Thanks and kudos to Elizabeth McCandless, president of the Portland Museum of Art’s Board of Trustees, for her heartfelt opinion piece of July 19 expressing the power of art and for acknowledging the pain felt by some over the plan to replace the former Children’s Museum building with a new addition.

I wonder at her restraint. As one who is not in the inner circle of the arts world but enjoys and appreciates Maine’s art scene, I have read all of the Press Herald’s coverage about the museum controversy – news and opinion pieces both. At every stage, I saw the PMA’s leaders and local government officials acting responsibly and with care about the difficult trade-offs between historic preservation and strategic decisions. At every stage, I witnessed opponents to the plan denigrate those actors, accusing them of bad faith, ignorance and caring nothing for historic preservation.

As an observer of the process, I have become newly excited about the PMA, not only about its building plans but because I’m impressed with how they have handled unnecessary and divisive attacks by those who simply disagree with the difficult conclusion they reached.

Jeanne Hey
Saco