Infinite Art Tournament: The Songs of the Fifty States: Maine

Monday, September 30, 2013

The Songs of the Fifty States: Maine

(What is "The Songs of the Fifty States"?)

Sunlight on the Coast, by Maine resident Winslow Homer. Expected Tournament Entrance in a few months.

Maine!

Size: 91,646 km² (39th)

2012 Population: 1,329,192 (41st)

Statehood: 1820 (23rd), by seceding from Massachusetts. As the northern chunk of Massachusetts, it had been half a state since 1788 (6th) or 1776 (13-way tie for first), depending on how you look at it.

American Human Development Index: 4.89 (29th -- way out of order, but I was there recently.)

Art Mecca: Mrs.5000 and I recently visited the Colby Museum of Art, on the campus of Colby College in Waterville. It was a large and very impressive collection, in many ways comparable to, say, the flagship museum of art in one of your more provincial American cities. It recently became a lot more fabulous, too, as a married couple with a lot of enthusiasm for the visual arts and, presumably, a budget that allows for the occasional splurge, donated their entire collection of American paintings and Chinese antiquities. The place is just rotten with Sargents, Homers, Whistlers, and the like -- more than 300 Whistlers, they claim.

"The Colby" -- I don't know if anybody really says that, but doesn't it sound very artsy? -- is apparently one of seven museums on the "Maine Art Museum Trail." I guess that designation pretty much sums up where the Art Meccas are in the state of Maine. I wonder if the people at the eighth most prestigious art collection in Maine are always wishing they could get onto the Trail list, but the other museums won't let them join, and so they are perpetually bitter and pretend that they don't want to be on that stupid list anyway.

Michael 5000's Maine

First Visited: September 12, 2002 (41st)
Most Recently Visited: September 4, 2013 (5th)

First Run In: n/a
Best Run: n/a

Have Admired the Visual Arts In: Yes.
Have Geohashed In: Yes, successfully.
Have Slept Overnight In: Yes.

Counties Visited: 16/16 (complete)
% Complete: 100% (8th complete state, September 3, 2013)