The University of Maine at Presque Isle will host alumnus Christopher Morton for a reading and book signing to mark his debut publication – a compilation of 20 essays that provide humorous insight into life for one particular family guy in northern Maine. The event will take place on Monday, April 30 in the UMPI Library and include a reception and welcome at 6:30 p.m., a reading at 7 p.m., and a book signing to be held immediately following.

Morton’s book, You Kids Quit Pooping on the Lawn!, explores a wide range of unexpected topics. According to the back of the book, this includes: “Braised hippo tonsils. Whirling visionary Pentecostal dancers. Aliens. Accordions. Strange piles on the lawn. With gentle humor and a keen eye for deeper meaning, a simple man takes on the world swirling around him in a series of short essays. From family life and the terrors of fatherhood to the perils of hunting camp exorcisms, the essays are funny, poignant, sincere, occasionally bizarre, and always entertaining.”

The University of Maine at Presque Isle Fine Art Program faculty is pleased to announce that three solo shows developed through the 2012 Fine Art Senior Thesis Exhibition course will be hosted in April and May at the Pullen Art Gallery.

UMPI’s Fine Art Senior Thesis Exhibition, a six-credit, academic-year-long course, provides students with the kind of in-depth educational opportunity that most Art students never experience until they are in graduate school. In fact, UMPI’s Fine Art program is the only one in the entire State of Maine in which every senior must prepare for and host a one-person art exhibition of his or her work, and defend it orally and in writing, in order to graduate.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Fine Art Gallery will present its second exhibition of photographs by Andy Warhol at the opening reception of Eye to Eye with Andy Warhol: The Multiples on Friday, May 4 from 5-7 p.m. The public is invited to attend the exhibition’s reception, which is being held in conjunction with the Presque Isle First Friday Art Walk.

The exhibition, which will be on display May 4 through June 16, is being sponsored by the Maine Community Foundation (The Meander Fund); the Maine Arts Commission; the Bank of Maine Presque Isle; and Morningstar Art and Framing, which framed the exhibit. The photos are among the 153 silver gelatin prints and Polaroid photographs that UMPI received in the spring of 2008 – valued at more than $100,000 – from the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program.

Students from the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Native Voices group will host a day-long event meant to develop strong connections between higher education and the Native American/First Nations indigenous populations by setting aside a day on campus that focuses on their culture and traditions.

The group will host the Fifth Annual Native Appreciation Day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 21, in Wieden Hall. All interested students, faculty, staff, and members of the general public are welcome to attend and participate in this free event, which is being supported by Project Compass.

In remembrance of a well-known and honored Maine geologist and paleontologist, the University of Maine at Presque Isle will host a memorial gathering for UMPI Emeritus Professor of Geology William H. “Bill” Forbes on Friday, April 13 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the Campus Center. The gathering is being held in conjunction with the spring meeting of the Geological Society of Maine, which takes place on campus earlier that day. Former students, colleagues and friends are invited to attend the memorial.

Forbes, who passed away in 2011, was a long-time geologist, accomplished field investigator, and internationally known researcher of Devonian paleobotony who taught at UMPI for more than 20 years. Officials said holding the memorial in conjunction with the GSM meeting seemed the appropriate thing to do since Forbes had such a significant impact on geologists throughout the state – and the greater science community – during his lifetime.

Working and aspiring geologists from throughout Maine, as well as geology-focused educators and students, will gather at the University of Maine at Presque Isle when it hosts the Spring 2012 meeting of the Geological Society of Maine on Friday, April 13. The meeting will be held on the second floor of UMPI’s Campus Center from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This is only the second time in the society’s 38-year history that one of its annual meetings has been held at UMPI. The Geological Society of Maine [GSM], founded in 1974, is a non-profit organization dedicated to geological issues and education in Maine, according to its website. The society’s mission includes furthering public awareness and understanding of the geology of the State of Maine, and of the modern geologic processes which affect the Maine landscape and the human environment.