November Gifts

Theatre – alive and well in Maine high schools

One of the best parts about November is that high schools across Maine provide opportunities for students to perform in theatre productions. The added benefits to our state are many! People of all ages can engage in stories, some old and classic, and some newer. The community including parents, children, seniors, retired folks and anyone who lives in the town where the school is located, as well as surrounding towns, have a chance to watch, listen and learn as teens take to the stage. There aren’t many opportunities during a school year for citizens to enter our school buildings. These performances can serve as advocacy for not only theatre programs but dance, music, and visual art since all of the arts are often utilized through the theatre production.

The skills and experiences gained through participation in theatre productions are not learned elsewhere!

CONGRATULATIONS…

…to all the high schoolers taking part in plays. I know that to give your best performance you have practiced for many days and weeks which amount to many hours while still keeping up with attending classes and doing homework. You’ve worked individually and with your peers practicing lines, your position on stage with how and where and when to move. You have collaborated with teachers, actors, light and sound students, costume and make up people. Your success relies on the commitment and cooperation of a huge number of people.

THANK YOU…

…to all the educators who give opening of their time after the normal school day to support the many students who participate in the theatre program. I know we have some Maine schools with theatre teachers who provide classes during the day that contribute to the production but most are doing this work after school. Your patience, kindness, and influence inspiring theatre students is amazing.

SUPPORT…

We know that it takes many people beyond the actors and teachers who help support the production in many different ways. Thank you to all of you lovers of the theatre and students who participate. I encourage everyone reading this blog post to attend a play going on at your local high school. Nothing like a full house to feel appreciated when performing!

The following are a few of the plays that are taking place in the next couple of weeks. If you are aware of others please email me at meartsed@gmail.com and I’d be glad to add them to this blog post. Thanks!

Thornton Academy, Saco presents The Odyssey. MORE INFORMATION!

Camden Hills Regional High School presents Mamma Mia! MORE INFORMATION!

Medomak Valley High School, Waldoboro presents Hello Dolly! MORE INFORMATION!

Waterville Senior High School presents Momma Mia! LEARN MORE!

Belfast High School present Grease. MORE INFORMATION!

Orono High School presents Mamma Mia! MORE INFORMATION!

Mount Desert Island High School presents Oliver! MORE INFORMATION!

Break a leg!

MAEA Conference and Awards

What a day for art education!

The Maine Art Education Association (MAEA) concluded an outstanding spring conference by presenting three, no four, awards to deserving educators. But first a word about the conference. I’ve been around long enough to see institutions transform, some for the third and fourth time. I had the pleasure of working on the planning committee for the MAEA spring conference that was held on Saturday, April 2 in Rockland at the Farnsworth Art Museum and CMCA. I’m not just talking about a conference that was held in both facilities but what took place was magical. It was delightful to see the two institutions partner with MAEA to put together a very worthwhile day for art educators.

Presentation by Daniel Salomon

The conference entitled Radical Reuse was planned and implemented by a group of people who had never worked together before, some new to their positions, and everyone went above and beyond. Over a two month period every Thursday the education staffs of both institutions and the MAEA conference planners came together on zoom to plan the annual spring conference. THANK YOU to everyone for a job well done! From CMCA: Mia Bogyo, and representing the Farnsworth: Gwendolyn Loomis Smith, Katherine Karlik, and Alexis Saba. MAEA president, Lynda Leonas, coordinated the effort with board members Iva Damon and Christine Del Rossi supporting. From the Rockland school district Richard Wehnke helped.

Printmaking with Sherrie York – Lynda Leonas and Iva Damon

The keynote was provided by Krisanne Baker, Medomak Valley High School art and ecology teacher and artist. She is committed to advocating for the ocean and inspires her students to learn about water quality, availability and rights, and ocean stewardship. Guest speaker Daniel Salomon who teaches in The Hatchery at Camden Hills Regional High School provided background information on the work he is doing with students utilizing and reusing materials and the role we each can play.

Gallery tour, Farnsworth

After the opening speakers, conference participants attended sessions on printmaking with Sherrie York, art making around ‘place’ with Alexis Iammarino, toured the Farnsworth Museum, and toured CMCA. Several merchants from Downtown Rockland supported the conference goers with discounts. During the middle of the day Daniel’s students from the Hatchery, set up outside CMCA, shared several of the projects they have been involved in this year.

Alexis Iammarino demonstrating, CMCA

AWARDS PROGRAM

The day concluded with honoring the work of four educators with an amazing backdrop of quilts at CMCA. The educators are outstanding in and out of the classroom, engaged in work at the local, regional, and state level. They work (and play) tirelessly, sometimes alone and often collaborating with others. Every day they exhibit all that is right about education. In their respective institutions they have a place at the table where they continuously advocate for students and art education. We know that an excellent education in the arts is essential, and these educators strive for every student to experience just that. 

The awards committee was led by Belfast Area High School art teacher Heidi O’Donnell. Members of the committee included Hope Lord, Maranacook Middle School art teacher and Suzanne Goulet, Waterville High School art teacher, and myself. The awards, clay vessels, were created by Carolyn Brown, Camden Hills Regional High School art teacher. In addition each educator received a plaque for their classroom and a pineapple.

The 2022 Administration/Supervision Art Educator of the Year was presented to Dr. Rachel Somerville who is at Maine College of Art & Design and Westbrook Schools. She was introduced by Melissa Perkins, Congin Elementary School art teacher, Westbrook.

Melissa presenting Rachel

The 2022 Secondary Art Educator of the year was presented to Iva Damon, art teacher at Leavitt Area High School in Turner. She was introduced by Lynda Leonas, president of MAEA and an art teacher at Walton and Washburn Elementary Schools in Auburn.

Lynda presenting Iva

The 2023 Maine Art Educator of the Year was presented to Matthew Johnson, art teacher at Westbrook High School. He was introduced by Deb Bickford who also teaches art at Westbrook High School.

Lynda Leonas presented a surprise pineapple award to Heidi for outstanding leadership and contributions to the MAEA board. She is stepping down from the board as she takes on a leadership position with the National Art Education Association.

Heidi O’Donnell, right with her Belfast colleagues Linda Nicholas, middle and Kathie Gass, left

As we move away from the challenges of the pandemic I urge you to consider:

• Become a member of MAEA, if you are not already one
• Volunteer to become a board member and take on a leadership role
• Nominate a colleague who is worthy of recognition

For more information please go to the MAEA website.

Photos taken by Heidi O’Donnell and myself.

Bye Bye Birdie

Medomak Valley High School

 

 

Congrats Krisanne Baker

International award for innovative integration of ocean ed and creative arts

(Waldoboro, Maine) – Krisanne Baker, an art teacher at Medomak Valley High School, has won an Educator Innovation Award for effectively and creatively teaching students about ocean conservation issues and empowering them to be stewards of our blue planet. Baker received a $750 cash prize.

An eighteen foot Humpback Whale designed and directed by Catherine Johnson. Students are creating a 70′ ocean awareness mural that wraps around a student courtyard at Medomak Valley High School under Krisanne Baker’s Gulf of Maine: Dare to Care curriculum. Photo: Krisanne Baker

The Educator Innovation Award was presented by Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs (Bow Seat), a Massachusetts-based nonprofit whose mission is to activate students through the arts, science, and advocacy to become the next wave of ocean leaders. Bow Seat’s flagship educational program—the global Ocean Awareness Contest—invites youth to learn about and explore the connections between human activities and the health of our ocean through visual art, writing, music, and film. Since 2012, more than 12,000 students from 106 countries and all 50 U.S. states have participated in the Ocean Awareness Contest. Bow Seat has awarded almost $300,000 in scholarships to help advance teens’ creative talents and passion for the ocean, as well as to educators who use the program as a tool to teach students about ocean conservation issues, apply classroom learning to real-world problems, and build students’ research and communication skills.

Aubrianna Nash and Kylee Miller work on their section of the 70′ mural.
Photo: Krisanne Baker

Knowing that our lives depend on the health of the ocean, Baker began a conversation about climate change in her art classrooms and found that no other teachers were addressing the subject. Baker developed the “Gulf of Maine: Dare to Care” curriculum to teach students how to use art to make a difference, specifically in ocean advocacy. When she offered her Studio Arts class the choice to work on Bow Seat’s Contest for an entire quarter and then submit their work to the competition, the students voted unanimously to do so. Krisanne’s Foundations of Arts and Creative Design classes learned  how to make accurate scientific illustrations of endangered Gulf of Maine marine animals, then created slumped recycled glass renditions of their creatures, which collectively will be a part of a display traveling from the town hall to local libraries to elementary schools beginning in 2020. The Foundations of Arts class now has a year-long focus on the Gulf of Maine.

“Bow Seat is committed to empowering ocean-conscious creators and changemakers who are using the power of creativity and imagination to bring people together to care for our shared planet,” said Linda Cabot, founder and president of Bow Seat. “We are thrilled to have educators like Krisanne as a member of our global community, and we respect the incredible work she does to ignite her students’ curiosity, encourage their creativity, and open their eyes to their own power to affect change.”

Some examples of slumped and fused glass endangered ocean creatures from Baker’s Foundations of Arts and Creative Design classes at MVHS. Photo: Krisanne Baker

“Using art to educate people, especially young people, gives me hope for this planet,” said Baker. “As an ecoartist, my personal practice uses art as a means to make change. However, five years ago, I decided to do the same as an art educator.  I teach about climate change through art because when I asked my students who was talking with them about it, no one was. It’s a tough subject and in my mind, the largest looming local and global problem our young people face. In my 25 years of teaching, never before have I had students so impassioned, empowered, and empathetic.”

Art advocacy for North Atlantic Right Whale silkscreened t-shirt; Gulf of Maine: Endangered Ocean Species silkscreen unit.

Visit bowseat.org for more information about Bow Seat’s programs, educational resources, and global collection of student artwork. The 2020 Ocean Awareness Contest, “Transforming Crisis: Climate Hope,” is open now through June 15, 2020, to students ages 11-18 worldwide.

ECOARTS Project

Gulf of Maine   2019 – 2022

Krisanne and Anna

Artist Anna Dibble is working closely with educators on a multi-year project described below. She’s presently matched up with Medomak Valley High School art teacher, Krisanne Baker, for the start of this project. Anna is actively looking for other teachers and schools to work with so after you read this article consider emailing Anna at THIS LINK. She is most interested in schools in the greater Portland area for the school years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. 

The Project

The central physical focus of the project is the making of a large scale visual art installation to be exhibited for two months or longer in at least two public venues. Utilizing a special fusion of art and natural science, this project’s goals are to increase public awareness of the ecological issues, promote stewardship, and illuminate current changes in biodiversity due to human source climate change and pollution in the Gulf of Maine. The project is an educational collaboration, and also an attempt to create an active dialogue between artists, scientists, educators, and students on the subject of environmental action and solution.

Because of its particular rapid warming, and the unique nature of its ecosystem, the Gulf of Maine is on the forefront of the global climate and ecological crisis – which makes it an excellent metaphor for a public work of art in Maine.

Integral to the project – a catalytic way of public engagement with the installation – will be an accompanying program of related arts events, including music, poetry readings, science talks, and possibly a panel of civic-minded artists and scientists discussing the biodiversity crisis in the Gulf of Maine, and common goals related to the emergency situation.

The Installation

The elements of the installation and the 2D wall displays will be created by a collaboration of over a hundred art and science students – middle, high and college levels, professional artists and filmmakers, lighting and sound designers.

Anna Dibble will direct the entire project with advice and help from a multi generational Creative Team of 12.

Science

The lifecycles and current climate change challenges, as well as the changes in biodiversity will be an important part of the program when I and the other teachers are working with the students to create the sculptures.

First Venue

The Commons at Bigelow Laboratory:  Within a 24 by 7 by 30 foot area between the windows and balcony edge – a facsimile of a Gulf of Maine ecosystem – cross section of upper atmosphere, sky and ocean.

An explosion of hanging light sculpture constructed of marine debris and recycled/found materials: From the top down: Depiction of CO2 overload above sky of sandpipers, knots, plovers, curlews and other endangered flying migrant shorebirds, salt marsh sparrows, puffins; a centrally located 20 foot Right Whale encountering a wild tangle of monofilament, plastic bags, soda bottles and fishing nets; schools of species chosen as symbolic representatives – herring, tuna, cod. Leatherback sea turtles – all  suspended at various levels from the ceiling and stretched cables between the windows and the balcony. Also, ‘alien’ species moving into the Gulf from the south: Green crab, black bass, squid. The ‘texture’ of the installation: hundreds of hanging, floating enlarged versions of Calanus and other microbial  marine animals, jelly fish, algae.  

Wall displays

Anna sharing information in Krisanne’s art room at Medomak Valley High School, Waldoboro

A special film about the process of the project: Interviews with students, artists, teachers and scientists, footage of beach field trips, and edited documentation of the building of the whale, the other animals and elements of the installation.

Two Timelines: Life on earth and Human life on earth. A chart showing ten year increments of the CO2 overload from the time of the industrial revolution until 2021.

The Animals: From the Calanus to the Right Whale: Each represented animal in the installation will have a yet to be determined visual art piece showing the changes in its life cycle, geographic location due to climate change and other human caused impact.

Thank you to Anna for providing the content for this community. 

Dessert Theatre

Medomak Valley High School – Waldoboro

The Medomak Valley players will present its annual Spring Dessert Theater May 11 & 12 at 7:00 and a matinee on May 12 at 2:00. This year’s show is “Southern Hospitality”, a laugh-out-loud comedy from the Futrelle Family Texas Trilogy.

The Futrelle sisters-Frankie, Twink, Honey Raye, and Rhonda Lynn-are in trouble again.  They must pull together, along with other town citizens, to save their beloved town, Fayro, from extinction.  A Connecticut based salsa manufacturing company is considering Fayro as the new location for their operation.  Company rep, Buck Strickland, is being sent to scout it out.  To impress him, Fayro citizens have organized a ‘Fayro Days’ festival, which includes a craft show, a pet costume parade, a beauty pageant, and a huge Civil War reenactment.  Can the town folk pull together to save their town and show off their Southern strength and ingenuity?  It’s a recipe for total hilarity.

The cast includes Rose Hickey, Eileen Monroy, Kalina Chazin-Knox, Emily Lupien, Hailie Brown, Joel Morin, Andrew Beaucage, Zac Cushman, Allison Lupien, Wyatt Sykes, Elizabeth Flanagan, Noah Desan, and Eli Miller with costumes by Kerry Weber, and technical direction by Matt Kopishke.

Tickets, which includes dessert consisting of Moody’s pie, are $10. for adults and $8.00 for students and can be RESERVED HERE.

For more information you can call Peter Stuart at 832-5389 ext 132

In Today’s News

Medomak Valley High School POL

Two students from Medomak Valley High School in Waldoboro have been named to represent the school at the Northern Maine Regional Finals for Poetry Out Loud.

Poetry Out Loud is organized nationally by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation and administered at the state level by the Maine Arts Commission. It begins in Maine’s schools where school champions are selected to compete in two regional finals at which ten students are ultimately selected to recite at the state finals.

Read about Lydia Simmons and Elizabeth Flanagan in the Village Soup, January 15 edition. The article was written by Dagney C. Ernest.

Join us for one Maine’s regional or the statewide events.

February 12, 2018     Northern Maine Regional Finals (Performing Arts Center, Hampden Academy, 3 p.m.)

February 13, 2018     Snow date for Northern Maine Regional Finals

Feb 28, 2018               Southern Maine Regional Finals (Westbrook Middle School, 3 p.m.)

March 1, 2018            Snow date Southern Maine Regional Finals

March 14, 2018          Maine State Finals (3 p.m., Waterville Opera House)

March 20, 2018          Snow date for Maine State Finals

April 23-25, 2018       Poetry Out Loud National Finals (Washington, D.C.)

 

Medomak Valley High School

Peter Pan

Tonight!

Don’t miss it – Medomak Valley High School, Waldoboro

Tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday nights!

In Today’s News

Music man White keeps tunes flowing as leader of band

This is a great great great article about Medomak Valley High School senior Patrick White.

From the article… During Medomak Valley High School home varsity basketball games this winter, the Panthers had many student-athletes they looked at to help guide the teams to success on the court, but to keep the music flowing, and the energy in the gymnasium festive and upbeat during timeouts and halftime, there was only one leader of the band and that young man was Patrick White.

White, an 18-year-old senior, was the guiding force behind the pep band as he and his small, dedicated group of music-loving schoolmates kept the tunes flowing and gave games a fun, dramatic, almost big-time collegesque-flair.

White said: “Having the opportunity to direct and be a part of such an amazing group of people is something I don’t think I’ll ever forget,” he said. “It’s funny, because you’d think that playing with a band and playing a sport are two totally different things, but I really think that in a lot of aspects they’re actually the same. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to break a full-court press, or if you’re running the same four measures of a certain song over and over again to get the timing right: you need a lot of patience, practice, and persistence if you’re going to be successful.”

“Probably one of the biggest skills you need to have in either activity is the ability to be a good listener, because, frankly, we’re all wrong way more than we like to think we are. Hearing and implementing what everyone has to say not only helps you see things in a different light, but in the long run will make everyone happier and more successful. At the end of the day you’re a team, regardless of whether your pregame huddle is in a locker room or next to a drum set.”

To read the entire article written by Ken Waltz CLICK HERE.