RUMFORD – Arts groups and lovers of the arts are invited to a Maine Arts Commission meeting at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Rumford Public Library to help plan a statewide arts conference and learn how the arts can build a better community.

Alden Wilson, executive director of the Maine Arts Commission, and Keith Ludden, community and traditional arts associate, will guide the meeting, which is expected to include arts groups and others from the Farmington, Norway, Bethel and Rumford areas.

This is the fourth and final planning and informational event. Others were held in Presque Isle, Saco and Bangor in February, March and April.

Becky Welsh, a member of the Maine Arts Commission community arts committee and president of the River Valley Arts Initiative, said the meeting will call for information and topics that could be covered during the Oct. 18 Maine Community Arts Conference to be held at the Franco-American Heritage Center in Lewiston. She said several people nationally prominent in the arts will be at the conference.

That will be the first such conference ever held in the state, Welsh said.

“Having the Western Maine meeting in Rumford shows how important Rumford is and how the arts are an integral part of the community,” Welsh said. “The arts affect revitalization, economic development and quality of life.”

At Friday’s meeting, Ludden will outline the arts commission’s program aimed at building leadership in the arts as well as the grant program available to communities and nonprofits.

A portion of the meeting will be devoted to discussing the role of arts in social and economic development strategies.

Besides arts groups, Welsh said business leaders and municipal representatives are encouraged to attend.