Brunswick is home to a vibrant community of artists and craftspeople working in mill studios and selling their wares in galleries and unique shops. The downtown is wonderfully walkable, with a good weekend’s worth of home and design destinations within an easy stroll for myself and my dear friend Lisa Collins. An Amtrak Downeaster stop in town allows for a fully car-free getaway for the design minded.

Lodging

The Federal Hotel, located just off Maine Street, offers a comfortable, well-designed home base for exploring Brunswick. Husband-and-wife owners Gerard and Annie Kiladjian have poured their hearts and their respective skills (he’s a longtime hotelier, and she’s an interior designer) into this historic property. For those so inclined, the Federal offers a fitness room and a yoga room; for the rest of us, there’s complimentary tea and coffee in the morning.

Arts

The Bowdoin College campus anchors one end of downtown and hosts a diverse array of performances and exhibition. People Watching: Contemporary Photography since 1965, with a walk through the development of the medium, can easily absorb most of a morning. It’s on display until November 2023, but it’s just one of the Bowdoin Museum’s well curated and frequently refreshed exhibition, which are free and open to the public. The nearby Curtis Memorial Library is also worth a visit. Until October, it’s hosting Robert McCloskey: The Art of Wonder, an exhibition of the beloved author and illustrator’s drawings. Grab a copy of Make Way for Ducklings and compare its images with the original sketches displayed near the children’s section. You can support the library (and your reading habit) with a visit to Twice-Told Tales, which might be the best-organized used bookstore you’ve ever seen.

If museum browsing inspires you to find some art to bring home, visit Bayview Gallery, where you’ll find Maine landscapes for every taste (unless your taste is very abstract), along with other New England–focused art. The Lemont Block Collective offers diverse work by local artists and craftspeople. Spindleworks Art Center provides support for people with intellectual disabilities; participating artists’ work is for sale in its gallery, and you can tour the studios as well. 

At the opposite end of Maine Street from Bowdoin, a busy hive of artists and craftspeople is concealed behind the historic brick walls of the Fort Andross Mill Complex. Keep an eye out for open studio events around the holidays; otherwise, you’ll need to reach out to artists to schedule visits. On our weekend, we barely scratch the surface, dropping in to see Ellen Golden’s intricate works in ink, Kate Beck’s abstract landscapes, William Zingaro’s metal sculptures, Carla Weeks’s geometric paintings, and Bicyclette’s custom wooden furniture. We also visit the cavernous studio of John Bisbee. Long renowned for sculpting dramatic forms from 12-inch steel spikes, Bisbee has recently turned to painting. He’s also invited emerging artists working in varying media and styles to share his space, creating a unique and dynamic node within Brunswick’s supportive arts community.

Shopping

Brunswick’s eclectic shops are a homebody’s delight. Nest is stuffed to the gills with home decor and gifts: stacks of wooden utensils, piles of colorful drawer pulls, racks of jewelry, and much more. Hatch on Maine and Hatch Home are a bit less maximalist but plenty diverse, with carefully selected new and vintage home goods. Cabot Mill Antiques, in the Fort Andross building, hosts 160 dealers of diverse antiques and vintage goods, from early American furniture to a huge selection of Fiestaware. 

Dining

The Federal’s on-site restaurant, 555 North, is the Brunswick reincarnation of the beloved Portland restaurant 555, which closed in 2020. The cocktails are creative, the wine list is strong, and the food is seasonal, fresh, and well executed. A summer meal includes a salad of local vegetables and the Lobster Knuckle “Sandwich,” which layers a creamy, herby lobster salad between warm, crisp slices of fried green tomato. Dessert options lean classic, including crème brûlée, bread pudding, and affogato. 

Ritual Bakehouse offers a gorgeous selection of pastries and cakes along with local roasts and a good selection of teas. At ZaoZe Cafe and Market, you can pick up Asian pantry items and frozen foods along with house-made hot sauces and sambals. Lunch is offered Wednesday through Saturday, and there’s a dim sum brunch on Sundays. After our first lunch there, we had to go back for a second round of Kung Pao Cauliflower, a crispy, spicy delight best washed down with a Vietnamese coffee or Thai iced tea.

If you grab a table for lunch or dinner at the cozy Shere Punjab, you’ll need a strategy for pacing yourself: dig too deep into the basket of papadums with chutneys and you’ll fill up well before you’re done enjoying the rich, fragrant Indian dishes. (Our favorites were the saag dal and lamb vindaloo.) You can pick your level of spice, from one to ten; if you aim for the upper range, you’ll want a lassi or raita to cool off your mouth. Mango ice cream is a sweet end to a busy day of walking, looking, shopping, and enjoying the arts in Brunswick.