About the High Peaks Creative Council

The HPCC was formed in direct response to the Maine Arts Commission’s Creative Communities = Economic Development grant that was awarded in 2013. The consortium is a network of regional arts organizations, museums, business associations, and municipal leaders. Over the years this has included Kingfield POPS, Kingfield Artwalk, Stanley Museum, High Peaks Artisan Guild, Kingfield Village Enhancement Committee, Ski Museum of Maine, Dead River Area Historical Society, Eustis residents, Rangeley Friends of the Arts, Rangeley Chamber of Commerce, Wilhelm Reich Museum, Maine Forestry Museum, Outdoor Heritage Museum, Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad Museum, Phillips Area Community Center, High Peaks Alliance, and Phillips Library and Studio.

The collaborative network of organizations has produced the Maine High Peaks Arts & Heritage Plan, an asset map of the region, a website featuring these assets (www.highpeaksmaine.org), funds to help develop the Phillips Public Library Studio, marketing for the 2013 Crossroads International Celtic Festival, the Maine High Peaks Arts and Heritage Loop Map & Guide, and five loop kiosks in Carrabassett Valley, Stratton, Rangeley, Phillips, and Kingfield. The HPCC worked with Maine D.O.T. to have the state put up fourteen signs in the region pointing out important landmarks including Daggett Rock, Flyrod Crosby Trailhead, Northern Forest Canoe Trail, Mount Abrams Trailhead, and the Wire Suspension Bridge. Since 2019, the HPCC executive director, Saskia Reinholt, has engaged five local schools and many community-based organizations to host free barn quilt mural workshops in order to establish a community made public art trail. Over 900 participants have helped create the Maine Barn Quilt Trail across Franklin and Somerset Counties. Teaching artist Sakia Reinholt enrolled participants into cultural discussion, history, color theory, design, and cooperative painting. These student-generated works of art grace the sides of 70 local barns. In 2022, the HPCC wrote grants for local craftsman Ian Reinholt to work with grades pre-k – 8 at Phillips Elementary School and Kingfield Elementary School to create 8 toboggans with the students for the school to keep for community use. The HPCC is working to continue to bring arts and cultural enrichments into local schools and the community.  

In 2023, our operations are funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Our supporters include Sugarloaf Regional Charitable Trust, Onion Foundation, Betterment Fund, Maine Community Foundation, and Skowhegan Savings Bank.