The Maine art community remembers longtime Portland resident and local photography advocate Stephen Karl Halpert as a lover of life and the arts.
Stephen Halpert in 2009 Photo by Press Herald staff
Halpert, a photography curator and former owner of the legendary art film studio The Movies on Exchange, died Saturday from complications of pancreatic cancer. He was 91 years old.
Halpert was chair of the English department at the University of New England for over 50 years, where he held photography exhibitions until his 90s. He also taught at the Portland School of Art and the University of Maine.
Karl Halpert, his eldest son, said in an interview that his father was “highly intellectual” and “loved the arts.”
“He had a great interest and appreciation for every kind of art form. He was a lover of beauty,” Halpert said.
Halpert said he “couldn’t have asked for a better father” and that people immediately “gravitated toward him and trusted him.”
Halpert was originally from Waterbury, Connecticut, and moved to Portland in 1936 and lived there for the rest of his life. He graduated from Deering High School in 1951 and received his bachelor’s degree from Brown University in 1995. He then earned his master’s degree from Harvard.
Halpert and his wife of 68 years, Judy, had four children: Karl, Gretchen, Jacob and Kate. He also leaves behind grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins and dear friends, his family said.
In addition to the exhibitions, Steve and Judy Halpert operated The Movies on Exchange, a space that showed art and repertory films, from 1979 to 2009.
“Steve and I enjoyed hosting the Jewish Film Festival at The Movies for many years,” said Judy Halpert. “We especially enjoyed having some of the Israeli actors from the films visit Portland during the festival.”
Stephen Halpert, pictured here in 2005, owned The Movies on Exchange Street in Portland. Photo by Press Herald staff
Kate Lowry, their daughter, said: “Dad believed that things should last a very long time, maybe even forever.”
“He was incredibly nostalgic, sentimental and respectful of the past,” Lowry said. “This was evident in his love for preserving his beloved city of Portland. He (and Judy) served on the board of Greater Portland Landmarks. We have many photos Dad took of buildings that are being demolished, a testament to his nostalgic love for our city.”
“My father’s integrity is what I will remember most,” said Jacob Halpert. “He never cared about money or status. He never lied to you, but if he disagreed, he would just smile and let you talk.”
Gretchen Halpert said her father “grew up in a family that appreciated film, photography, music and literature. His father, Harold, was a fine pianist who taught music, literature and Latin. His mother, Florence, loved the theater and all the arts and was a designer.”
Photographer Rose Marasco met Halpert in the late 1970s when she contributed photographs to one of his galleries. He was teaching at what was then Westbrook Junior College, which later became part of UNE.
A “POWERFUL, DYNAMIC FORCE”
When there was no photography gallery in Westbrook, Halpert set one up himself. In the 1960s, he opened his shop in the college’s Alexander Hall, which Marasco attributed to Halpert’s “inventiveness and love of photography.”
“It wasn’t really a gallery, but he made it a gallery and started doing very good exhibitions,” said Marasco, a professor emeritus of photography at the University of Southern Maine.
Marasco joked that Halpert initially had to “beg, borrow and steal” photographs, but then formed a community of artists who “gladly” contributed their photographs to his exhibitions.
Until Westbrook Junior College merged with UNE in 1996, Halpert exhibited art in open spaces throughout the Westbrook Junior College campus and subsequently began hosting rotating exhibitions in the university’s gallery.
In 2016, a multimillion-dollar annual donation to the UNE gallery from Leonard Lauder and Judy Glickman Lauder—art collectors including Estée Lauder—breathed new life into UNE’s photography collection. For the first time, Halpert had a budget to purchase photographs that he exhibited in the newly named Stephen K. Halpert Photography Collection.
Hilary Irons, UNE’s gallery and exhibition director, said Halpert was a “powerful, dynamic force.”
“He recognized that a single image, frozen in the timeless space of a photograph, held the potential for deep self-reflection,” said Irons. “Steve approached collecting and exhibiting photography at UNE with energy, insight, good humor, and an amazing ability to connect both images and people in his exhibitions.”
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