The Abbe offers innovative exhibitions and programs on Maine’s Native American heritage. In recent years, the Abbe has grown from a small but lovely trailside museum, privately operated within Acadia National Park, to an exciting contemporary museum in the heart of downtown Bar Harbor. At the Abbe’s new downtown museum, visitors find dynamic and stimulating exhibitions and activities interspersed with spaces for quiet reflection. The history and cultures of Maine’s Native people, the Wabanaki, are showcased through changing exhibitions, special events, teacher workshops, archaeology field schools and craft workshops for children and adults. From spring through fall, the Abbe’s historic trailside museum at Sieur de Monts Spring continues to offer visitors a step back in time to early 20th century presentations of the Native American archaeology of Maine. The Abbe serves as an essential resource for helping teachers and students comply with new state legislation, known as "the Wabanaki Initiative," that requires the teaching of Wabanaki cultures and history in Maine schools. As Donna Loring, former Penobscot Nation Representative to the Maine Legislature and sponsor of the Wabanaki Initiative, has written, "With education will come understanding and with understanding will come respect...." Abbe staff members serve as facilitators and advisors for statewide programs to implement the legislation.