Maine Art Scene (maineartscene.com) proudly announces its launch of a new online arts and culture magazine devoted to showcasing the arts and art-related events in Maine. From gallery and museum exhibits to concerts, live theater, poetry and artist interviews, Maine Art Scene is Maine's premier online resource for current and complete updates on art happenings throughout the state.

"Since we moved to Maine, my husband and I made friends with numerous artists," said Brenda Bonneville, editor of Maine Art Scene. "Because of our backgrounds in marketing and communication, we quickly became involved with several local artists and arts organizations in helping them promote their message. In doing so, we realized that the opportunities for them to promote their work year-round through press coverage and advertising were limited, expensive, or both."

In response, Brenda and her husband Thierry created a comprehensive, interactive online venue to serve as the voice of all Maine artists and arts organizations. The search engine-optimized website has been live for three months and has already published over 250 press releases that highlight events, Maine artist interviews, and art news. In addition to art-related press releases, Maine Art Scene maintains a statewide art directory, a searchable calendar of events, several multi-media artist profiles (slideshows, podcasts and streaming videos) as well as the blog "artTalk" where anyone can post Maine art-related comments. Finally, Maine artists who do not have or can't afford a website can also get a web page with image or sound portfolio on the site for a nominal fee.

"Unlike most publications, we focus exclusively on Maine art-related activities, creating a smaller but perfectly targeted audience," says Thierry, media director for Maine Art Scene. "Instead of writing the content ourselves, we decided to give artists and arts organizations the option to submit their own press releases. For a fee of $10-$15 per press release, artists and arts organizations are guaranteed that their Maine art-related news will be published, provided they meet our standard submission guidelines."

The closely monitored readership has seen exponential growth each month, and there has been enthusiastic response from artists and arts organizations. "I like the way a submitted press release always makes the front page as opposed to other sites where you just disappear in a calendar section," says Maine artist Kenny Cole. "Maine Art Scene's online publication helps to fulfill a need that has been talked of among Maine art circles for some time. I am excited at their launch and look forward to their future," says Suzette McAvoy, independent art consultant and former chief curator of the Farnsworth Art Museum.

As part of the magazine's inauguration, Maine Art Scene is organizing the first non-juried statewide online exhibit of contemporary fine art photographers. Opened to all fine art photographers who are part-time or full-time Maine residents, the exhibit will premiere on maineartscene.com on October 15, 2008. The exhibit will serve as an opportunity for Maine's photographers to showcase their work online. Featuring over 120 fine art photographs, selected works will become part of Maine Art Scene's permanent online fine art exhibit, to debut in December 2008.

"We are delighted to promote the work of so many Maine creative fine art photographers," says Brenda. To name a few, the list of forty artists includes Kevin Johnson, selected in June as one of the twelve rising stars in the Contemporary Maine Art Forever Young exhibit (organized by the Farnsworth Museum). Maine Art Scene will also showcase several of the 2008 Maine Photography Show (mainephotographyshow.com) winners including Seth Whited (first place, black and white), Elizabeth Cradock (second place, color) and Corrie Zacharias, (first place, digital/computer). Also featured are established gallery artists including Susan Guthrie, Jim Nickelson, Arla Patch and Mark Rockwood (from voxphotography.com) as well as younger talent Clare Rosen who worked with and was mentored by Joyce Tenneson.

Following its first online Fine Art Photography exhibition, Maine Art Scene will be launching a series of interactive multi-disciplinary art exhibits.