ROCKPORT – Maine Coast Artists’ Center for Maine Contemporary Art received a $2,000 New Century Community Arts and Heritage Grant from the Maine Arts Commission and the Maine Humanities Council in support of “Photographing Maine: 1840-2000, The First Century.”

This grant helps pay for the costs of reproducing photographs from the Library of Congress for inclusion in the landmark exhibit, which opened last month and will run through Dec. 2.

It includes more than 200 photographs taken between the 1840s and 1940.

Some of these artists were well known in their day, but have largely been forgotten.

The New Century Arts and Heritage program is a public-private partnership made possible through Maine’s New Century Community Program. The New Century Community Program is a collaborative initiative of seven state cultural organizations, providing matching grants and technical assistance to Maine communities.

Funded by the people of Maine, the program seeks to assist towns in developing their cultural and educational resources. The Maine Humanities Council is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Mainers discover the power and pleasure of ideas.

The council offers grants in history, community arts and heritage, literature and literacy, and contemporary issues. The Maine Arts Commission is a state agency working to bring arts of all types to Maine. The commission works to advance the arts by supplying services and funding to artists and arts organizations.

Maine Coast Artists is at 162 Russell Ave. in Rockport.

For information call 236-2875 or visit the Web site at www.artsmaine.org