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!

Creative Aging

Grant recipient

Figures of Speech Theatre was the recipient of a Creative Aging grant this year from the Maine Arts Commission. The project took place at The Park Danforth, an assisted senior living and retirement home located in Portland. Ian Bannon is the Director of Education for Figures of Speech Theatre. And he is a member of the two Maine Arts Commission teaching artist rosters – creative aging and PK-12.  Ian shared this video that was created during the project at The Park Danforth. The Maine Arts Commission provided the opportunity a workshop for the TimeSlips program. TimeSlips is a creative storytelling methodology that is addresses the needs of people with cognitive challenges. If you’re not familiar with TimeSlips please take 4 minutes and watch the video. It provides an overview of the program and the magic that Ian Bannon brings to the program.

The Art of Memory

Working on the outer islands

Teaching Artist and Director of Education for Figures of Speech Theatre Ian Bannon isn’t afraid to take on challenging ideas and make them into something lasting for learners.

Last year Figures of Speech Theatre and the Island Institute partnered to produce “The Art of Memory: Stories from Maine’s Outer Islands,” a shadow puppet film based on oral histories gathered on some of Maine’s most remote islands. He traveled from island to island during the spring of 2015 working with students to create the video. For details of the work please CLICK HERE.

You can view the 5-minute behind-the-scenes documentary by CLICKING HERE. And, the full 35-minute film at THIS LINK.

Ian is on the Maine Arts Commission Teaching Artist roster and this project was partially funded by the Maine Arts Commission.

Figures of Speech Theatre creates and tours visionary works of performance forged at the intersection of poetry, music, sculpture and dance.Whether the work is an adaptation of a simple Comanche Indian legend, the recitation of T.S. Eliot poetry, or a silent, visual tapestry surrounding a piece of contemporary classical music, our dream is to create theater in which the form of the work so intricately meshes with the content of the work that the two are as one, and each invisibly reinforces the other. As Doris Lessing has said, “The story dictates the means of telling it.”

Drawing on the artistic genius of many collaborators, the company guides adventurous audiences on journeys where, in the words of one reviewer, “layers of reality vs. abstraction, of reality vs. performance, of perception itself, are gently explored.”

The company has toured all over the world – from Sofia, Bulgaria to Tokyo, Japan, to Lima, Peru. Besides performing at venues such as the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institution, and the New Victory Theatre on Broadway, the company retains a strong commitment to teaching and performing throughout its home state of Maine.

TimeSlips

Creative Aging

Ian Bannon, Teaching Artist, from Figures of Speech and Celebration Barn, trying out the TimeSlips techniques

One week ago the Maine Arts Commission (MAC) provided a fabulous professional development opportunity through TimeSlips. You might be wondering, what the heck is TimeSlips?!

Taken from their website: TimeSlips is an open, poetic language of improvisational storytelling which invites people with memory loss to express themselves and connect with others.  TimeSlips brings meaning to long term care.

Before the workshop the 20 participants, which was a combination of  artists, professionals from the health care field, MAC staff, and caregivers prepared themselves by accessing online training modules. I was fortunate to participate and found myself very ready and excited to attend the all day workshop after doing my online homework. And, I am very impressed with the program. Joan Williamson from TimeSlips traveled from Milwaukee, WI the home of TimeSlips, to provide the training at UNE in Portland.

After we participated in some exercises we traveled to The Park Danforth, a nearby elder living facility, to try out the TimeSlips process. It was wonderful to see TimeSlips in action and Ian Bannon from Figures of Speech Theatre and Celebration Barn volunteered to try it out. He was awesome! Often the participants break into song when something in the story leads to that and we saw two examples of that during the process.

This opportunity is part of the MAC Creative Aging program which is administered by Kathleen Mundell. You can learn more at https://mainearts.maine.gov/Pages/Traditional/CreativeAging#. Included in the program is a Teaching Artist Roster for those interested in working with older adults. Don’t hesitate to contact Kathleen at kathleen.mundell@maine.gov about the Creative Aging program or TimeSlips, if you have questions.

Ian in action

More Info on TimeSlips

TimeSlips is a non-profit that aims to:

• Improve the lives of people with memory loss through creative engagement
• Reach a day when creative engagement is standard practice for all levels of care

TimeSlips offers:

• Certification to Individuals and Organizations in creative engagement with people with memory loss
• Consulting on creating sustainable partnerships and structures to support creative engagement
• Resources for those dedicated to transforming dementia care through creative engagement

If you’d like to learn more about TimeSlips please click HERE.