Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 21 J U N E 1 5 , 2 0 2 6 F O C U S L E W I S T O N / A U B U R N / W E S T E R N M A I N E e museum partners in several major community development pro- grams, including Franco Trail L-A, which promotes historic sites, and also ties in with a New England tour that stretches to Rhode Island. $15M capital campaign e project is the culmination of a $15 million capital campaign that drew contributions from individual donors, foundations and local, state, federal and institutional partners. e money includes operating reserves for the first two years. Ferrante came to Maine MILL in 2021 after 11 years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where she rose to exhibition project manager. Ferrante led the institution's rebranding from Museum L-A to Maine MILL, expanded its digi- tal presence and directed the capital campaign to build the museum's new permanent home. A father's toolbox e collection began with salvaged machinery and artifacts saved by com- munity members when the last textile mill closed in 2001. As word spread, more objects came in, expanding to include other industries and stories. Highlights include locally produced textiles, machinery involved in local pro- duction, personal items and tools owned by the mill workers and photographs of mill work and social life. Most artifacts were found in Lewiston and Auburn's deserted mills, salvaged on their way to the dump or donated by former textile workers and their families. "Recently, somebody donated their father's toolbox that was used while they worked in the Bates Mill complex for 30 years," says Ferrante. "e toolbox was fully intact. We didn't have that in our collection." For the shoe industry, corporate and individual donors contributed shoe shop machinery, tools, shoe lasts, products and promotional materials, most representing the last 50 years of the industry. Brickmaking artifacts represent another long history — the nature of the work, using few tools, changing little over hundreds of years; ironically, the industry producing the longest-lasting monuments left the least evidence of its existence. ere are hundreds of recorded inter- views and oral histories told by people who lived and labored in the region. At Rancourt & Co., father and son both contributed oral histories to the museum, which also has some of the company's shoemaking tools. "I'm happy to tell that story," Michael Rancourt says. "ere are a lot of young people who try to understand how they can get into being makers and manufac- turers and entrepreneurs." Laurie Schreiber, Mainebiz senior writer, can be reached at lschreiber @ mainebiz.biz Donate today at campaignforendinghunger.org Every Mainer deserves access to healthy, culturally relevant food. During National Hunger Awareness Month and throughout the year, Maine credit unions and their members are raising critical funds to help end hunger across our state. By putting the credit union philosophy of People Helping People into action, the Campaign for Ending Hunger is changing lives, one meal at a time. United to Help End Hunger in Maine. Recently, somebody donated their father's toolbox that was used while they worked in the Bates Mill complex for 30 years. — Rachel Ferrante Maine MILL P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F M A I N E M I L L Cote Crane was brought in to move the Jacquard loom in sections out the window of the second floor of the museum's original location.

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