biography
Peter Precourt lives and works in Winthrop Maine with wife Jane and teenage children Charlotte and Will. He is an interdisciplinary artist, curator and Professor of Art at the University of Maine at Augusta (UMA) where he coordinates the UMA Art Department. He received his MFA in Painting from the University of Houston in 2000, and later served as an affiliate artist there. In 2005-2006, he served as head of the painting department at William Carey University in Gulfport, Mississippi. In 2007, he conducted a four part lecture series at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, concerning art since 1960.
His studio-based hybrid painting/drawing/graphic story memoir The Katrina Chronicles recalls the events of after his family's time in coastal Mississippi before, during and after Hurricane Katrina. In the community, Professor Precourt has installed a number of site-specific, large-scale wheat paste murals in an effort to revitalize central Maine's downtown areas. . He has placed this work in Augusta, Gardiner and Waterville, Maine. He is scheduled to have public wheat paste installations at Austin Peay University and in Berlin Germany in 2021. Students have the opportunity to engage in these projects in the planning, production and installation stages.
Recognizing that central Maine has few contemporary art spaces, Professor Precourt has opened venues: ArtWorks: on Main in Winthrop and PopUp 265 in Augusta. He seeks to connect artists directly into community spaces outside of the white cube of museum spaces. Exhibitions range from well international artists, UMA faculty and alumni to elementary students learning how to impact their community.
Peter has an active studio and social art practice. He has been a guest lecturer at the University of Southern Maine, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Reed College, Fort Lewis College, San Jacinto College, Lincoln Memorial University, Kennesaw State University, ArtHouse center for Contemporary Art, New York University and the University of Lisbon in Portugal. Peter's work has been exhibited in Austin, Cincinnati, Dallas, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Nashville, New York, and Portland.