Bangor

Senior Center art show

The Hammond Street Senior Center will hold its second annual art show beginning Tuesday, Aug. 3, in the Stairwell Gallery at Bangor Public Library. The show will continue throughout the month.

Hammond Street Senior Center artists are at least 60 years old and many have had no formal art training before enrolling at art classes at the senior center.

Sidewalk art festival

Downtown Bangor will be filled with artists during the 15th annual WLBZ 2 Sidewalk Art Festival from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 7. Festival planners expect more than 20,000 to attend. The festival features art and photography and is one of the largest art festivals in Maine.

Broad Street from Main Street to Water Street will be closed to vehicles on that day.

Rain date for the art festival is Sunday Aug. 8.

Opera participant

Ashley Emerson of Bangor will perform as a chorus member in PORTopera’s dual productions of “Cavallaria Rusticana” and “Pagliacci” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, July 29-30, at Portland’s Merrill Auditorium. Call PortTix, 842-0800 for ticket information.

Bucksport

Magician Bruce Johnson

Gateway Arts for Kids will sponsor Bangor magician Bruce Johnson at 3 p.m. Tuesday, July 27, at the Alamo Theater on Main Street.

Gateway Arts programs are made possible by the support of the Bucksport Recreation Department, the Orland Recreation Committee, the Bucksport PTA and International Paper.

Corinth

50th class reunion

The Class of 1954, East Corinth Academy, will hold its 50th year class reunion 4-6 p.m. Saturday, July 31, at the Methodist Church annex in Corinth. A supper will be served at 6 p.m.

A picnic for alumni of all graduating classes of the academy will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 1, at the home of Joanne VanDine Fontaine, 28 McCard Road, Corinth. Call 285-3282 to obtain more information.

Dedham

Open Farm Day

Peaked Mountain Farm will be one of more than 80 farms in Maine participating in the Maine Department of Agriculture’s Open Farm Day 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, July 25.

Peaked Farm grows low bush blueberries and recently received a Farms for the Future grant, which will be used to assist its production capabilities.

Activities at the farm on Open Farm Day will include:

. A blueberry harvest demonstration at 10 a.m.

. A reading of “Ellery Didn’t Know That,” a book written on and about the farm, at 11 a.m. Free books will be given to the first 25 children to attend the reading.

. Fresh pack line demonstration at noon.

. Open bee hive demonstration and a nature walk up the mountain at 1 p.m.

In addition, a new blueberry product will be introduced during the day’s events and a real live blueberry character will be on hand, along with members of the Dedham Historical Society and the Tri-County Beekeepers Association. There is no admission fee for the event.

To obtain more information, call 843-6484, or visit www.mainemade.com.

Holden

Grant to fire department

The Holden Fire Department received a $21,740 grant to be used for operations and firefighter safety in the seventh round of the federal government’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program. The program is administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in cooperation with the department’s United States Fire Administration.

Orono

Page Farm picnic

As more than 80 Maine farms open their doors to the public for tours on Open Farm Day, July 25, the University of Maine’s Page Farm and Home Museum will hold a traditional community picnic lunch, featuring old-time games and how to make homemade ice cream. This is the ninth year that the museum has offered a companion program celebrating rural Maine farm life and offering the public a taste of old-fashioned life, said Page Farm Director Patricia Henner. The event is free.

“It’s a lot of fun for us,” she said. “We traditionally have a community picnic on Open Farm Day. It’s one of those things we do to promote the program, and so people can reflect on some of the community values that people held in Maine.”

The Page Farm and Home Museum, on the Orono campus, features exhibits, tours, special events and information about agricultural and rural living in Maine between 1865 and 1940.

In addition to games for young and old, including horseshoes, bean bag toss, croquet and a three-legged race, the annual picnic also is a time for families “to come see demonstrations of old crafts and to feel involved in the community and meet friends and neighbors and mix fun with education,” Henner said.

The day starts at 11 a.m., rain or shine, with lunch at noon and the ice cream making demonstration – and sampling – at 1 p.m. While the museum provides free beverages and some desserts, participants are asked to bring a dish to share, a casserole or salad, for instance, Henner said. She suggests bringing a lawn chair or blanket.

“If it rains, we’re going to move the picnic indoors, like we did last year,” she said. Traditionally, between 100 and 150 people attend.

New exhibits and demonstrations at the museum include soap making, spinning, blacksmithing, canning and videos of life in bygone days, in addition to the new Maine State Grange exhibit, which Henner believes may be the only one in the country, given the secrecy that historically surrounded the Grange.

Standing exhibits include equipment and vehicles for clearing land, harvesting and storing crops and poultry, dairy, 4-H, ice harvesting, a novel gift shop in an old general store setting and a replica of celebrated Maine cook and cookbook author Brownie Schrump’s kitchen.

More information is available by calling the museum at 581-4100 or visiting www.ume.maine.edu/~pfhm.

Butterflies at the library

The Orono Public Library will be the host for a slide presentation about eastern butterflies given by Jerry Schneider at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, July 27, for preschool to first-grade children; and at 11:30 a.m. the same day for children in grades two and up.

Jerry Schneider is a butterfly enthusiast from Vermont and inventor of the award winning Butterfly Game. At his presentation, children will learn the difference between butterflies and moths, how and why monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico, why butterflies bask in the sun, what “puddling” is and what “hill hopping” is.

Children may create their own butterfly T-shirts as part of the presentation.

Other upcoming library programs include Survivor!, a game for teens about surviving in the Maine wilderness, for grade six and up, 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 3; Little Red Wagon Theater Company production of “The Dancing Spider,” 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 4; and Movie Day for grades 2 and up, 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 11.

Call the library at 866-5060 for more information.

Concert in the park

Julia Lane and Fred Godbee of Castlebay will perform at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 27, in Webster Park. The concert is free. Bring blankets and lawn chairs.

Castlebay will play Celtic tunes and contemporary ballads on Celtic harp, guitar, fiddle and whistles.

The Orono Village Association will provide free snacks drinks and balloons.

Thrift shop

The Orono Thrift Shop and Boutique will hold its annual fill-a-bag-for-a-buck end of summer sale 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesdays, July 21, 28 and Aug. 4, and 11 a.m.-2 p.m. July 24, 31 and Aug. 7.

The store will close Aug. 8-24 for cleaning and to change to winter merchandise.

The store will reopen at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 25. Call 866-2597 to obtain more information.

Orrington

Harp concert

Harpist Kathleen Wychulis will present a concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 25, at East Orrington Congregational Church, 38 Johnson Mill Road. Sponsored by Orrington Olde Home Week, the concert is free to the public. The Orrington Garden Club will serve refreshments during intermission.

The concert will include traditional Irish tunes and works by Britten and Bach. Wychulis, who has performed nationwide, will be joined by her husband, Ross Snyder, in special harp-horn duets.

Snyder is founder and executive director of the Omaha Chamber Music Society. They are the son and daughter-in-law of Orrington residents Lee and Pat Snyder.

Magician Danny Baker

The Orrington Public Library will present a performance by Danny A. Baker, billed as “Maine’s Funniest Magician,” at 2 p.m. Tuesday, July 27, at East Orrington Congregational Church, 38 Johnson Mill Road.

A professional magician and motivational speaker, Baker entertains family audiences with comedy magic, audience participation, sleight-of-hand and illusions.

The free performance is sponsored by Orrington Public Library during the town’s Olde Home Week and is part of the library’s Summer Stories and Crafts program. For more information, call the library at 825-4938.