Dunes Opens Pop-Up Fundraiser Exhibition at Old Port Square

Dunes, a contemporary art gallery in Portland, has opened a pop-up gallery at Old Port Square, bringing a large-scale fundraiser exhibition featuring work by more than 50 artists to 200 Middle Street, Suite 201.

Local real estate development, investment, and management company, East Brown Cow, is making the 7,500-square-foot space available to Dunes during a pivotal transition for the gallery. The pop-up will allow Dunes to present an exhibition at a scale not typically seen by an independent gallery, while allowing it to raise funds for its new permanent home at 144 Fore Street in Portland’s East End.

The exhibition features work across a range of media and price points, with participating artists contributing pieces to support Dunes’ mission. The lineup includes work by Katherine Bradford, Anne Buckwalter, Jarid Del Deo, Hilary Irons, Miles Huston, Lauren Luloff, Eric Palgon, Carla Weeks, Carmen Winant and others.

“Dunes is exactly the kind of creative use we want to support at Old Port Square—something distinctive that gives people a new reason to come into the district, explore and stay awhile,” said Jacob Soley, Director of Development, East Brown Cow. “At the same time, this pop-up provides Dunes with an opportunity to build support for a long-term vision that will contribute to Portland’s arts community well beyond Old Port Square.”

The exhibition coincides with the $90,000 Dunes 2.0 Build Out Fundraiser, a tax-deductible crowdfunding campaign supporting construction, architectural and engineering costs, and other expenses associated with Dunes’ new permanent gallery. Proceeds from the Old Port Square exhibition will provide additional support for the build-out.

“This pop-up gives us a rare opportunity to present Dunes at a scale we normally couldn’t and to connect the artists we work with to new audiences,” said Boru O’Brien O’Connell, founder of Dunes. “Old Port Square is an especially exciting setting for that, because it puts the gallery in the middle of an active part of the city —where people can encounter contemporary art whether they came looking for it, or simply happened upon it. That kind of discovery is central to what we’re building with Dunes, and it’s meaningful that this temporary space can help us realize that vision in our permanent home.”

The Dunes pop-up also advances the broader vision for Old Port Square as a place where arts, culture and community experiences are integrated into the everyday life of the district. Alongside its growing mix of shopping, dining, hospitality and publicly accessible open space, East Brown Cow has prioritized programming and creative uses that give people new reasons to visit, gather and experience the Old Port.

The pop-up fundraiser exhibition opened at 200 Middle Street, Suite 201, on Friday, August 28. Additional exhibitions, books and programming may be presented during Dunes’ temporary residency.

For its permanent location, Dunes has signed a lease for a 1,600-square-foot former industrial warehouse at 144 Fore Street, where it plans to open an expanded gallery and Dunes Forum, a new reading room, project space and coffee counter.

Designed by West Main Workshop, the New York-based design-build practice of artist Miles Huston, Dunes’ new home will expand on the gallery’s existing model of bringing nationally and internationally recognized artists into conversation with emerging and under-recognized artists from Maine and across New England. Dunes Forum will build on the gallery’s incorporation of books and other programming to create an everyday destination for art, ideas, conversation and discovery.

To learn more about Dunes and the exhibition, visit dunes.fyi.

Tax-deductible contributions to the Dunes 2.0 Build Out Fundraiser can be made through October 1 at https://app.thefield.org/home/donation/crowd/preview/657/Dunes-2-0-Build-Out-Fundraiser.