Saco Museum “Artist’s Talk”

MAEA show

Brunswick art teacher Allison Price was the organizer of an intriguing “art talk” on a recent Saturday afternoon to accompany the Maine Art Education Association’s Exhibit titled “After Hours” at the Saco Museum.

Five other teaching artists gathered with Allison; Meryl Ruth, Robin Brooks, Manon Lewis, Debbie Bickford and Charlie Johnson. The  discussion included a wide range of topics, including artist’s early memories, advocacy, process vs. product, teaching creativity, relationships with students, teachers as artists and assessment, among others. The audience had several questions toward the end of the conversation and audience members came to Allison afterwards to tell her they could have listened for another hour because the discussion was so compelling.

The discussion in it’s entirety (90 minutes, but a good flow and clear audio) can be found at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxJsGy-IBRrhUUdkSVpjRkZ4aW8/edit?usp=sharing and there are a couple of short videos created from some of the artworks and clips of the discussion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO8sLKJ6Bv8       Saco Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO8sLKJ6Bv8       Saco Project 2

“I was so very impressed with the quality and variety of work in the “After Hours” exhibit, and sitting amongst the work of all these talented people to talk with colleagues about what we do with learners in the ARTS and why we do it was a most rewarding and affirming experience!”  Charlie Johnson

Thanks to Charlie Johnson, Mount Desert Island High School arts educator for contributing this blog post and creating the videos to document the opportunity.