LEWISTON – Located in the first building that was to become part of the world-renown Bates Manufacturing Company, Museum L-A is preserving and telling the stories of the local textile, shoe, and brick-making industries and the people who worked in them through engaging exhibits, programs and community outreach.

The Museum’s newest exhibit, Weaving a World: Lewiston’s Millworkers, 1920-2008, traces the millworker experience from the hard times of immigration and the Great Depression through the prosperity of the 1950s to the decline of the mills. It tells the story of the people who worked in Lewiston’s textile mills, their families, and the community they made. Paintings by the late Lewiston artist and musician Don Bard, as well as photographs, maps and artifacts from the Museum’s collections are also on display.

The Museum was recently honored with a first-place award for its catalog for Portraits & Voices: Workers of Seven Mills. The exhibit opened last August and closed in May. Portraits & Voices and Weaving a World are part of the Museum’s Millworkers Oral History and Photo Documentary Project. Oral history projects involving Lewiston-Auburn shoeworkers and brickmakers are currently under way. Exhibits for those projects are being developed.

A variety of educational programs and events for all ages are offered throughout the year. Watch for announcements in the newspaper and online at www.museumla.org.

Museum L-A is located in the Bates Mill Complex at the corner of Canal and Chestnut streets. Parking is available in front of the building as well as along Canal Street and nearby parking garages. Vehicles may enter the complex via Chestnut Street and proceed to the far end of the parking area. The Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Admission fee. Group tours are available upon request. For more information, please call 333-881 or visit the Museum’s web site at www.museumla.org .