Holiday shopping this year will be even easier! Not only will the Abbe Museum Web Store be available for the holiday season, but we will also be open in person (26 Mount Desert Street, Bar Harbor) on specific days for your unique keepsake shopping experience! Mark your calendar and stay tuned for information about day of discounts and opportunities.
Holiday shopping this year will be even easier! Not only will the Abbe Museum Web Store be available for the holiday season, but we will also be open in person (26 Mount Desert Street, Bar Harbor) on specific days for your unique keepsake shopping experience! Mark your calendar and stay tuned for information about day of discounts and opportunities.
Join us for our last day of the season! Don’t miss your chance to see our two departing exhibits — Mi’kmaw Tepgunsejig - 13 Moons Full Suite by Jordan Bennett & Waponahki Student Art — and maybe grab some candy (no costume required).
You can still visit the Abbe in the off-season by booking a tour or joining us on one of our winter open days. We look forward to seeing you!
Join Curator of Education Christiana Becker on a guided tour of the museum’s exhibits at our downtown location. The tour will examine the Abbe’s core exhibit, People of the First Light, which shares more than 12,000 years of history, conflict, adaptation, and survival in Wabanaki homelands, as well as changing exhibitions that highlight Wabanaki living cultures and art.
Join us on Thursday, September 18, from 12:00 - 2:00 pm for a fun workshop where participants get to create their very own beaded artwork on felt! The best part? You’ll get to take your masterpiece home with you!
Cost: $30 per person; $20 for Abbe members (and that also includes admission to the museum). Day of registration is available. To secure your spot in advance, email educator@abbemuseum.org or call 207-288-3519.
This workshop is perfect for adults and young adults, from middle school age and up. If you’re 16 or younger, we just ask that you bring an adult along to enjoy the experience with you. We can’t wait to see what you create!
Join Curator of Education Christiana Becker on a guided tour of the museum’s exhibits at our downtown location. The tour will examine the Abbe’s core exhibit, People of the First Light, which shares more than 12,000 years of history, conflict, adaptation, and survival in Wabanaki homelands, as well as changing exhibitions that highlight Wabanaki living cultures and art.
Join Curator of Education Christiana Becker on a guided tour of the museum’s exhibits at our downtown location. The tour will examine the Abbe’s core exhibit, People of the First Light, which shares more than 12,000 years of history, conflict, adaptation, and survival in Wabanaki homelands, as well as changing exhibitions that highlight Wabanaki living cultures and art.
As part of our Indigenous Peoples’ Day programming, join us in the Community Gallery to learn about the sacred medicine sweetgrass and how it is culturally and traditionally used. Then create a print from the block template cut by the Abbe’s Curator of Education. You can take your print home.
Third grade and up.
Warning: Ink may not come out of clothes.
Join the Abbe Museum’s Curator of Exhibits & Collections for a special tour: the Abbe Museum in Ten Works.
A close up of Mel Beaulieu’s (Metepenagiag Mi’kmaq) piece The Land That Claims Us
Join us on Indigenous Peoples Day to honor the Wabanaki Nations’ heritage, living cultures, and homelands. Our special programming kicks off with performances by the Inter-Tribal drum group Rez Dogs.
Performances take place on the Abbe Museum’s patio and are sponsored by Friends of Acadia.
Chris Sockalexis (Penobscot Nation), of the Inter-Tribal drum group Rez Dogs, drums outside the Abbe Museum.
Engage with the Abbe Museum on a deeper level through our Touch Tables, carefully curated hands-on displays that dive into a variety of themes with visitors of all ages. Themes like: BIRCHBARK BASKETS!
There are two types of Wabanaki basketry, classified by the materials from which they are made: ash baskets and birchbark baskets. Both types of baskets include utility as well as fancy styles; the older and more traditional utilitarian baskets that are meant to carry loads and serve as storage containers, and the more recent and contemporary fancy baskets, which are typically smaller, more intricate, and decorative in nature. Generally, the division of utilitarian and fancy baskets within the birchbark style is less defined, as birchbark is inherently utilitarian yet most often artfully decorated. Basketmaking has played an important role in the preservation of tradition and creation of economic opportunities for Wabanaki people.
***Touch tables are available on select days throughout the season. Please check our website (abbemuseum.org) or call to confirm.
See Mary and Molly on the big screen, and stay for the panel discussion afterwards!
The film follows Mary, a young African-American woman in Bangor, Maine, who discovers a letter on her 21st birthday revealing her Penobscot Indian heritage. Raised to focus solely on her African-American roots, she visits the Bangor Public Library to learn about her ancestor, Molly Molasses, and connects with her Penobscot ancestry.
Disclaimer
Mary & Molly explores themes of race, heritage, and identity within the Black and Brown communities. Due to these topics, this film deals with some mature themes and language. It is suggested for ages 14 & up.
Panelists
Donna Loring (Penobscot), Co-Director
David Camlin, Co-Director & Editor/Animator
Margo Lukens, Casting & Dialogue Director
Doors open at 12:30, and the Reel Pizza kitchen will be open and selling its wonderful specialty pizzas.
Join Curator of Education Christiana Becker on a guided tour of the museum’s exhibits at our downtown location. The tour will examine the Abbe’s core exhibit, People of the First Light, which shares more than 12,000 years of history, conflict, adaptation, and survival in Wabanaki homelands, as well as changing exhibitions that highlight Wabanaki living cultures and art.
Once a month, on Wednesdays, the Abbe Museum will open its doors for an ADA-accessible hour between 9 - 10 a.m. The first of these accessible hours will be Wednesday, June 11th. Admission rates will be the same as our standard operating hours.
Masks are REQUIRED during this time. We also ask that you be mindful of noise levels. Starting at 10 am, general admission will begin, and we will follow our regular policies. For more information, please email visit@abbemuseum.org or call 207-288-3519.
If you’re interested in bringing in a group of 10+ people during this time for a self-guided tour only, please reach out to visit@abbemuseum.org at least five days ahead of time for more details and confirmation. Absolutely no guided tours or programs will be available during this time. Depending on your group size, we may not be able to accommodate you during this Accessible Hour period.
Engage with the Abbe Museum on a deeper level through our Touch Tables, carefully curated hands-on displays that dive into a variety of themes with visitors of all ages. Themes like: FURS & BONES!
The land in the Wabanaki Homelands of Maine yields a wealth of animals including moose, deer, bear and smaller mammals, as well as plants. Before European arrival, the Wabanaki used bones (from the animals they hunted) in a number of ways. Bone is easily worked, yet is hard enough to make good tools. In the early 1500s, the Maine coast was being “discovered” by English, Spanish, and French fisherman who started bartering with the Wabanaki for goods such as furs and meat. Trade expanded, making the Wabanaki Nations part of an international market system which put a price on utensils, weapons, and animals (where before there had been none.)
***Touch tables are available on select days throughout the season. Please check our website (abbemuseum.org) or call to confirm.
Join Curator of Education Christiana Becker on a guided tour of the museum’s exhibits at our downtown location. The tour will examine the Abbe’s core exhibit, People of the First Light, which shares more than 12,000 years of history, conflict, adaptation, and survival in Wabanaki homelands, as well as changing exhibitions that highlight Wabanaki living cultures and art.
We heard you! You told us you wanted the Abbe Museum to be open on the weekends, and guess what?!
We are piloting Saturday openings for the last Saturday of July, August, and September!!!
Now is your chance to access the Abbe on a weekend day!
Bring your friends, bring your kids, bring your grandkids, bring yourself - it doesn’t matter who, or if, you bring someone, just get here!
JOIN US for the Abbe Museum’s Annual Meeting on Friday, September 26, 2025 from 5:00 - 7:00 pm at our downtown location (26 Mount Desert Street, Bar Harbor)!
Enjoy food and beverages alongside the Abbe trustees and staff while we update you on the museum and introduce our newest trustees. Following these updates, we will be joined for a talk from Jordan Bennett, Mi’kmaq, the visual artist behind our exhibit Mi’kmaw Tepgunsejig - 13 Moons Full Suite on view until October 31, 2025. We look forward to seeing you there!
This event is free and open to the public.
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About Jordan Bennett:
Jordan Bennett is L’nu (Mi’kmaq), from Stephenville Crossing, Newfoundland (Ktaqmkuk). He currently works and lives in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, NS). Having a methodology that is deeply guided by the Land of his ancestors, his ongoing work possesses qualities of familiarity that can serve as a connection for a wide range of audiences spanning culture and generation. His work, though not always directly challenging colonial perceptions of Indigenous histories and presence, lends itself to discussions regarding contemporary Indigenous realities within urban and rural communities. His ongoing practice utilizes sculpture, painting, video, immersive installations, and sound to explore land, language, the act of visiting and his familial histories. Bennett currently holds the position of Associate Professor, Expanded Media at NSCAD University. He received his BFA from Memorial University (Grenfell Campus) 2008, and an MFA from the University of British Columbia Okangan, 2016. Since 2008 he has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally in over 100 group and solo shows as well as created multiple public art commissions throughout Canada.
Join Curator of Education Christiana Becker on a guided tour of the museum’s exhibits at our downtown location. The tour will examine the Abbe’s core exhibit, People of the First Light, which shares more than 12,000 years of history, conflict, adaptation, and survival in Wabanaki homelands, as well as changing exhibitions that highlight Wabanaki living cultures and art.
Engage with the Abbe Museum on a deeper level through our Touch Tables - carefully curated hands-on displays that dive into a variety of themes with visitors of all ages. Themes like: ASH BASKETRY!
In the Wabanaki creation story, Koluskap, the first man, their cultural teacher and hero, created Wabanaki people by shooting an arrow into an ash tree (this story is told in our People of the First Light Gallery and we welcome you to read the story in full). Today, Wabanaki people also use ash to weave baskets, which makes ash basketmaking spiritually significant—however, basketmaking has also played an important role in the preservation of tradition and creation of economic opportunities for Wabanaki people.
***Touch tables are available on select days throughout the season. Please check our website (abbemuseum.org) or call to confirm.
CANCELLED: The Abbe Museum's Beading Workshop: Working with Seed Beads, scheduled for Thursday, September 18th, is cancelled. Unfortunately, the instructor for this program is no longer available to offer this fun opportunity. But, please mark your calendars, we will be offering another beading workshop on Thursday, October 23rd, from 12:00pm – 2:00pm at the Abbe Museum.
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Seed beads, felt, and needles, oh my! Participants are invited to create a beaded design on felt that they will then get to take home.
$35 per person | $20 for Abbe members (price includes admission into the museum)
This workshop is for adults and young adults from Middle School on up. We ask that those 16 years and under be accompanied by an adult who will be present throughout the workshop.
Don’t miss the FIRST EVER Abbe Museum Shop Sidewalk Sale! Join us on our patio Wednesday, September 17, and Thursday, September 18, from 11am to 3pm. 50% off overstock books, $5 t-shirts, and even up to 75% off fabulous fine art.
You won’t want to miss it!
Come to Acadia National Park to the Abbe Museum’s Sieur de Monts location on Wednesday, Septembers 17th, for our Cultural Connections in the Park series from 11:00am - 3:00pm, with Chris Sockalexis (Penobscot), for a flintknapping demonstration.
Chris is a member of the Penobscot Nation and the Penobscot Nation’s Tribal Historic Preservation Officer. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Maine and his current research projects include the Jones Cove shell midden in Frenchman Bay and the archaeology of the Penobscot River watershed. Chris is also extremely skilled in the ancient art and technique of stone and bone tool production. If you have never seen flintknapping, now’s your chance!
Note: This Cultural Connection takes place outside, near the Abbe Museum’s original (circa 1928) trailside museum building at Sieur de Monts. (2 Sieur de Monts Rd, Bar Harbor, ME).
Join Curator of Education Christiana Becker on a guided tour of the museum’s exhibits at our downtown location. The tour will examine the Abbe’s core exhibit, People of the First Light, which shares more than 12,000 years of history, conflict, adaptation, and survival in Wabanaki homelands, as well as changing exhibitions that highlight Wabanaki living cultures and art.
Engage with the Abbe Museum on a deeper level through our Touch Tables, carefully curated hands-on displays that dive into a variety of themes with visitors of all ages. Themes like: BIRCHBARK BASKETS!
There are two types of Wabanaki basketry, classified by the materials from which they are made: ash baskets and birchbark baskets. Both types of baskets include utility as well as fancy styles; the older and more traditional utilitarian baskets that are meant to carry loads and serve as storage containers, and the more recent and contemporary fancy baskets, which are typically smaller, more intricate, and decorative in nature. Generally, the division of utilitarian and fancy baskets within the birchbark style is less defined, as birchbark is inherently utilitarian yet most often artfully decorated. Basketmaking has played an important role in the preservation of tradition and creation of economic opportunities for Wabanaki people.
***Touch tables are available on select days throughout the season. Please check our website (abbemuseum.org) or call to confirm.
Learn about environmental responsibility through Wabanaki world views of inter-relatedness. Through place-based knowledge, traditional stories, and examining contemporary efforts, visiting groups will learn how, throughout time, Wabanaki peoples’ environmental stewardship practices sustain the land and waters for future generations. The Abbe Museum’s Curator of Education, Christiana Becker (Penobscot descent) will lead this tour.
Once a month, on Wednesdays, the Abbe Museum will open its doors for an ADA-accessible hour between 9 - 10 a.m. The first of these accessible hours will be Wednesday, June 11th. Admission rates will be the same as our standard operating hours.
Masks are REQUIRED during this time. We also ask that you be mindful of noise levels. Starting at 10 am, general admission will begin, and we will follow our regular policies. For more information, please email visit@abbemuseum.org or call 207-288-3519.
If you’re interested in bringing in a group of 10+ people during this time for a self-guided tour only, please reach out to visit@abbemuseum.org at least five days ahead of time for more details and confirmation. Absolutely no guided tours or programs will be available during this time. Depending on your group size, we may not be able to accommodate you during this Accessible Hour period.
Engage with the Abbe Museum on a deeper level through our Touch Tables, carefully curated hands-on displays that dive into a variety of themes with visitors of all ages. Themes like: FURS & BONES!
The land in the Wabanaki Homelands of Maine yields a wealth of animals including moose, deer, bear and smaller mammals, as well as plants. Before European arrival, the Wabanaki used bones (from the animals they hunted) in a number of ways. Bone is easily worked, yet is hard enough to make good tools. In the early 1500s, the Maine coast was being “discovered” by English, Spanish, and French fisherman who started bartering with the Wabanaki for goods such as furs and meat. Trade expanded, making the Wabanaki Nations part of an international market system which put a price on utensils, weapons, and animals (where before there had been none.)
***Touch tables are available on select days throughout the season. Please check our website (abbemuseum.org) or call to confirm.
Come have coffee with us and tour the museum in the relative quiet before the museum opens to the public for the day!
On the first Friday of every month, (excluding federal holidays), the Abbe Museum opens one hour early for its members. Member Coffee Hour features coffee (of course), pastries, and a chance to see the museum in a more intimate way. Interested in becoming a member? https://www.abbemuseum.org/membership or call 207-288-3519
Depicted arE SHAPES THAT MIMIC THE ELEMENTS IN Jordan' Bennett’s 13 Moons
Join us in the Community Gallery, where Mi’kmaw Tepgunsejig: 13 Moons Full Suite - a stunning visual art exhibition by Mi’kmaq artist Jordan Bennett - is on display, for an arts & crafts project!
Bennett’s vibrant series of prints, referencing porcupine quillwork and petroglyph depictions of stars, represents each moon in the Mi'kmaq year. Drawing inspiration from Bennett, create/color your own moon using foam sheets, paper, crayons, and markers!
Mixed media - may require coloring, drawing, collaging
This event is for ages 5 and up (we ask parents and guardians to stay with their young participants at all times.)
Come to Acadia National Park at Sieur de Monts on Wednesday, September 3 for our Cultural Connections in the Park series from 11:00am - 3:00pm with Jennifer Pictou (Mi’kmaq). Learn about the delicate art of Mi’kmaq porcupine quill embroidery. In this Cultural Connections live demonstration, you will hear about the different kinds of stitching and the reason behind the traditional and historic use of porcupine quills to decorate boxes, chairs, placemats, and clothing. Join in the interactive Q&A session with Jennifer and engage your sense of wonder with the provided samples of Mi’kmaq artistry to touch!
Note: This Cultural Connection takes place outside, near the Abbe Museum’s original (circa 1928) trailside museum building at Sieur de Monts. (2 Sieur de Monts Rd, Bar Harbor, ME).
jennifer pictou, mi’kmaq artist
