LEWISTON – A crowd of more than 360 invited guests gathered at Museum L-A’s new gallery space at the Bates Mill Complex on Aug. 11 for the official opening of the “Portraits and Voices: Workers of Seven Mills” exhibit.

Guests included current and former millworkers interviewed and photographed for the exhibit along with their families and local and state dignitaries.

Later in the day, an estimated 175 members of the public stopped by the gallery to check out the new exhibit. Many of the guests also visited the museum’s permanent exhibit on the second floor of its Bates Mill Complex location.

During its first full week, more than 160 people visited the exhibit in the museum’s new gallery space. Museum L-A Executive Director Rachel Desgrosseillers is pleased with the turnout for the exhibit’s opening days. “It’s wonderful to see four generations coming in together – talking and sharing,” she said.

Twenty of the featured portraits in the exhibit are accompanied by a segment of the millworker’s oral history interview available via cell phone. Each clip tells a different story of life as a millworker in Lewiston-Auburn.

Museum L-A is an early adopter of the new technology provided by San Francisco-based Guide by Cell. To access the audio recordings, visitors call in using their own cell phone, then enter the item they want to hear. Visitors may remain connected throughout their visit, or hang up and call back as desired.

Selections from oral history interviews may also be heard in the gallery’s theater room, where visitors are invited to sit and view millworkers’ portraits and hear their stories on DVD.

The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday at 35 Canal St. The admission fee covers the special exhibit in the gallery and the museum’s permanent collection on the second floor.