NORWAY — The 2016 Norway Arts Festival will honor the work of renowned sculptor Bernard Langlais, whose work recently found a permanent home in the community.

 

Festival Director Judy Schneider said Norway is on the Langlais Art Trail, a collection of 56 nonprofit organizations that offer Langlais’ work in different settings. The trail stretches from Portland to Presque Isle.

 

Photographer and community activist Scott Vlaun will present a free public lecture at 7 p.m. Friday, July 8, at Norway Memorial Library. Vlaun will educate the community about Langlais and formally kick off the 2016 festival.

 

Vlaun will begin by describing the personal connection he made with Langlais while studying art at Unity College. Last fall, Vlaun played a key role in the original concrete and stone base for the sculpture “Mrs. Noah” at Shepard’s Farm Preserve on Crockett Ridge Road.

 

“After it was badly damaged during transit, the whole thing needed to be pieced back together and reinforced with concrete and rebar. When I visited Langais as an art student I was envious of the interns he had helping him with his work. Forty years later, I was finally able to help him out,” Vlaun said.

 

“Mrs. Noah” is one of six pieces installed at Shepard’s Farm Preserve, a 20-acre high ridge of land donated to the Western Foothills Land Trust by the Detert family in 2010. “Owl,” “Cat,” “Birds,” “Bird Houses” and “Bird in Flight” also appear to guard the landscape that is open to the public for recreation. In addition, “Painted Horse” and “Painted Cow” are installed at Roberts Farm and several smaller pieces grace the walls of the warming hut at that site.

 

A native of Old Town, Langlais began his career as a painter in the 1950s. While renovating a cottage in Cushing, he began “painting with wood” to create mosaic-like wall compositions that met with immediate success. He abandoned the New York City art scene and moved back to Maine, where he created a massive number of sculptures, most of which celebrated animals from the jungle, forest, farm and fantasy.