Art and activism make an interesting mix.

Certainly, it’s easier to get your message across if you can back it with strong visual appeal. A few weeks ago, a group of residents came out to protest the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Wells Water District’s decision to engage in talks with Poland Springs about selling the bottler some of its resources.

Several people showed up with hand-made signs – a noble effort, and perhaps effective. But Carroll Berg outdid himself.

Berg, a 2007 graphic design graduate of the Maine College of Art, made a handsome poster in response to another civic controversy in York County, the proposed relocation of the York Toll Plaza. He designed a poster with strong visual elements and big, block type: “York Toll Plaza: Fight the Toll.”

The poster is somewhat reminiscent of the work of another Maine artist, the legendary Robert Indiana of Vinalhaven.

It’s the second time Berg has spoken out visually. In 2006, he developed a poster and sticker campaign in response to an incinerator debate in Biddeford.

The way Berg sees it, he’s just doing what he was trained to do. “I was trying to use the posters as a way of grabbing people’s attention,” he told a MECA colleague.

In addition to placing the posters on the windshields of legislators’ cars in Augusta, Berg has distributed the posters throughout York County.

Berg has personal motivation for the fight. His family once lost its land and livelihood to eminent domain in Massachusetts.

I tried killing it, but it just wouldn’t die.

In truth, I gave this blog up for dead several weeks ago, mostly because I wanted to give it some space and myself some time to think about what the blog should be. When this blog began, I intended it to be a catch-all for arts news and info. Fact is, that wasn’t realistic, for any number of reasons -- lack of focus first among them.

Instead, what I hope to create with this blog is a dialogue. I will present the topics, with some news and analysis, and then leave it up to others to create the thread.

I had coffee this morning with Alice Spencer, a local artist and outgoing chair of the Portland Public Art Committee. Spencer remains on the public art committee, but has turned chairmanship over to long-serving member Jack Soley.

Soley is battle tested, having served on the committee during its very public thrashings over Hadlock Field and Boothby Square.

The committee’s next project involves the installation of Vivian Beer’s sculpture at Winslow Park at the Back Cove. Crews will install two pieces, “Cloud Bench” and “Rustle,” beginning Tuesday.

The committee has about $50,000 in new funding at its discretion, and so far has not begun discussions about how best to spend it, Spencer said.

Meanwhile, a different public art project in Portland has won national attention. “MoonTide Garden” by Mags Harries and Lajos Heder, recently completed at the new Ocean Gateway marine terminal, was among 45 public art projects in the U.S. to win recognition at the Americans for the Arts conference in Philadelphia.

David Farmer, interim president and CEO of the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport, tells me the gallery has ruled out a move to another community. “Our board has made a commitment to the building,” Farmer said, putting to rest persistent rumors that CMCA was bound for a new home. Farmer plans to apply for grants to study how best to ensure the long-term structural integrity of the building.

Don Holder, the lone Maine winner at this year’s Tony Awards, attributes his success in theater to the training he received at the University of Maine, Orono. Holder graduated from Orono in 1980 with a degree in forestry, but was active in the performing arts.

He won a Tony Award, his second, for his lighting work on “South Pacific.” He won previously for his work on “The Lion King.”

Holder, 50, studied with Al Cyrus, the late design profession at UMO.

“To this day, the stuff I learned from him is still very much a part of how I think about light and how I organize my ideas. It all goes back to those years when I was an undergrad watching Al design,” Holder said by phone from New York.

He remains astonished by his success.

“It didn’t seem that long that I was the young up-and-coming kid, who was doing very well. Now I’m a bit more of an established member of the Broadway community,” he said.

The University of Maine Museum of Art has hired George Kinghorn as its new director.

Kinghorn, who most recently served as deputy director and chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville in Florida, begins his new post June 9.

“The museum in downtown Bangor is a beautifully designed, intimate space. I’m very excited about the opportunity there,” Kinghorn said by phone from Florida. “I am interested in this position largely because of my background is education. I taught visual arts at the university level, and the opportunity to once again be associated with a university and a campus and able to interact with students is particularly appealing.”

Kinghorn, 40, said he was looking forward to living in a northern climate. Although he was born in Florida, he has lived in Michigan and in Minnesota.

“I’m an outdoorsy type person. The personal opportunity of being able to go out in nature and do a little kayaking and canoeing is going to be a nice change from the Florida environment, where it is so ridiculously hot,” he said.

Kinghorn was instrumental in opening MOCA Jacksonville’s six-floor, 60,000-square-foot facility. He also led a subsequent renovation of the museum’s galleries.

During his nine-year tenure, MOCA Jacksonville opened a children’s interactive center, ArtExplorium Loft, and Café Nola, an upscale bistro. In addition, he added significant works to the permanent collection, implemented a comprehensive strategic plan and created a collections management master plan, which redefined the scope of the collection.

Laurie Hicks, the interim director of the University of Maine Museum of Art and an art professor at UMaine, praised Kinghorn’s experience, enthusiasm and vision.

“The museum is a vital, alive place,” Hicks said in a statement. “What George can bring to it is the ability to make that vitality and possibility a reality. He has a great track record of having a vision and making it happen, and that was important to us.”

Kinghorn said his vision for the museum includes community outreach and collaborations with faculty and students, and he hopes to increase the museum’s visibility statewide.

He believes the museum can play a larger role in Bangor’s evolution as a cultural destination, and that with his expertise in contemporary art, the museum can become a central gathering spot for Maine’s contemporary art scene.

Kinghorn’s arrival in Maine coincides with the fifth anniversary of the museum’s move to downtown Bangor.

While the Bangor museum is much smaller than MOCA Jacksonville, its size lends itself to an intimate experience for visitors. “It has great flexibility. We can do three to four very different types of exhibitions simultaneously to really provide things that appeal to the tastes of a wide audience,” he said.

Kinghorn succeeds longtime director Wally Mason, who led the museum’s move off campus. During his time at UMaine from 1996 to late 2007, Mason significantly added to the permanent collection of works on paper, building on the tradition set by the museum’s founder, Vincent Hartgen.

“Wally Mason really built the foundation for this museum,” Hicks said. “Now it’s time for the museum to set a path for itself and work to become the museum it has the potential to be, to really try to do things that make it stand out even more than it already does.”