Please join us in the ICA on Saturday, March 22, from 3:30–4:30 pm for a conversation with Joanne Steinhardt MFA '02, and Mira Ptacin, Salt '03, two artists currently exhibiting in the Maine College of Art & Design 2025 Alumni Triennial, Assembly, on view through April 6, 2025.
Joanne Steinhardt explores “second chances” for the invisible and pushed aside through the process of reclaiming. Steinhardt’s practice focuses on the materials left behind, discarded, or saved but buried in deep corners of closets that are no longer used for their intended purpose. She brings these objects to a new purpose, joining their history with a new future. Steinhardt holds an MFA from Maine College of Art and a BS in Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology School of Photographic Arts and Sciences. Steinhardt's work has been exhibited at Les Moulins Gallery in Boissy-le-Châtel, France; El Barrio ArtSpace, The Equity Gallery, Carter Burden, Artsy, The Shim Network all in New York, NY; and the Tampa Museum of Art, Polk County Museum, and Covivant Gallery, all in Florida. Steinhardt lives and works in the metro New York Area.
Mira Ptacin is the author of the award-winning memoir Poor Your Soul (Soho Press, 2016), which was named a best book of the year by Kirkus Books, where it received a rare “starred” review. She’s also the author of the genre-blending book of feminist history, memoir, and ethnography, The In-Betweens: The Spiritualists, Mediums, and Legends of Camp Etna (Liveright-W.W. Norton, 2019), which the New York Times lauded as the best book to read during a pandemic. Her writing is forthcoming or has appeared in The Atavist, Vogue, the New York Times, New York Times Book Review, Harper's, Poets and Writers, Down East, Tin House, LitHub, and more. She received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, where she was editor-at-large of their literary magazine, LUMINA. As a former student of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, Mira has led writing courses at The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, Sarah Lawrence College, Colby College, University of New Hampshire, Stonecoast, and currently leads a memoir writing course for inmates at the Maine Correctional Center. Mira lives on Peaks Island, Maine, and is currently working on her next book.
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Juried by Kiko Aebi, Katz Curator at the Colby College Museum of Art, Assembly: 2025 Maine College of Art & Design Alumni Triennial highlights a selection of work representing the breadth of Maine College of Art & Design’s programs, including BFA, MFA, MAT, and Salt graduates.
Participating artists include:
- Isak Applin '98
- Kyle Downs '07
- Nicole Duennebier '05
- Dylan Fruh MAT '20
- John P. Gardiner '07, MFA '14, and Dr. Gordon Johns PhD 2237
- Jodie Mim Goodnough, Salt '07
- Dylan Hausthor '15
- Emmett Jorgensen '24
- Baxter Koziol '17
- Sage Lewis '04
- Kevin Mosca '18
- Olivia Propeck '24
- Mira Ptacin, Salt '03
- Elizabeth Scutt '23
- Joanne Steinhardt MFA '02
- Peter Wallis '06
Image credit: Joanne Steinhardt MFA '02, Shared Spaces, detail, 2024. Photography by Kari Herer.