A LANDMARK

GLOW UP
Behind The Winslow Homer
Studio’s Reopening

It’s hard to imagine the PMA without the Winslow Homer

Studio, but for the past four years, that’s exactly what
happened. Closed in 2019 to enable a major reinterpretation,
Winslow Homer’s home and studio on Prouts Neck was
poised to reopen in 2020. We all know what happened next.

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 “We tried to remove things that felt didactic and tried
to make it more immersive and like a space that Homer
would have actually lived and worked in.”

This summer, for the first time since opening the studio to the public in 2012, we premiered a new
Winslow Homer Studio Tour experience—one with modern amenities, interactive activities, and
immersive experiences that will help you connect more deeply with the stunning landscape of
Prouts Neck and Homer’s artistic legacy.
Christian Adame, the Peggy L. Osher Director of Learning and Community Collaboration, sat down
with the PMA’s Stephanie Visciglia to share more about what it took to reimagine the studio and
bring tours back to Prouts Neck.
STEPHANIE VISCIGLIA: The Winslow Homer Studio has been closed
since fall 2019, but is coming back with a new interpretation plan,
which is very exciting. How did this all come about?
CHRISTIAN ADAME: We’ve had the studio for over 10 years, and we
felt it was time to refresh the way the content is presented. We
want the experience to align more with our mission, strategic plan,
and how the Learning and Community Collaboration department
approaches interpretation. We also wanted to broaden the
accessibility of the content and focus the narrative on Winslow
Homer’s time specifically at Prouts Neck, not try to cover his whole
life biography or career in the span of two hours.

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SV: Can you tell me about the process and steps involved in creating
the new tour experience?
CA: We gathered data and feedback from multiple sources to inform
this reinterpretation. At the museum, we hosted a Cannon Rock
session—a gathering of scholars—back in 2018 to think about what
a refreshed or reinterpreted Studio could look like. We collected
visitor feedback in the workshop space of the museum for about six
months and collected around 500 responses.
We observed several tours at the Studio in the summer of 2019 and
did a collation of how those tours went from the guide perspective,
54 P O R T L A N D M U S E U M of A R T
“Our specific from our perspective, and from the visitor perspective. We wanted
to make sure that we were thinking about the space with an
challenge is that informed mindset and a set of data in order to be more responsive
to what people want.
we don’t have a lot
of original objects We attended the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios Conference
in 2019, which was a chance to see how other historic artist homes
that survived from and museums were interpreting their spaces. It was an opportunity
to get a sense of what was out there and to hone in on our specific
Homer’s time at opportunities and challenges with the Homer Studio with space and
the Studio. How do with layout. We did over 35 site visits of those historic artists’ homes
and studios to see the spaces but also to talk with our colleagues
we tell a rich, full, there and see how they were working through their challenges.
robust story of SV: What was the biggest takeaway from your experiences at these
historic sites, homes, and studios you visited?
this person when
we don’t have a CA: It was interesting to see which stories different sites told about
the artists. It was really fascinating to see the range of experiences:
lot of surviving some of them were so detailed on processes while others were
focused on covering the entire life story.
objects in our
possession?”
The one space we got the most from was Olana, the historic home
of the artist Frederic Edwin Church in New York. Church traveled
around the world and his house was filled with a bonanza of items
that he collected through his travels. As far as your eyes can see,
those walls are covered in every direction.
Our specific challenge is that we don’t have a lot of original objects
that survived from Homer’s time at the Studio. How do we tell a
rich, full, robust story of this person when we don’t have a lot of
surviving objects in our possession? It was great to see other spaces
that have the same challenge, or the opposite challenge, where
they have so much and how they manage that. It was fascinating to
see how each space adapted to their challenges, but also how they
PMA Members enjoy a 35% thought about preservation while still keeping things modern and
discount on Winslow Homer
accessible for people.
Studio Tour tickets! Tour dates
are available now through
November 12, 2023. Visit There are so many surviving spaces like this in New England and in
portlandmuseum.org/homer our country, which was a great reminder that these are important
or call 207-775-6148 to book places to preserve to be able to tell these artists’ stories. These are
your tour today. important things to save.
P M A M A G A Z I N E • 2023 / Volume 2 55
 SV: Besides the space itself, guides are a huge part of the tour Everyone is going to receive a printed Field Guide that will include
experience. Are there any changes to how tours will be led at the THE NEW TOUR Custom soundscape: biographical and contextual information about Winslow Homer that
Homer Studio? EXPERIENCE have a more immersive people are curious about. There’s a map of Prouts Neck, notes on
FEATURES sensory experience flora and fauna, and a reproduction of a Weatherbeaten they can
CA: The guides are undergoing a new training centered around of how Homer lived hold up when they’re at the site that he painted it. There are also
the focused narrative of Homer with the goal to create more and worked in Maine spaces for notes and sketches for part of the tour experience.
Gallery visit: visit
visitor-driven tour experience. through the sounds in
Homer’s 1894 painting
his Studio
Weatherbeaten, which Upstairs in the Studio, visitors will be able to think more about
One example is the living space: we have all these new objects on was created at Prouts Homer in context with a timeline of major events in Homer’s life. An
the wall. We’re going to ask visitors to start in that space together, Neck, before boarding illustrated family tree shows all of Homer’s relationships because they
pick an object in that room, sketch it, and write questions about the Homer van
were important to thinking about how we told the story in the space.
it in their field guide. Then they will come together and talk about Field Guide: to use There’s also going to be a wall showing the photography we have of
what they noticed. Beginning conversations that way rather than for self-exploration, Homer in that space and his constituencies.
someone standing in front of a monitor and saying, “Here’s the reference, and activities
life story of Homer.” Flipping that to be more visitor-driven and while at the Studio There will be an activity where folks can write letters in
responsive to the groups will be a nice and welcome change. Improved amenities: Letter writing activity: correspondence to Homer, reflecting on their experience. Examples
includes more seating, read or listen to audio of letters Homer wrote to the people in his life will be there and
SV: What other changes can visitors get excited about for the new walking sticks, umbrellas, recordings of a selection can be listened to aloud on sound sticks. Books on the land itself,
Winslow Homer Studio Tour? and binoculars to use of letters written to/ geology, and some nautical objects that Homer collected, as well as a
during your tour from Homer land acknowledgment statement, will be there for people to explore.
CA: One new addition that visitors can expect is starting their tour
Updated studio lighting:
in the galleries at Homer’s painting Weatherbeaten to inform where see Homer’s objects and We’ll have improved visitor amenities–more seating and walking
they’re headed physically. We’re centering our conversation on the handwriting on walls sticks. We’ll have binoculars so people can check out the scenery
landscape, so once they get to Prouts Neck, they’ll start the tour by better illuminated in of Prouts Neck and the oceanscape from the second floor. The new
going down to the Cliff Walk to experience the environment where the space experience allows more time for self-guiding and free-roaming
Homer painted these crashing waves. around the space and within the Studio itself. There’s a lot of
changes, but I think a lot of really exciting ones.
There are more reproduced artworks and objects on view at the
Studio. You’ll see examples of paintings Homer created while at Overall, it’s going to be more immersive, more environmental, and
Prouts Neck, including one displayed on a reproduction of his work trying to bring Homer’s presence, his making, and the realities of
easel. There will be some areas where you can touch and learn about that space a bit more alive when folks move through it.
the different materials and processes that he used at the studio–
printmaking, watercolor, and sketching, in addition to painting. New reproductions
and installations: learn
We created an immersive soundscape, which is going to heighten more about the artistic
the sensory environment. It’ll bring the space alive with what would processes that Homer This reinstallation is made possible by the Berger Collection Education Trust, the Morton-Kelly
practiced during his Charitable Trust, and the Pinkerton Foundation in honor of George J. Gillespie III.
have resonated in those spaces–Homer’s dog barking, the sounds
years at Prouts Neck Individual Support: The official outfitter of the
of him cooking in the living space, etching into the glass of the and what inspired him to More self-exploration Janice G. Hunt Winslow Homer Studio Tour Experience
window, the sound of paint on canvas, footsteps, the train at Prouts create his oil paintings, time: have more time to Louis Matis and Anthony Calamusa
Neck station. We tried to remove things that felt didactic, that felt prints, watercolors, explore the Cliff Walk
Installation materials are supported
museum-y, and tried to make it more immersive and like a space and drawings and Studio in part by Lila Hunt Davies and the Media support generously provided
that Homer would have actually lived and worked in. Roy A. Hunt Foundation. by our creative video partner, p3.

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