For the first time, the nonprofit Meetinghouse Arts Gallery will showcase the history of the town’s fishing industry, its impact on Freeport and the challenges facing Maine’s fisheries.

According to Ken Sparta, owner of Spartan Sea Farms and Freeport Oyster Bar, visitors to Freeport often don’t realize there’s a working waterfront just a few miles from the bustling downtown. Meetinghouse Arts wanted to illuminate the town’s evolving relationship with its coastline in an exhibition titled “Freeport: Our Working Waterfront Then and Now.” The gallery is a collaboration of local artists, nonprofits, historians and community organizations.

A May 1 reception launched the working waterfront exhibition and partnered with the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association and the Freeport Historical Society to help make this art showcase possible. The art gallery’s last day will be Sunday, May 11.

The Sustenance and Ecology section of the “Freeport: Our Working Waterfront, Then and Now” exhibition at Meetinghouse Arts Gallery in Freeport is being shown to the public until Sunday, May 11. Paul Bagnall/The Times Record

“We really dug in deep to make sure we got the history and the ecological aspects of it all correct,” said Suzanne Watson, executive director at Meetinghouse Arts.

“The working waterfront has shaped us and people have shaped it,” Watson said.

Sparta said having an exhibition that connects Freeport to its working waterfront recognizes the town’s historical connection to the sea and the current rebound in aquaculture. Visitors to the art gallery can contribute to the exhibition’s content by writing down their thoughts about the fishing community and posting them on the reverse side of the central map wall in the gallery.

Kate Werner, vice president of the board of directors for Meetinghouse Arts, said the sustainability and climate exhibition also features a video gallery with films from the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, Maine Coast Harvest and the town’s Shellfish Conservation Commission about the experiences of fishermen in the state, along with the challenges the industries are facing.

Along with the exhibition, the nonprofit organization will run two panel events on the Meetinghouse Arts stage during the month.

The Freeport Historical Society will host “Tide & Time: Voices Shaped by the Sea” at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 15, featuring personal stories of how clamming and shipbuilding have shaped generations; and Freeport Climate Action Now and COBALT will present “Becoming Seagrass” with Passamaquoddy Language Keeper Dwayne Tomah at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 22.