Who Are They?: Schoodic Arts for All, Part 3

Art club

This blog post is part of a series called Who Are They? where information is provided for the Maine Arts Ed blog readers to learn about community organizations and institutions that provide educational opportunities in the arts. You will learn that they are partnering with other organizations and schools to extend learning opportunities, not supplant. Please consider ways in which you can collaborate to provide excellent arts education for all learners.

This is the third blog post of the series highlighting the work of Schoodic Arts for All located in Hammond Hall, 427 Main Street in Winter Harbor. This area is called Downeast Maine and Schoodic Arts for All is at the intersection of Hancock and Washington Counties. Schoodic Arts for All is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering interest and involvement in the arts for all who wish to participate.

Schoodic Arts for All’s after school Art Club is a once a week hands-on experiential arts lesson for

In March, Art Club was all about Pottery: What a messy, fun time throwing clay on the wheel!

Peninsula School children enrolled in the EdGE program.

EdGE (Ed Greaves Education) is an innovative youth development program of the Maine Sea Coast Mission for students in grades 4-8 in coastal Washington County. It is designed to encourage youth to stay engaged in school, aspire towards and attain higher levels of achievement, and develop the personal skills that will enable them to achieve success. These goals are pursued using a wide range of interdisciplinary and experiential curriculum.

The Schoodic Arts for All Art Club program brings students in the EdGe program together with

local professional artists and crafters who teach clay, metal, paint, paper, fiber, and more. Students in the club are encouraged to help choose upcoming guest artists by sharing their ideas of topics they would like to explore.  Art Club’s lead teacher, Anna Woolf records the students’ ideas and searches for local artists who will visit as guest artists.

This spring students in the Art Club are enjoying:

• Pottery: on the Wheel and Hand-Building
• Sumi-e: Japanese Brush Painting with Wendilee Heath O’Brien

Asian Art – Sumi – e, or dancing brush painting, is the art of making each brush stroke important. Students learn how to grind pine pitch ink, charge the brush, and capture the essence of what you paint on tissue fine paper.

• Illustration with Bill Davis
• Clay Pens with Mary Lyman

Many Art Club sessions have time dedicated to “Open Studio” to work on continuing projects and experimenting with new media. At this time, pottery is the foundation since the lead teacher is a professional potter. Other media that is openly available include any materials introduced while learning from the guest artists: polymer clay, a wide variety of drawing materials, painting materials, bookbinding, papermaking and marbling, and sumi-e brush painting.

Guest artist Wendilee Heath O’Brien gave a wonderful lesson on Sumi-e, complete with inks and brushes from Japan.

Wendilee even taught a portion of lesson in Japanese!

For more information about Art Club and/or if you would like to visit as a guest artist e-mail anna@schoodicartsforall.org.

Who Are They?: Schoodic Arts for All, Part 1

Introducing: Schoodic Arts for All

This blog post is part of a series called Who Are They? where information is provided for the Maine Arts Ed blog readers to learn about community organizations and institutions that provide educational opportunities in the arts. You will learn that they are partnering with other organizations and schools to extend learning opportunities, not supplant. Please consider ways in which you can collaborate to provide excellent arts education for all learners.

This is the first blog post of the series highlighting the work of Schoodic Arts for All located in Hammond Hall, 427 Main Street in Winter Harbor. This area is called Downeast Maine and Schoodic Arts for All is at the intersection of Hancock and Washington Counties. Schoodic Arts for All is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering interest and involvement in the arts for all who wish to participate.

Mission

The mission of Schoodic Arts for All is to bring together and provide opportunities for people of all ages to experience and appreciate the arts. Since our beginning in 1999, Schoodic Arts for All has been an integral part of our community as an arts presenting organization. In addition, we also area centerpiece for the downtown renovation, a positive influence on the economic situation, a resource for the schools in our district and a venue for the community events in our town.

History

Schoodic Arts for All was born in 1999 as a grassroots citizen’s group (Schoodic Futures) to address the dire economic impact on the town due to the closure of the Winter Harbor Navy base.  The loss of $11.5 million dollars in payroll and another $9 million in losses to vendors of equipment, supplies, and services to the navy cut the population by half, leaving only 23 students in the school and 100 empty buildings in town. Our task was to bring back life and vitality through increased visitation and economic opportunity.

One early answer to the question of how to save the community was to hold a two-week arts festival. In a region with little industry, most of the people who live here are engaged in creative occupations. These include the visual arts, music, craft, writing, design, architecture, and organic agriculture. After that first two-week festival, and following a two-year planning and data gathering process, one wish of the community that consistently surfaced was to provide increased “live arts” opportunities for participation and performance.

The Schoodic Arts Festival is the best known program that we do – it’s our signature program and begins in a few weeks. This year we have 85 workshops and 26 performances in 14 days! It’s our flagship program.

Schoodic Arts for All Programs

Art Club

Our Afterschool Art Club activities connect children with local professional artists who’s experience and passion for their craft inspire our club members to aspire to a life in the arts.

Schoodic Summer Chorus 

A multi-generational a capella community chorus devoted to nurturing musicianship and community, in residence at Hammond Hall. Directed by singer and composer Anna Dembska, the chorus is open to anyone who loves to sing.

 

Museum Field Trips  

One of our first participants had this to say about our January trip to The Farnsworth Art Museum: “Winter days are short.  This trip was a brilliant idea.  It recharged creative minds on many levels and was a good day long social event.”

Union of Maine Visual Artists (UMVA) 

If you are interested in the arts, if you are an artist, if you have a friend who is an artist, or if you want to know about what’s going on in the arts community, come and join us. All are welcome!

Pandemonium Steel Pan Band 

Our youth steel drum band, Pandemonium (intermediate), rehearses throughout the year and have performance opportunities annually at the Schoodic Arts Festival as well as at local school assemblies.

 

Schoodic Arts for All Meetinghouse Theatre Lab

The Meetinghouse Theatre Lab is dedicated to creating a yearly ensemble of performance artists who come together to excite the senses, push the limits, and explode the definition of “create” with the aim of growing as performers and enriching the humanity of all involved. The Theatre Lab has presented readings, staged readings, and full productions, both classic and contemporary.

If you have questions about Schoodic Arts for All please contact the Executive Director, Mary Laury, at marylaury@schoodicartsforall.org.

Oxford Hills Middle School Art

News from Sue Moccia

Sue emailed with a photo of a large glass mosaic photo attached of a piece that her Art Club had created. She said: “It is so beautiful when the light shines through the colors.”

Depiction of the different courses students participate in at our Middle School; Language Arts, music,health, math, social studies, science, art, spanish and phys. ed. The first panel is our mascot.

The project started out with an idea for a series of mosaic windows called “Peace from Broken Pieces”.  Sue wrote a proposal and sent it to Donorschoose.org.  It was funded and the students created 3 peace signs for the school.

They brainstormed other peaceful images and after much discussion decided to make an American flag for their local Veteran’s Home. The school’s Literacy Specialist saw the window and asked the students to make one for the Cole Transportation Museum in Bangor. Each year the 8th graders take a trip there
to talk to the Veterans. Under Sue’s guidance students created one and sent it to them and it hangs in the front hall of the museum.

Sue also has a group of educators that come to the art room on Thursday afternoons to make mosaic windows. Many are people who thought they had no artistic talent but are now hooked on glass. It has been a great way to get to know the people in the district.

Teacher window

Thank you Sue for sharing the information about this wonderful artwork and the photos!