Award-winning writer Annaliese Jakimides will teach a flash fiction workshop, using art currently on display at the museum as inspiration. “Likely, you'll surprise yourself with what bubbles up,” says Jakimides. 

“Flash fiction is known by many names, including sudden fiction, short-short stories, and microfiction. Although people often think it's a ‘new’ form of writing, it's been around for as long as we've been writing stories.”

Jakimides has placed in the World's Best Short-Short Story Contest multiple times and is the winner of the Acadia Prize in poetry. She has more than five hundred publications in magazines, journals, anthologies, and newspapers, and broadcast online and on radio.

The late Paul F. Haertel, superintendent of Acadia National Park from 1994 to 2002, had an important and enduring impact on the Wendell Gilley Museum. His dedication and leadership were crucial to the Gilley becoming the community organization it is today. The Museum will dedicate its new classroom in his honor on Saturday, Sept. 13 from 1 to 3 p.m. The public is invited to celebrate, and to share memories of Mr. Haertel, whose family will be on hand at the event. Light refreshments will be served.

“Paul had been part of the museum, which he loved, for a long time. He contributed his time, and his considerable talents and experience to helping the Gilley be its best,” said Museum director Sean Charette. “Through the power of his wonderful personality, and through his love of learning and sharing, Paul helped to shape the warm, welcoming, feel of the Wendell Gilley Museum and to make this feeling part of the fabric of the place. Paul helped to build this culture of hospitality, warmth, and learning, and it will endure.”

Reservations are appreciated.

Office Manager

The Office Manager is responsible for supporting the administrative and financial operations of the Wendell Gilley Museum.  This position is an integral part of a small team that works hard to keep the Museum vibrant and sustainable for our community. This is a full-time, exempt position. Click to see the full job description.

The Wendell Gilley Museum and the Southwest Harbor Public Library are teaming up to host poet and park ranger Christian Barter to the Museum on Tuesday, Sept. 23 from 6 to 7pm as part of an occasional series called Reading with Wings.

An award-winning poet, Barter explores nature and human nature in his verse, and he has a critically lauded new collection called “The Ends” that he will share that night. In “The Ends,” Barter explores both the landscape of Maine and the lives lived there. In “Champlain,” a poem that imagines the discovery of Mount Desert Island where Barter has lived most of his life, and in “Acadia,” a poem written in honor of the park, he addresses the issue of our stewardship of the earth; in a series of sonnets dedicated to the outsider artist James Hampton, he explores what it means to devote a lifetime to the creation of a work of art.