The Stier Family Gallery, on the library’s lower level, hosts exhibitions that offer great variety of media, topics, and artists that educate, inform, or entertain the community. Information about our current exhibit is below, followed by information on how to apply to exhibit your work in our gallery.
Currently on Display
Not From These Parts
Maine’s Newest Immigrants View Their World
December 1- 31, 2025
Selected images from the exhibit
Click on an image for larger view.
WHAT COMES TO MIND when you try to picture a recent immigrant to our state? Based on some media coverage, it could be perpetrators of mayhem in Lewiston—not to mention those feasting on household pets, a trope bandied about by politicians beyond Maine’s borders and amplified in social media and podcasts.
IN THE SPRING OF 2025, the state’s Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous, and Tribal Populations decided enough was enough. Providing a modest grant, they asked the Cape participatory photography nonprofit Seeing for Ourselves to partner with Generational Noor, a nonprofit serving Maine’s immigrant communities, and rewrite outdated perceptions to reveal the stories of resilience, creativity, and hard work that actually define the immigrant experience.
AND SO, AFTER A ONE-HOUR WORKSHOP in participatory photography and provided with free copies of the books in the display cases as inspirational models of the practice, ten young residents of the Lewiston-Auburn area borrowed cameras or grabbed their smartphones and set out over the summer to document their authentic lives photographically. A local cinematographer joined two of the expeditions to capture the creative process.
THE SELF-CAPTIONED IMAGERY on view here was exhibited in the Lewiston art gallery LA/Arts in August. A Seeing for Ourselves documentary crystallizing the effort, now looping near the aquarium, was screened at the exhibit and posted on social media. It has since been submitted for possible broadcast to Maine Public, our local public television station, with the aim of further promoting the new visual narrative.
THE EFFORT PROVED TRANSFORMATIVE to those participating. They confirmed that by photographing their lives, they could take control of their own stories and begin to shift public perceptions, becoming exhibited artists in the process.
“I realized my phone could change minds.”
Seeing for Ourselves (SFO) equips and trains marginalized individuals to take control of their own public narrative by documenting their lives or concerns photographically. Their efforts have reframed conversations around public housing and criminal justice. SFO is currently putting the final touches on a documentary intended for national PBS broadcast commemorating its third undertaking, with high school students across the country picturing their climate future. Materials from these three undertakings can be found in the display case. Reach out to SFO at info@seeingforourselves.org.
Information for Prospective Artists/Exhibitors
The Stier Family Gallery consists of two wall display areas (with a rail/cord hanging system) and a large display case divided into 5 segments. More detailed space plans are available in the gallery application.
- All interested artists are strongly encouraged to make a site visit prior to submitting a proposal. Artists are able to use part or all of the gallery space available. Please note, if an artist is only using part of the space (i.e. only the display cases), another artist’s work may be displayed elsewhere in the Gallery.
- Any interested party in utilizing the gallery must submit an application to the Library Director.
- Applications are accepted any time of year. Exhibits are scheduled on a “first come, first serve” basis. Please note that at times of high demand, the gallery may be scheduled months in advance.
- Given the public viewing of the gallery, the subject matter of any show must be appropriate for children as well as adults, therefore explicit images are not permitted in gallery shows. The Library Director reserves the right to reject or remove any material(s) that seem incongruent with the public nature of the gallery. In the event that the Library Director rejects or removes any material(s) for exhibit, that decision is final.
Click here for more information or to apply!