Barry: The Art Exhibition
November 8, 2011 - ongoing

Edith C. Barry, the Museum’s founder, was an artist and world traveler in the early 20th Century. This exhibit features the paintings, sculpture, and pen-and-ink drawings created by Barry from the late 19th Century to the early 1960s.

As a trained artist, Edith Barry documented the world through visual art, often studying forms and figures for months before actually creating the image. Her oil-on-canvas paintings range from portraits of businessmen and her family, to landscapes of France, to images of the old West, to views from her window in New York City, to surprising shows at the circus. Sculptures of people, animals, and mythical figures display the wide-range of Barry’s talents.

In addition to viewing Barry’s finished art, visitors will also find her sketches and studies for the various pieces of art that she produced. A small selection, made up of nearly one hundred sketches, lines the gallery wall to display Barry’s efforts in her study and perfection of her subject.

Complementing the Museum’s “Impressions of a World Traveler” exhibition, which details Edith Barry’s world travels, “Barry: The Art Exhibition” is on view until January 2012, and is sponsored by the Museum’s Proud Business Partner, Captain Lord Mansion.

History Showcase | Brick Store Museum Photography Contest Showcase
October 11, 2011 - ongoing

Winners of the Brick Store Museum Photography Contest (held from July 15 to September 2) materialized in four categories: Nature, Kennebunk, Travel, and Children's. Three local judges chose the winners in each category, and a "Visitors' Choice" award will also be named in the History Showcase. The Museum staff also chose their favorites, which are highlighted as well.

Prints of the winning photographs are on display in the History Showcase. To view all of the 160 entries, please visit the contest website here.

Sponsored by our Proud Business Partner, The Captain Lord Mansion

Impressions of a World Traveler: Early 20th Century Travel Through the Eyes of Edith Barry
June 22, 2011 - ongoing

This exhibition explores early twentieth-century travel through the eyes of the Museum’s founder, Edith C. Barry. As a trained artist, Barry traveled the world throughout her life and documented her journeys through photographs, writings, and souvenirs. The exhibit focuses on four of her trips: North Africa (1912); Asia (1920); “Around the World" (1935); and another “Around the World” trip in 1959. The exhibit features Barry’s photographs and watercolor paintings of various regions of the world, as well as the unique opportunity to read Barry’s own words through her travel journals. The exhibit also focuses on the three-dimensional objects that Barry brought back with her from different parts of the world.

View the stunning 3-minute introductory video (wmv format) by the exhibition's curator, Cynthia Walker >

This exhibition is sponsored by our Proud Business Partner: Captain Lord Mansion.

Windows on the Past: Kennebunk's History through Architecture
March 15, 2011 - ongoing

In 1963, Kennebunk became the first town in Maine to establish a historic district, which received its designation as a National Register Historic District in 1974. The District is a three-dimensional timeline in which one can experience a stunning tableau of Colonial, Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles–the hallmarks of American architecture. The exhibition spotlights 42 homes discussed in the Brick Store Museum's illustrated guidebook of the same name. Visitors are immersed in 300 years of Kennebunk's architectural history through vibrant images and artifacts, which include furniture, clothing, diaries, sketches, and more. Each style of home is as unique as the local family who lived inside it.

In addition to experiencing the visual presentation of these forty-two homes and businesses, cell-phone based audio tour content provides visitors with deeper insight into the stories of several of the homes. Activities within the exhibit include an interactive glossary of architectural terms that invites visitors to test their knowledge, a photo-matching game, and a gallery-wide activity using movement to study what surrounds us.

This exhibition contains cell phone-based audio tour content. Click to hear a sample >

Exhibition made possible by Old House Parts Company. Additional support provided by Cape Arundel Inn.

Renovations Revealed!
March 7, 2009 - ongoing

This exhibit presents the nearly 200-year history of the museum’s buildings and invites you to explore their recent structural renovations through artifacts, more than 40 construction photos, materials…and the very buildings themselves! Out of the basements, through the walls and into the attics, you’ll discover what powderpost beetles can do, how nails are made, and why there are now three steel beams in the buildings. Finally, in a section on "Basement Archaeology," see a number of items—from an early light bulb to an unique patent medicine bottle—uncovered by the construction crews.

This exhibition is made possible by the Museum's proud business partners: Jeffrey A. Bonney, CFP^®, Captain Lord Mansion, Cole Harrison Insurance, and Ocean Bank.