Similar to a Little Free Library, the public is invited to take, leave, or trade original art.
It’s very simple – make art and take art! You don’t have to be a professional – just interested in the art exchange!
The Free Art Exchange is more than just an art project. It gives people something to do, something to stumble across, something to remember. It brings life to overlooked corners. It asks people to engage, to create, to give, and to explore. Art doesn’t have to live behind glass. Sometimes, it lives on a street corner in a beat-up box. And that’s exactly the point.
Each box will launch with artwork created by the artists selected for the project and artists will replenish the box periodically throughout the project run which is scheduled to remain in place through summer 2026, with an option to renew.
You can find the first two art boxes at Bangor Public Library and Bangor Mall Cinema.
For this project, three artists turned deaccessioned newspaper boxes, donated by the Bangor Daily News, into works of art. Artists Lahana Palencia and Naomi Moynihan were selected for the project alongside project organizer Brian Cattell.
Artist Brian Cattell says, “Street art has always thrived on breaking the rules just enough to be heard. It makes space where there was none, it disrupts the expected, and in doing so, it invites participation. That’s what this project is about. The artists have taken old newspaper boxes, once meant to distribute information, and turned them into spaces for creative exchange. Anyone can leave a piece of art, and anyone can take one.
Hollywood Casino & Hotel
Located in the front lobby.
Bangor Public Library
Located in the Atrium.
Bangor Mall Cinema
Located in the front lobby.
ARTIST LAHANA PALENCIA
Lahana is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in central Maine. She originally wanted to be a jazz vocalist but shifted to visual art after realizing she loved music too much to pursue it professionally. She earned an associate degree in Liberal Studies from Southern Maine Community College, which led to take printmaking classes at Maine College of Art where she first fell in love with machine based art that needed to be thought out in layers.
Since then, Lahana has participated in artist residencies in the U.S. and abroad, including Green Olive Arts in Morocco and the ARC Residency in Chattanooga, where she discovered fabrication tools and laser cutting after joining Chattlab makerspace. She later moved to Chattanooga and then Atlanta, where she built a small art business and had her first solo exhibition. She did some traveling abroad and moved back to the US and stayed in Atlanta where she finally bought her own laser cutter and worked for herself as a fabrication/multimedia artist and Health challenges — both physical and mental — eventually forced Lahana to pause everything and return to Maine in 2021.
For Lahana, these past couple of years have been about recovery and rebuilding but she is grateful to have spent her recovery time back home. Lahana is excited to reconnect with her creative practice and bring the skills and experience she has earned back to Maine. She recently joined the Bangor Makerspace, and this project couldn’t have come at a more meaningful time — it’s been an incredible motivator and symbol of return. She is honored to be part of it and excited to be creating again with clarity, purpose, and gratitude.
Find out more about Lahana and visit her website and social media HERE.
This project is supported by a grant from the City of Bangor and the Commission on Cultural Development.
