So how sophisticated is it? Today the museum is Maine's second-largest (eclipsed last year by an expansion of the Portland Museum of Art), with more than 28,000 square feet of exhibition space. It showcases a prized collection of 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century art, among other treasures, and is the definitive repository of work by Katz. In the newest addition, The Lunder Wing, completed in 1999, the largest academic-museum collection of paintings and drawings by the expressionist John Marin is on permanent display.

An installation crew, with sculptor Richard Serra kneeling at left, positions one of the three solid steel blocks that compose Serra's sculpture 4-5-6, which graces the entrance to the Museum of Art.

All this hasn't gone unnoticed. Some 30,000 visitors stroll the galleries every year, by the museum's estimates. And it's all free of charge. "It was always important to see Colby as a resource, to reach out to the broader community," said Bill Cotter, president emeritus. "The museum was a natural."

Pieces from Colby's collection are loaned for exhibitions across the country and around the world. A traveling Alex Katz show recently was the toast of Frankfurt and Baden-Baden, Germany, and Lugano, Switzerland, and this year an Italian publication devoted to LeWitt's sculptures had a photo of Colby's Seven Walls splashed across two full pages-the most prominent image in the publication.

"Bravo to the people who brought you the Richard Serra and the Katz and all of the art that you have," said Christine Temin, art critic for The Boston Globe.

There's no question that the museum has risen in prominence since Gourley was asked where he spent the winter. Its Board of Governors is knowledgeable, influential and well-connected, with personal ties to prominent artists who have figured in several of the museum's recent acquisition coups. Its healthy endowment for acquisition (now at $7.6 million) is the envy of many. All of which combines to make it "a place that's going places," wrote critic Grace Glueck in The New York Times in 2001.