UNE Art Gallery show honors Deaf community and victims of the Lewiston shootings
An art show that corresponds with Deaf Culture Week and honors victims of Maine’s deadliest-ever mass shooting will open at the University of New England Art Gallery in Portland on Sept. 25. Co-curated by Michelle Ames and Meryl Troop, the show will run through Feb. 7, 2026.
The show, “Unspoken Resilience: Healing from the Lewiston Shootings Two Years In,” celebrates Maine’s Deaf community through a group exhibition of work by deaf artists and artisans and recent photographs taken by Michael Kolster of Lewiston, the city where Maine’s deadliest mass shooting took place in 2023, leaving 18 people dead and 13 injured.
Maine’s Deaf community was disproportionately impacted by the Lewiston shootings on Oct. 25, 2023, as four of the 18 people killed were deaf, and two other people who were deaf were injured. The Lewiston shootings — one of the deadliest in U.S. history — are believed to be the only example in the U.S. of a mass shooting that impacted the Deaf community so severely.
“Unspoken Resilience” highlights issues of communications access and recognizes American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters, who offer a linguistic and social bridge between deaf individuals who use ASL and people who cannot sign.
“In the aftermath of the 2023 shootings, there was sudden awareness of the Deaf community and promises were made to improve communications access,” said Troop, an ASL interpreter and language access consultant. “Two years later, there is a noticeable drop-off in this access … We hope this show will help us carry the message forward and that our needs will not continue to go unspoken.”
Maine Gov. Janet Mills designated Sept. 21 to 27, 2025, as Deaf Culture Week to encourage Maine people to recognize the sociolinguistic community of deaf people as a distinct group with a rich language, culture, and history and to join other organizations around the world, such as the United Nations and the World Federation of the Deaf, in honoring Deaf communities.
“Unspoken Resilience" is intended to offer the chance to heal and learn through the exhibit of artwork by members of the Deaf community — and the chance to celebrate the Lewiston community's resilience through Kolster’s powerful cityscapes that honor how the Lewiston community as a whole came together following the tragedy.
“This is a very important exhibition for us, as it marks a pivotal event in the history of the Deaf community and in the history of Maine,” remarked Hilary Irons, gallery and exhibitions director of the UNE Art Galleries. “The show highlights work from the Deaf community, which is frequently marginalized or overlooked due to the perceptual and language differences between Deaf culture and the culture of hearing, non-signing people.”
Irons said she hopes the show may start to open new dialogue and understanding for those who are outside of the Deaf community.
“Work on ‘Unspoken’ has been helpful for my own learning, as the topic is outside of my everyday experience and outside of my scholarship,” she added.
The gallery is intentionally including in the exhibit contributions by interpreters, whom Irons said “occupy a critical space between these two cultures.”
A reception for the show will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 25, in the gallery, located on UNE’s Portland Campus for the Health Sciences at 716 Stevens Ave. in Portland. The gallery is otherwise open Thursday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. or by appointment.
For more information, contact Hilary at hirons@une.edu, who can help facilitate interviews with members of advocacy groups that serve Maine’s Deaf community.