LEWISTON – Bruce Brown, curator at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport, will be this month’s Great Falls Forum speaker. The title of his talk is “Maine’s Landscape Painters: An Endangered Species?”

Brown is a retired teacher from Freeport High School and member of the Colby College Class of 1962. He has been a strong presence in the Maine art scene for more than 20 years.

As a teacher at Freeport High School, Brown has educated many people about art and has assembled a phenomenal collection of contemporary prints on a limited budget. He began collecting in the mid-1970s when he began to recognize the great emotional and intellectual impact the visual arts had in his life.

During the course of more than 20 years, Brown has embraced many artistic disciplines, including contemporary painting, sculpture, drawing, and photography, but none has held his attention more fully than contemporary printmaking, which he began to acquire in earnest in 1987.

One of the strengths of the Bruce Brown Collection is that it places the work of local and internationally known artists in close proximity, to the detriment of neither.

He seeks the best, the most innovative, and the most representative in contemporary printmaking, filtered through the lens of his unique sensibility. Over the years, Brown has refined his collection and collecting habits to suit his desire to represent a microcosm of printmaking from the past 50 years.

Among the Bruce Brown Collection are major graphic works of art by Brett Bigbee, Louise Bourgeois, John Cage, Louisa Chase, and others.

The Great Falls Forum is in its sixth season. It is a monthly public platform providing thought-provoking speakers and discussion. Everyone is welcome. No dues. No obligations. Just lunch, discussion and the opportunity to hear some renowned speakers and experts discuss subjects near and dear to their hearts. A question-and-answer period will follow the talk.

The forum is sponsored by the Sun Journal, Lewiston Public Library, Bates College and St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center. Lunch is $5 with preregistration, $8 at the door, if space is still available.

Please make lunch reservations by calling Jeanne Lachance at (207) 784-7045, ext. 2243 on or before Tuesday, Feb. 17.