A prolific artist of exceptional clarity, humor, insight, and tenderness from Madawaska will have some of his work on display at the Acadian Archives.

“Peter Archambault or The Art of Transforming an Ethnic Slur Into a Cultural Icon” is currently on display at the Acadian Archives of the University of Maine at Fort Kent campus.

The late Peter G. Archambault, who passed away in 2015, was born in Madawaska in 1939. Upon graduating from Madawaska High School, Archambault attended St. Joseph College in Biddeford (now the University of New England) and the Rhode Island School of Art & Design, where he honed his artistic drawing skills.

The exhibit at the Acadian Archives is just a snapshot of a fourteen-year period in the artist’s lifetime portfolio. Some of his efforts include the North American political landscapes of the 1970s and 1980s and building cultural awareness and empowering Franco-Americans in the Northeast. Many of these images explore issues of Franco-American cultural identity through the life of Beau-Frog, an amphibian cartoon character named for the ethnic slur directed toward Francophone and French-heritage people. Scores of Archambault’s other drawings landed in publications throughout New England and New Brunswick, and many more never saw publication at all.

The exhibit is free and open to the public during the Archives' regular business hours, Mondays through Fridays, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

For more information on the exhibit, contact the Archives at (207) 834-7535.

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