LEWISTON — Todd McIntosh has the sign “There is a way” taped to his office door at McIntosh & Company Cabinetmakers in Lewiston’s Hill Mill.

A photograph of McIntosh, his crew and his dog hangs in the Maine College of Art’s June Fitzpatrick Gallery in Portland, next to a shot of that sign, in the college’s new “Made in LA” exhibit.

Clearly, he’s found a way.

“He’s doing $500,000 kitchens down in Massachusetts,” said Beckie Conrad, MECA’s vice president of institutional advancement, during an early tour of the exhibit, which opens Friday. “He did a two-story closet with an elevator in it. He could be anywhere. He wants to be in Lewiston-Auburn because he loves the old mill space where he works, he loves the community of people. It was a theme through all of this: You can be in L-A, you can do business worldwide.”

The new exhibit, MECA’s first time focused on a community, highlights the work of 12 Twin Cities businesses, showing off creativity, innovation and design in a mix of photographs and samples.

For high-end purse company SofiaFima, it’s half a dozen purses in various stages of production. For Elmet Technologies, it’s a tall, curious silver pot with a wide rim.

“This was a huge project to grow synthetic sapphires which are used in the end for technology that we all have in our hands right now,” said Erin Hutton, director of exhibitions and special projects at the Institute of Contemporary Art, pointing to the pot. Synthetic sapphires are used in the creation of strong, break-resistant screens for smartphones. 

Three mannequins in the gallery wear Fashionuji designs created by 20-year-old Sahro Hassan.

“Her conundrum was she wanted to go to the prom and she couldn’t find clothing that was appropriate for her religion and festive enough to be at the prom, so she decided to start a clothing line,” Conrad said. “Look at this design — it’s gorgeous. I love this story. Again, solved a problem — created a business out of it.”

Conrad, a Bates College grad who lives in Auburn and is vice chairman of the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council board, said the idea for the college-cities collaboration began last fall. 

“We’re a private college, but we really do believe we have a role to play in Maine’s economy,” Conrad said. “This is an amazing community that is driving design and innovation in ways that people need to know about — that’s the message of the show. And we teach design and innovation, so let’s figure out how MECA can make this story more widely known.”

Officials from the college, LAEGC and both cities helped select the companies. Each received a site visit. MECA student Kyle Dubay shot all the photos.

“(At Bourgeois Guitars), the only thing we couldn’t photograph was the order board and they were stacked up very deep,” Conrad said. “They’re working with some woods that even aren’t available anymore. This is one of the highest-quality guitars being made in the world right now.”

Also featured are EllieAnna Purse Co., Globe Footwear, Maine Thread Co., Modula Inc., Neokraft Signs, Rancourt & Co. Shoecrafters and Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers.  

MECA, which has just under 500 students, also benefits from the exhibit, Conrad said. In each of the companies, students can see how they can use their degrees, along with the potential for internships, she said.

This spring, Kyle Rancourt, a third-generation shoemaker, taught a class at the college for the first time on shoemaking in MECA’s textile and fashion design program, which had students touring Rancourt’s Lewiston shop.

“We know Lewiston-Auburn has a rich history,” Conrad said. “We didn’t want it to be a retrospective of Lewiston-Auburn — we really wanted to be looking for the future and confirming that L-A as a community of makers is alive and well and really thriving. We have to start just broadcasting that.

“The world we live in in the art college realm is hungry for communities like this and we have one 35 miles north of here we feel deserved to be showcased,” she said.

The exhibit, which was curated by Nikki Rayburn, will have an opening reception Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. It will continue through July 31. The gallery’s regular hours are Wednesday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission is free.

The college is at 522 Congress St. in Portland.

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