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V O L . X X I V N O. X M AY 1 4 , 2 0 1 8 14 W hen artist omas Cole, one of the founders of the Hudson River school of painting, traveled to Mount Desert Island in the 1840s to paint it, the area was a wilderness. Cole's patrons from away, though, soon were traveling downeast to see it for themselves. ink of it as Maine's first arts and culture tourism marketing. Tourism in the state has steadily risen, from 25 million in 2016 to 26.2 million in 2017. While the top visi- tor attractions are related to food, shopping and sightseeing, accord- ing to the Maine Office of Tourism, there's an increasing effort to mar- ket arts and culture as part of the state's appeal. "I think of Maine as a place where nature and culture meet," says Suzette McAvoy, director and curator of the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland. e CMCA won the 2018 Governor's Award for Tourism Excellence last month, the state's top tourism award. McAvoy says the center is a natural fit with Maine tourism. "I think when tourists come to Maine, they want to experience a sense of place," McAvoy says. "Its natural beauty has attracted artists for more than a century and it's resulted in this incredible legacy of art." She says that aside from some national urban venues, "No state has impacted art more than Maine." Since its move, the CMCA has started marketing itself to the travel industry. Chris Fogg, CEO of the Maine Tourism Association, says that market- ing what the state has to offer to poten- tial visitors is changing: "It's not just the usual tourist attractions, people are seeing there's more [to the state]." 'We have the story' Hundreds of miles north, the aim is similar, though it's more of a struggle, says Sheila Jans, a cultural consultant in Madawaska. Jans was part of a group that formed the international Voici the Valley International Cultureway in 2007, which promoted the cultural assets of the St. John River valley in both Aroostook County and New Brunswick. at effort led to development of the state's first cultural byway in 2014, the St. John Valley Cultural Byway. While resources are hard to come by in Maine's largest and most northern county, Jans says the unique attraction of the rich mix of Acadian, French-Canadian, Scotch-Irish and native heritage, its 14 museums and dozens of historic sites, as well as its unspoiled natural beauty, are what many visitors are looking for. One example is the Musee Culturel du Mont-Carmel in Lille, a former basilica, which houses the largest collec- tion of Acadian and French-Canadian artifacts in the U.S., one of the crown jewels on the St. John Cultural byway. Jans said that because the region doesn't have a strong entity to promote it widely, marketing often comes from outside organizations. e Madawaska area co-hosted the World Acadian Conference in 2014, attended by more than 10,000 people, spread through northern Maine, Quebec and New Brunswick. Leveraging the cultural assets of the region is key to sustainable tour- ism. "We don't have the resources, but we have the story," Jans says. "It's a combination of culture and place that is really authentic," she says. "is isn't about a revival, it's about our culture." P H O T O / DAV E C L O U G H Suzette McAvoy, director and curator of the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, says of Maine's visitors, 'they want to experience a sense of place. [Maine's] natural beauty has attracted artists for more than a century and it's resulted in this incredible legacy of art.' TOTAL ESTIMATED TOURISM VISITATION S O U R C E : Maine Office of Tourism 2017 Visitor Tracking Research/prepared by DPA, Portland 2016 total visitors: 25,067,053 2016 overnight visitors: 9,598,991 2016 day visitors: 15,468,062 2017 total visitors: 26,187,928 (+4.5%) 2017 overnight visitors: 10,403,013 (+8.4%) 2017 day visitors: 15,784,915 (+2.0%) A sense of place B y M a u R e e n M i l l i k e n Tourism: Maine arts-and-cultural attractions entice visitors to look beyond lobsters and lighthouses

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