ROCKLAND – Artist Will Barnet has been named the recipient of the 2008 Maine in America award, which is given by the Farnsworth Art Museum.

The award, now in its third year, honors an individual or group who has made an outstanding contribution to the understanding of Maine’s role in American art.

Previous winners of the award were John Wilmerding (2006) and Andrew Wyeth (2007).

The award reception will occur during the Maine in America Summer Gala, which will be held June 28 at the museum.

Barnet, who is recognized as one of the world’s foremost painters and printmakers, was born in Beverly, Mass., in 1911 and has visited Maine frequently over the years. His work appears in more than 200 museum collections worldwide, including the Farnsworth, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim and Whitney museums in New York, the National Gallery, Corcoran Gallery and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, the Vatican Museum in Vatican City and the British Museum in London.

His 1975 screenprint “Waiting” is on display in the “Art of the ’70s” exhibition at the Lord Hall Galleries on the University of Maine campus in Orono. The work is part of the University of Maine Museum of Art’s William Venn Carr Jr. collection.

Tickets for the Maine in Summer Gala are $250 per person and all proceeds help support the Farnsworth’s public programs. Dress is cocktail attire. Seating is limited. To make reservations, call 596-6457, ext. 117.