AUGUSTA -- Alison Ferris, the former curator of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, was named assistant director of the Maine Arts Commission today.

Ferris spent 12 years at Bowdoin. With the state arts agency, she primarily will oversee human resources and budgetary concerns.

"The Maine Arts Commission is thrilled to welcome Alison Ferris as its new assistant director," agency director Donna McNeil said in a statement. "Alison's depth of curatorial experience, her knowledge of Maine's cultural landscape and her work at the Kohler Foundation, that connected blue collar folks with artists, make her a valuable resource as we establish Maine's cultural assets as an integral economic driver during these challenging times."

Along with former museum director Katy Kline, Ferris helped install all the art at Bowdoin when the museum reopened in fall 2007.

"I am delighted to have this opportunity to devote my time, energy, and expertise to the Maine Arts Commission," Ferris said in a statement. "This agency, under the directorship of Donna McNeil, has done inspiring work supporting and advocating for the arts and artists in Maine, and I am proud to be a member of her team. I believe that fostering the human imagination is crucial, especially now that we, as a state and as a nation, must radically re-imagine our future."

Outside of her curatorial duties, Ferris was a key participant in the Maine Print Project in 2006, a statewide collaboration of 25 art institutions.

For eight years before moving to Maine, Ferris worked in curatorial positions at two alternative art spaces: Film in the Cities in St. Paul, Minn., and the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisc.

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