The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art will open an exhibit today around the issue of marriage equality, led off with a husband-husband documentation of a same-sex relationship, but extending to real-estate open houses and revolutions.

Word is, it also includes a chronicle by a woman who married and divorced four times in six months.

No, we're not prognosticating on who is going to win.

But if you want to learn about what the gubernatorial candidates think about the arts and the "creative economy" there's just one place to go:

www.MeetTheGovernor.com

Andres Verzosa of Aucocisco Galleries has taken it upon himself to interview each of the candidates on their views on the arts and creativity in Maine, and has posted the video of those conversations online.

Karen Gelardi and Meghan Brady have a dual show going up at the Coleman Burke Gallery in New York City on Thursday - if you're heading that way any weekend between now and and April 16, be sure to check it out! The gallery is at 638 West 28th Street, and is open Fridays and Saturdays from 10 am to 6 pm. The opening reception is this Thursday, March 4, from 6 to 8 pm.

The New England Art Awards, organized by the New England Journal of Aesthetic Research, run by Greg Cook, who is also a Boston Phoenix arts writer, have announced this year's winners, who include several Mainers.

Critics and readers alike voted on the selections. Here are the winners (those from Maine, or regarding exhibits in Maine, are in bold):

Portland resident Phillip Hoose won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature last night, for Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). The book tells the story of Colvin, a near-forgotten civil-rights heroine; Colvin was in the audience with Hoose at the awards ceremony in NY, and was "shaken with emotion as she joined Hoose on the stage," according to an AP report.

Recently, Megan Grumbling wrote about Creek Man: The Unforgettable True Story of the Accordion-Playing Merman, a play written and performed by its subject, Gary Sredzienski, known in Seacoast-land as "Creek Man."

Harbor Light Stage, which produced the play, has announced there's another run of the show, this time not in York, but in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at Strawbery Banke, the local-history museum and arts center.

Last time Portland got a city "poet laureate" (Martin Steingesser, whose one-year term mysteriously doubled in length), the choice was made by a tiny self-appointed group of people purporting to represent all Portlanders - despite the fact that two of them lived in other towns. And once they made their pick, they pushed the Portland City Council to make it government-approved-official.

The SouthPortlander reports that Mad Horse Theatre Company, who are performing Alan Bennett's The History Boys for a few more days (read Megan Grumbling's review here), agreed with the South Portland City Council last night to rent the former Hutchins School on Mosher Street (barely a block from Lyric Music Theatre in what we might as well start calling South Portland's "Theater District").

On Friday evening, I meandered over to Lyric Music Theatre in South Portland to catch opening night of Cabaret. (The Portland Phoenix's own Deirdre Fulton plays a nightclub dancer and, memorably, the gorilla; contributor Dan Clark also appears as the thuggish nightclub owner and a sex-crazed sailor. We will leave all suppositions, innuendos, and other commentaries to our readers.

Maybe this is why Portland is such a safe town: our police officers are comfortable tapping into their creative side. On Wednesday, the Portland Police Department will release its 2009 calendar filled with "poetry and photography...produced by police officers, detectives, local poets and photographers and tells the story of life and work within the Portland Police Department.

Yes, so you've read all the exhortations to buy local, and shop local, and all that stuff. But you're out of money, and you still need some more gifts. Well, from the Shameless Promotion Department of the Portland Phoenix, we offer this advice:

Pick up a FREE copy of this week's issue of the Portland Phoenix, and use a pair of scissors (borrow one if you have to) to cut out the artwork by eight local artists, and give them away to friends and family!