2026 Schedule
We expect we will finalize our 2026 programs by April 2026. When the schedule is set, we will list the programs here.
October 2025 Special Event by our neighbors the Western Maine Art Group
Opening on October 3 – For the first time in 19 years there will be a major retrospective art exhibit of beloved Fine Art Professor Lajos Matolcsy (1905-1982). Presented by the Western Maine Art Group (WMAG), the exhibit will feature some well-known and never-before-seen work and archives from private collections. A free, public reception on October 3, from 5 – 7 PM will kick off the month-long exhibit at the Lajos Matolcsy Arts Center, 480 Main Street, Norway, Maine. The exhibit will be open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays from 12 PM to 3 PM throughout October.
The last exhibit of his work was in 2006 when the late Professor Matolcsy was chosen as the Focus Figure of the Norway Arts Festival which entailed an exhibit and lecture on his life held at the Norway Memorial Library, resulting in the publication of his biography. Copies of the biography will be available for free during the retrospective exhibit.
Exhibit coordinator, WMAG board member and artist Peter Herley said the idea for the retrospective exhibit came after a gallery visitor last year asked who the professor was.
“I thought a show of Lajos’ work would be the right thing to do so the public at large would know more about his being a great teacher, artist & advocate… and his story,” said Herley.
Professor Matolcsy was a celebrated and prolific artist who survived incredible odds in war torn Europe to eventually immigrate to the United States and settle in western Maine in the 1950s. Separated from his family in the early 1940s – escaping Nazi imprisonment and fleeing certain execution for fighting in the fierce Hungarian resistance – he dedicated the remainder of his life to sharing his art through teaching and by founding the WMAG in 1962.
He also founded the summertime Norway Sidewalk Art Show in 1967 (now the Norway Maine Arts Festival) with the help of his wife and dance teacher Claire Couri, and some dedicated students. He went on to open teaching studios in Norway, Casco, Lewiston, and Portland.
Art was the salvation that carried his spirit through a remarkably traumatic and challenging life. It was his love of teaching and insatiable passion for creating that drew hundreds of students to him like moths to a flame.
“Decades after his death I still run into people who make the connection with our unusual name and will tell me how dear he was to them or their parents. One woman told me he and the WMAG saved her mother’s life after the death of her husband. I have had more than one person tell me that he taught them to really ‘see’ for the first time,” said his daughter Aranka Matolcsy of South Paris.
Former student Lou Dagneau of Northport, a prolific and talented artist in her own right, says Professor Matolcsy had a profound impact on her life.
“He was so much more than just an art teacher; he shared his philosophy of life, his view of the world. He shared his experiences of surviving war and leaving his homeland and family. He told of walking out of his house with the door unlocked, and left all of his paintings and possessions, and swam a river to escape. He made such an impression on me,” said Dagneau. “He was my mentor. To this day, he and his wife, son and daughter take up residence in my mind and heart. They left an indelible influence on me for who they were and who they encouraged me to be.”
While many artists find a style and stick to it Professor Matolcsy fluidly moved through different styles and representations – hyper realism, impressionism, graphic illustration, to the Renaissance techniques of Michelangelo and the baroque techniques of Rembrandt. He was considered to be a brilliant portrait artist who captured the likenesses of countless people including Margaret Chase Smith, Tony Montanaro, prominent Hebron Academy educators, his wife, children, community members, and students.
His high-level skills were obtained in studies at the Royal Academy of Art in Budapest, Hungary and the Académie Julian in Paris, France where the practice of the day was so intense that it included the study cadavers to learn human anatomy to be able to truly capture movement in 2-dimensions. He was a superintendent of arts for a large region in Hungary and a celebrated solo exhibiting artist throughout Europe as World War II broke out, forcing his conscription into the Hungarian Cavalry, eventual capture and escape to western Germany before coming to the U.S.
The exhibit will be filled with examples of his work in pen & ink, oil, watercolor, colored pencil, block prints, including graphic designs, sketches, carvings, weavings and more.
The Matolcsys chose to raise their family in western Maine due to Claire’s ancestry being from the Buckfield area, and because the ecology and climate of Maine are similar to Hungary. On trips through the countryside studying ancestry in local cemeteries, the two found an abandoned 1820s farm in South Paris that they bought in 1958 and renovated to be habitable. The farm housed the professor’s first art studio in Maine and Clair’s dance teaching studio.
Professor Matolcsy’s legacy lives on decades after his passing as the WMAG has been running continuously for 63 years as a 501(c) 3 corporation still providing opportunities to artists and community access to art.
“When we pass on the only thing you will miss is our being. Our spirits will still be here. His spirit is still here, very much, in the paintings, and in the books I read, and in the mountains I look at, and it’s definitely in my son’s face. It is still here,” said his son Zoltan Matolcsy of South Paris.
Professor Matolcsy’s influence on the arts, and deep connections to his many students and other artists was a primary force in solidifying what today is a thriving and growing arts community and arts economy throughout western Maine.
Spring 2025 Newsletter
Follow the link to read our latest newsletter: