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.