Designing Women invites you to their annual Holiday Show at Woodfords Church in Portland. This is a “must shop” show for the holiday craft show season, bringing together the best women of fine art and craft. Local artisans will be showing and selling  independently designed goods. The mission of Designing Women is to showcase high quality arts and crafts by women artisans and promoting a quality made-by-hand aestheticto benefit local nonprofit services that support women and families.

To benefit Coastal Studies for Girls (www.coastalstudiesforgirls.org), the new leadership school for girls based in Freeport, designing women (www.designingwomen.org)  host their fifth annual fine crafts show and sale. Twenty-four fine crafts women exhibit their fine hand-crafted pottery, jewelry, handweaving, painting, quilting, hand-bound books, and more. Refreshments, luncheon, and baked goods will be available.

This documentary by Dale Schierholt takes you inside the studio and life of Belfast artist Harold Garde. Get a rare glimpse of the life of an artist through interviews and observations. Garde shares  insights into his influences, the structure of a painting, and the conceptual forces behind some of the major themes found in his work.

“Cross-Cultural Experiences: Literature of New Voices in America” is the theme of the fourth annual Maine Literary Festival. Join acclaimed authors and speakers for a weekend of lectures, panel discussions, and social events

The Center for Maine Contemporary Art's third annual Artists’ Potluck is as good for networking as it is fun. Bring a friend and a dish to share.

The evening features fast-paced presentations by ten of the area’s designers, artists, creative thinkers, business people, and organizers. Five Rivers Arts Alliance partners with Frontier and Women, Work & Community to present this dynamic evening of art, images, and ideas. Pecha Kucha was started in Japan in 2003 by architect Mark Dytham as a visual and verbal “chit-chat” or “little conversation,” about design, art, and innovation. It is an international phenomenon — held in more than a hundred cities around the world, and in Maine since 2007.

Join Carl Little and artist Brenda Bettinson for a gallery talk. Brenda's paintings and drawings combine realism and abstraction with a sound basis in observation and a deep immersion in ancient mythology.

Come and cebrate Maine Indian history and culture at the Hudson Museum. This annual holiday event features Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot basketmakers, who sell their handmade, one-of- a-kind, ash splint and sweetgrass basketry. Work baskets such as creels, pack, and potato baskets and fancy baskets ranging from strawberry and blueberry shaped ones to curly bowls may be found along with quill jewelry, wood carvings, and birchbark work.

Bangor's Maine Discovery Museum, the largest children's museum north of Boston, presents “Tray Chic!,” its seventh annual gala dinner-auction, featuring more than sixty one-of-a-kind tray tables painted by Maine artists from all across the state, from Portland to Presque Isle to Millinocket to Lubec. All the money raised from this event will go to support the museum's mission to provide a fun, hands-on place where art, science, and nature come alive for Maine children and their families.

Self-taught artists Kevin Mizner at the Harpswell Artist second annual Summer Art Show. Opening reception on July 31 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. This art show runs in conjunction with Cundy’s Harbor Days Celebration.