Forty years ago, the Maine Loon Project was launched to help protect Maine’s iconic loons. Run by Maine Audubon, the project works with residents and partners statewide to promote healthy lakes, clean water, and quality habitat for loons and to understand trends in their population over time.

Join us at the Gilley to discover more about the history, status and future of this project – and how you can help!

Presenters will be Billy Helprin of Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary, Tracy Hart of Maine Audubon, and David Lamon of Audubon Fields Pond.

No fee, but registration required.

Join Miss Amanda from the Southwest Harbor Public Library at the Wendell Gilley Museum for a special bird-themed story time and craft.  1pm.

No registration required and no fee.

Children should bring at least one adult with them.

Join Miss Amanda from the Southwest Harbor Public Library at the Wendell Gilley Museum for a special bird-themed story time and craft.  1pm.

No registration required and no fee.

Children should bring at least one adult with them.

Award-winning artist Barry van Dusen joins us in person for a special two-day painting workshop Sept. 24-25. 

Combining a lifelong interest in nature with a formal art education, Barry has developed a style that acknowledges the importance of science and biology while maintaining the primacy of artistic expression. His paintings have been described as a unique blend of impressionism and realism, and his exhibition paintings always arise from direct personal experience. Built upon a foundation of fieldwork and strong draftsmanship, they are carefully planned but freely executed in a direct and painterly manner. 

The first day of this workshop happens at the Gilley Museum from 9am to 3pm with an hour for lunch; it will be an intensive teaching day. The second day, students will move outside to paint live animal subjects at the Acadia Wildlife Center from 1 to 4:30 p.m.; students will have more time this day to work independently, with tips and assistance from Barry.

Cost is $100 for this two-class session for non-members, and $80 for museum members. Lunch is not included. If you want to sign up for one day only, please contact Director of Engagement Melinda Rice-Schoon directly at mel@wendellgilleymuseum.org.

Mr. van Dusen is an internationally respected wildlife artist whose career has taken him all over the world. His work is frequently chosen for Birds in Art, the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum's prestigious annual juried art show; in 2014 he was chosen by that museum as a Master Wildlife Artist. He is a full member of London's Society of Wildlife Artists, and his work is regularly exhibited worldwide. His articles and paintings have been featured in Bird Watcher's Digest, Birding, and Yankee magazines, and he has illustrated a variety of natural history books and pocket guides in association with the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

He prefers to work in the field, even with difficult subjects such as wild birds. Over the years, he has filled countless sketchbooks with hundreds of drawings done on location. Birds, he says, were his gateway to a passion for nature.

In 2020 he was one of two artists to provide illustrations for the book "Birds of Maine," the first comprehensive overview of Maine’s avian inhabitants in more than seven decades. For another book published in 2020, "Finding Sanctuary: An Artist Explores the Nature of Mass Audubon," he provided all the text as well as the illustrations, based on his visits to all 60 Mass Audubon sites over more than four years.

Join the Wendell Gilley Museum and Seth Benz from Schoodic Institute for a citizen science exploration at Sieur du Monts in Acadia National Park on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 9 to 11:30 a.m. No prior field experience is necessary. This is a learn-by-doing event where your efforts will contribute vital data toward understanding the changing biodiversity of Acadia National Park.

The morning will include a discovery walk on easy trails, and learning to gather data about plants, insects and birds using iNaturalist, Nature's Notebook, and eBird. These are popular tools that make science and data collection accessible to everyone. And October is an important month for plants and wildlife as they migrate and transition for winter.

Seth Benz is Schoodic Institute's Bird Ecology Director. Registration is required and there is a $10 fee per person. Space is limited.

Help kick off the Great Backyard Bird Count with Seth Benz of the Schoodic Institute and the Wendell Gilley Museum on Friday, Feb. 17 from 9 to 11 a.m. at the museum at 4 Herrick Rd. in Southwest Harbor. We’ll cover how to participate in this global event; watch observations roll in from around the world; and we’ll contribute our own observations from Southwest Harbor. This event will combine indoor and outdoor components. No fee, but registration is required at www.wendellgilleymuseum.org/events/

Launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, the Great Backyard Bird Count was the first online citizen-science project to collect data on wild birds, and to display results in near real time. These observations help scientists better understand global bird populations before one of their annual migrations. Birds Canada joined the project in 2009 In 2013, participants began entering data into eBird, the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science project.

Tuesday, Feb. 28 @ 5:30pm ONLINE 

Join the Southwest Harbor Public Library and the Gilley for the first event of Reading with Wings, a pilot program to jointly host author events. We’ll be joined by Steve Burrows, a journalist and birder who combined those two skillsets to write the Bird Murder Mysteries.  The first book in that series, “A Siege of Bitterns,” won the Crime Writers of Canada award for Best First Novel, and was selected as one of the Globe & Mail’s top 100 books of the year. The seventh Birder Murder mystery, “A Foreboding of Petrels,” was published in September 2022. He will join us online for a conversation with the directors of the library and the museum on Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 5:30. This program is free but registration is required. To learn more the author and his books, visit www.steveburrows.org

Flock to the Gilley for a fun and informative few hours with Seth Benz, the bird ecology director at Schoodic Institute. Seth will delve into research and share current sightings and insights. Bring your own questions and curiosity, a favorite bird-related reading, or your latest observations. Depending on weather, the group might go for an optional bird walk outside.

There is no fee for this program, but a museum entrance fee is required. For museum members, museum entry is free. For non-members, the entrance fee is $10 per visit but a one-time Winter Pass is available for $25 and is good through April 30. If you would like to buy a winter pass, you can do so at the museum the day of the program.

Flock to the Gilley for a fun and informative few hours with Seth Benz, the bird ecology director at Schoodic Institute. Seth will delve into research and share current sightings and insights. Bring your own questions and curiosity, a favorite bird-related reading, or your latest observations. Depending on weather, the group might go for an optional bird walk outside.

There is no fee for this program, but a museum entrance fee is required. For museum members, museum entry is free. For non-members, the entrance fee is $10 per visit but a one-time Winter Pass is available for $25 and is good through April 30. If you would like to buy a winter pass, you can do so at the museum the day of the program.

Join the Southwest Harbor Public Library and the Gilley for the second event of Reading with Wings, a pilot program to jointly host author events. We’ll be joined by David George Haskell an award-winning biologist whose most recent book, “Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution’s Creativity, and The Crisis Of Sensory Extinction,” was longlisted for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and was an editor’s choice in the New York Times Book Review. He will join us online for a conversation with the directors of the library and the museum on Tuesday, March 21, at 5:30 p.m. This program is free but registration is required. For more information about this author, visit dghaskell.com

Join Miss Chrissy from the Southwest Harbor Public Library at the Wendell Gilley Museum for a special story time at 2:30pm. Join us for nature stories and some art fun too! She'll be sharing "Birds" by Kevin Henkes & "Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt" by Kate Messner. Then we’ll do some art of our own. Free and open to all.

Flock to the Gilley for a fun and informative few hours with Seth Benz, the bird ecology director at Schoodic Institute. Seth will delve into research and share current sightings and insights. Bring your own questions and curiosity, a favorite bird-related reading, or your latest observations. Depending on weather, the group might go for an optional bird walk outside.

There is no fee for this program, but a museum entrance fee is required. For museum members, museum entry is free. For non-members, the entrance fee is $10 per visit but a one-time Winter Pass is available for $25 and is good through April 30. If you would like to buy a winter pass, you can do so at the museum the day of the program.

Flock to the Gilley for a fun and informative few hours with Seth Benz, the bird ecology director at Schoodic Institute. Seth will delve into research and share current sightings and insights. Bring your own questions and curiosity, a favorite bird-related reading, or your latest observations. Depending on weather, the group might go for an optional bird walk outside.

There is no fee for this program, but a museum entrance fee is required. For museum members, museum entry is free. For non-members, the entrance fee is $10 per visit but a one-time Winter Pass is available for $25 and is good through April 30. If you would like to buy a winter pass, you can do so at the museum the day of the program.

Get started with nature journaling in this workshop at the Gilley on Saturday, April 29, from 10:30am to noon. Scientists, artists, and outdoor enthusiasts all utilize nature journaling, a skill that is accessible to anyone. Using real scientific practices and artistic abandon, participants will walk away with a small nature journal of their own. All materials will be provided. This workshop will be taught by Camp Beech Cliff's Matt Cornish.

“Nature journaling is a wonderful way to engage observational skills, curiosity, and creative thinking,” he says “Regardless of age, people need nature. People also need the time and space to slow down, notice the world around them, and hopefully experience wonder.”

The class meets in person at the Museum. Cost is $10 for museum members and $15 for non-members. Registration required.  

The Wendell Gilley Museum and YWCA of MDI are proud to host American Voice in Poetry and Song III, an exploration of the expressive range of African American composers including Margaret Bonds and John. W. Work III, and poets including Langston Hughes, in a free concert at St. John Episcopal Church in Southwest Harbor. There will be a reception with the performers at the Gilley Museum afterward. This event is free and open to all, but registration is required.

Boston-based Convergence Ensemble will perform this music and poetry through a historic lens along with a discussion of societal issues surrounding social justice and representation in the world of classical music  The performers are singer Davron S. Monroe, poet and literary performer Regie Gibson, and pianist Rachel Gibson.

Convergence Ensemble is a nonprofit organization that presents unusual chamber music programming by supporting a diverse group of musicians. It was founded on the belief that the arts are interdisciplinary—that art, poetry, dance, literature, and music inform one another. The organization prides itself on working not only with musicians but also poets, writers, and literary performers.