The Blog is Back!

Yahooooo

I’m back at the Maine Arts Education blog for all you amazing blog readers, 1,472 of you – educators, artists, arts directors, community members and so many more people who I know read the blog every day. So much has happened during my hiatus in the world of arts education. I realize I can’t go back and provide you with ALL of the information that has come across my desk and that has been happening BUT I can share some of the highlights – starting tomorrow. In the meantime if you’ve had an event, attended one, know about an upcoming one and you’d like to send me the information and photos to include in the  blog please don’t hesitate to email me at meartsed@gmail.com. Thanks so much!

I’ve been busy and I’m sure you have as well. Some of my highlights:

• Meeting with the following educators planning our June trip to Mpamila Village in Malawi to provide professional development workshops in arts integration for 10 days for 20 educators from several villages in the Ntchisi district:
  • Lindsay Pinchbeck, Director and Founder Sweet Tree Arts and Sweetland School
  • Ian Bannon, Teaching Artist and Director of Education, Figures of Speech Theatre and Associate Project Manager, Celebration Barn Theater
  • Amy Cousins, Visual Arts Teacher Gorham Middle School and 2019 Maine Art Education Association Teacher of the Year
  • Hannah Wells, Teacher at Sweetland School and Illustrator & Designer
  • Hope Lord, Visual Arts Teacher Maranacook Community Middle School
• 

  Mid-Coast School of Technology

  Sewing dresses and pants for the learners in Mpamila School. If you’re interested in supporting this work, please let me know. We have 100 dresses sewn and 70 pants (30 to go). We can use some support to purchase underwear to put in the pockets. T-shirts and beanie babies have been donated by very generous people.

• Recently we took the Sweetland Middle School students to the Mid-Coast School of Technology for a tour. Amazing new building and the mural designed by students and a local artist at the entrance inside and out is amazing. We will be visiting a sailmakers shop next week and continue making our boat that compliments the Odyssey studies underway. Each week during photography the learners travel to Maine Coast School of Photography to use their facility. Our middle schoolers are participating in apprenticeships with a local photography, jeweler, actor, and at The Apprenticeshop in Rockland. They are having amazing learning opportunities with wonderful artists.
• Through my HundrED work we’ve connected with an arts integration program in India and are excited about planning with them on a project for the fall.
• Arts education events including this past weekends performances of Maine Drama Festival at Camden Hills Regional High School – wow, the students were awesome!

I look forward to hearing from you with your news to share!