The New Commons is a public humanities initiative of the University of Maine at Farmington, Maine’s public liberal arts college, in partnership with the Maine Humanities Council.
Their goal is to build a cultural commons for our community at UMF and for the state of Maine: a collection of 24 cultural works proposed by students, faculty, and members of the community, and selected on the basis of their potential value to the community.
Through the building of the commons they hope to increase access to these works, and to the scholarship and creative works they’ve inspired, by means of public lectures, seminar-style discussions, an open access digital portal, and campus-generated community engagement projects. More broadly, we hope to foster awareness of arts and literature as a common good to which all are entitled access, and in which we all have a stake.
DDG is an Independent Bookstore partner of The New Commons and our owner, Kenny Brechner is a member of their Board. We love the New Commons and encourage you to enage with all its great programming. Below you will find a selection of works which support that engagment. Have a look or stop by the store to see them in person and find out more!