International Map Collector’s Society Conference,
showcasing our extensive cartographic collections dating back to 1475, and utilizing the
facilities of the University of Southern Maine, including the newly built McGoldrick Center
for Student and Career Success.
The Conference title is: “Reflections and New
Perspectives on Mapping Maine, New England and Maritime Canada,” and participants
will be treated to a wide variety of topical lectures, off-site experiences at local museums
and historical societies, and opportunities to immerse yourself in Maine’s vibrant arts
and cultural and dining scene. There will also be a three-day post symposium tour of
Maine, to include Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island, September 15-17.
Registration opens May 15, 2025 and closes September 5, 2025 (or until sold out).

The Monhegan Wildlands: Art, Ecology, and the Resilience of a Maine Island - Annual Ball Lecture
2025-05-01 16:45 - 18:45 | Abromson Community Education Center, 88 Bedford St, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Rockwell Kent, Sun, Manana, Monhegan, 1907/ca.1950, Courtesy of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art

The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education Annual Ball Lecture
Join the Co-Curators of The Monhegan Wildlands: Art, Ecology, and the Resilience of a Maine Island (on display at the Bowdoin College of Art until June 1st) for an evening of learning and discussion. With its rugged shoreline, magnificent Cathedral Woods, and rustic fishing village, Monhegan Island in the Gulf of Maine has long been a haven for artists drawn to the splendor of its ocean vistas and picturesque wildlands and for ecologists fascinated by its complex natural history. Over the last two centuries, artists and photographers have observed pastureland recolonized by white spruce, those white spruce devastated by parasitic dwarf mistletoe infestation, and, today, deciduous trees—birch, aspen and maple—coming to dominate declining white spruce woodlands. Scientists, too, have documented change on Monhegan, drawing upon the methodologies of forest ecology to describe what came before and to elucidate mechanisms shaping the trajectories of forest succession.Monhegan’s history offers lessons for us all. This lecture, drawn from the exhibition, brings together artworks, objects and representations of ecological inquiry, and historical documents (including maps) and photographs to chart forest conversion and recovery on the island, and to document decades of remarkable conservation and stewardship.
Date & Time: Thursday, May 1st, 2025 from 4:45 PM to 6:45PM
Reception: 4:45pm-5:15pm (Light refreshments will be served)
Lecture and Q & A: 5:15pm-6:30pm
Location: Hannaford Hall, Abromson Center – University of Southern Maine (Portland Campus)
This event is FREE and all are welcome!
Speakers:

Frank Goodyear, Co-Director, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and Co-Curator of The Monhegan Wildlands exhibition
Jenn Pye, Director, Monhegan Museum of Art & History, and Co-Curator of The Monhegan Wildlands exhibition
Barry Logan, Samuel S. Butcher Professor in the Natural Sciences, Bowdoin College, and Co-Curator of The Monhegan Wildlands Exhibition.

Image Credit: Rockwell Kent, Sun, Manana, Monhegan, 1907/ca.1950, Courtesy of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Our Favorite Things: Gallery Exhibition
2025-04-22 10:00 - 16:00, 2025-04-19 10:00 - 16:00, 2025-04-18 10:00 - 16:00, 2025-04-17 10:00 - 16:00, 2025-04-16 10:00 - 16:00, 2025-04-15 10:00 - 16:00, 2025-04-12 10:00 - 16:00, 2025-04-11 10:00 - 16:00 and 16 more dates | Osher Map Library — Glickman Family Library, 314 Forest Ave, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Our Favorite Things: A Special Selection of Items from the Collection Chosen by Staff and Friends
This gallery exhibition highlights a special selection of items from the collection chosen by the OML staff and friends. It will be on view to the public from February 28, 2025 through April 22, 2025.

Walk-ins are welcome or set up a Gallery Appointment for a guided tour! Please note, on Saturdays we close at 2 PM.

Our Favorite Things Exhibition: Open House & Reception
2025-04-03 16:00 - 18:00 | Osher Map Library — Glickman Family Library, 314 Forest Ave, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education is hosting an April OPEN HOUSE and RECEPTION for our current exhibition “Our Favorite Things: A Special Selection of Items from the Collection Chosen by Staff and Friends.”
This eclectic show is a special pop-up exhibition and is only on view until April 22nd, so come and share in the fun at our Spring Open House: Thursday, April 3rd, from 4pm-6pm.
All are welcome! There’s no formal program–feel free to join us for hors d’oeuvres, conversation, and a chance to view the exhibition!
