BY MATTHEW STONE

Staff Writer

The new highway service plaza in West Gardiner will regularly attract thousands of drivers traveling through central Maine.

But the owners of seven central Maine art galleries want to use the plaza to tell drivers why they should stick around and explore the area.

Seven art galleries stretching along the Kennebec River from Richmond to Augusta are teaming up to coordinate show openings, art classes and promotional efforts. The collaborative also is at work on a joint Web site and a brochure to distribute at the new service plaza.

With the help of the Maine Centers for Women, Work and Community, based at the University of Maine at Augusta, the seven galleries have formed "Artery: Visual Arts Along the Kennebec."

"We see it as a community development endeavor," said Wendy Rose of Women, Work and Community. "To try to bring people into the galleries also brings people to those downtowns."

The seven galleries in the collaborative are all in downtown areas.

Edward Mackenzie's Store Gallery is located on Richmond's Main Street. The Artdogs gallery has space on Gardiner's downtown stretch, Water Street. Beach's Custom Framing is on Augusta's Water Street.

In Hallowell, the four galleries -- Cerulean Fine Art Gallery, the Harlow Gallery, Kennebec River Artisans and Hallowell Clay Works -- dot the city's Water Street.

The member galleries each contributed $50 to the effort, Rose said. The Women, Work and Community centers were able to offer a $400 matching grant.

Collaborative efforts are also under way among galleries in the Bath and Skowhegan areas, Rose said.

"We're here to complement each other rather than to compete," said Janna Civittolo, co-owner of Cerulean Fine Art Gallery.

The galleries can find efficiencies in joint promotion efforts, Civittolo said.

"There's been a number of projects, and there's been a lot of reinvention of the wheel," she said. "And I think that's because of a lack of communication amongst the galleries in the area."

Todd Beach, of Beach's Custom Framing, said he decided to join forces with the other galleries to raise his profile. He opened his shop approximately a year ago, he said.

Beach also rounded out the collaborative with a presence in Augusta.

"I just thought it was a good way to just get my name out there," he said.

For Mackenzie, the collaborative could better connect his Richmond gallery to others in central Maine.

"Here in Richmond, it's pretty sparse," he said. "It would benefit the likes of me because it puts me in that circuit, that arena."

And all of the galleries could find some benefit from joint promotions and referrals, the gallery owners agreed.

"If people came to me, I could forward them onto the other members of the organization," Mackenzie said.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com