By COLIN HICKEY
Staff Writer Sunday, May 20, 2007

Hastings, chief executive officer of the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce, doesn't hesitate when asked the key to that transformation.

The Farnsworth Art Museum's expansion to Main Street, he said, was the driving force.

"It was really the catalyst for change," he said, "and it remains a focal point."

Sharon Corwin, director of the Colby College Museum of Art, is not sure her museum's acquisition of more than $100 million worth of classic American art -- a gift from Peter H. and Paula Crane Lunder announced last week -- will turn Waterville into the Rockland of central Maine.

But she is confident that the acquisition, including more than 200 prints by James McNeill Whistler, will make art lovers far more likely to visit Waterville.

"I think it really has propelled Colby," she said, "into a league where if you have an interest in the visual arts, this is the place where you really want to come."

Hastings is quick to say that location, too, was a big part of the Rockland success story.

Rockland, being a coastal community, has a seashore as a major drawing card. Yet that natural resource did little to make Rockland a hotbed of tourism until the Farnsworth became a presence on Main Street at the start of the decade, Hastings explained.

Five years ago, he said, Rockland's downtown had 23 empty storefronts.

"Today," he said, "we are at full occupancy, and 12 other retailers want to move in but can't, because there are no vacancies."

Hastings said the Farnsworth, renowned for its collection of American art from the 18th and 19th centuries, did not create the economic boom alone.

What happened, he said, was a perfect storm of good fortune formed around the museum.

Chief among the elements of change, he said, was considerable investment money from MBNA, a major employer in the Rockland area until recently, and a large resident art community that embraced the opportunity to turn Rockland into a bastion for restaurants, boutiques and specialty shops.

Another plus, Hastings said, is that Rockland's downtown still had its original buildings, which investment money restored to their past-era glory.

As evidence of the economic transformation, Hastings refers to a series of before and after figures:

n In 2002 the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce Web site registered 20,000 visits. Last year, the number was 300,000.

n The year before Hastings arrived, the Chamber had 11,000 visitors to its office. That number soared to 65,000 a year ago.

n Twenty-five cruise ships visited Rockland in 2006. Five years ago, not a single one came.

Hastings said many enterprising, creative people and companies had a hand in Rockland's ascension.

He said the Colby museum's remarkable acquisition has the potential to be a similar economic catalyst for the Waterville area -- as long as central Maine's enterprising, creative people capitalize on the opportunity.

"I wouldn't venture to guess how much traffic (the Colby museum's acquisition) will generate," he said. "It will generate a lot, but it will take time and an effort by a lot of people."

Erik Thomas, chairman of the Waterville Arts Council, an organization founded last summer, is confident that the area is well positioned to meet that challenge.

"Just two weeks ago," he said, "we were talking about a new marketing campaign to let local people and the rest of the state know the quality of the Colby art museum."

Thomas, who opened The Blue Marble Art Gallery on Main Street last year, said Waterville already has several other arts and cultural strengths, including the Waterville Opera House and Railroad Square Cinema.

Events such as the Maine International Film Festival, he said, also give the city a reputation as a haven for the arts.

The Colby museum's greatly enhanced collection should help draw greater attention to the art and cultural riches already in place, he said.

"I think there is a tendency not to appreciate what you have in your own backyard," he said.

Thomas said he knows a great appetite for the arts exists. He said he has seen it firsthand.

"Two hundred people show up for openings when I do them," he said, "and people are thanking me left and right for bringing something like this to town."

Colin Hickey -- 861-9205

chickey@centralmaine.com