LEWISTON – The Maine Arts Commission is holding a series of free workshops around the state. Contemporary artists, traditional artists, cultural administrators, educators, cultural entrepreneurs and community members are invited.

Building on the successes of the past two years, the Maine Arts Commission is continuing this year’s artME tour at the Lewiston Public Library, Lisbon Street. The entire staff of the agency will be presenting workshops designed to share information about their collective cultural lives on Thursday, Sept. 28.

“Last year’s workshops were well attended and built upon the success of previous years, we continue to hear a lot of positive comments about artME,” said director Alden C. Wilson.

“This year we are expanding the presentations to include presentations from our partners, thus giving more options to those attending the day’s events. While we would like to get to every city and town every year, it just isn’t feasible, but we are increasing the amount of workshops yearly, and are adding additional content. You will see that we are covering a lot of ground and sharing important information with a lot of people,” Wilson said.

There will be workshops, including self-promotion, marketing and working with the press, contemporary art, grant writing, MaineArts.com and its benefits to the arts and cultural community, community and traditional arts development, Maine’s Percent for Art program, arts education and arts accessibility.

The workshops are open, do not require preregistration and will begin at 1 p.m. and run throughout the afternoon. The Maine Arts Commission staff will be on hand during that time to answer questions and hear suggestions about how the agency can best serve artists and Maine communities.

Representatives from other arts organizations will present workshops and answer questions pertaining to their fields. The agency will be accompanied by the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Maine Alliance for Arts Education and VSA arts of Maine.

The year’s area workshops are scheduled as follows:

Lewiston/Auburn, Thursday, Sept. 28, Lewiston Public Library.

Bethel, Tuesday, Oct. 24, Bethel Inn, Moses Mason House and Gould Academy.

Rangeley, Wednesday, Oct. 25, Saddleback Base Lodge.

Skowhegan, May 23, 2007, Skowhegan Community Center.

All open houses will be held in accessible venues. For a detailed schedule and look at each workshop, visit http://mainearts.maine.gov/events/artME/index.shtml.

Those who require special accommodations to participate or have questions, should contact Darrell Bulmer at 287-6746 voice or 877/887-3878, TTY/NexTalk.