What do you get when you bring 272 arts educators together?
Performer Michael Trautman, Argy, Executive Director Carol Trimble at the Celebration at The Summit
WOW! Great energy and passion for teaching arts education in Maine! Creative minds came together for the last day and a half for “The Arts Connect” conference at Point Lookout in Northport. The schedule was packed, the sessions were about dance, music, theater, visual arts connected to a whole lotta other content, the presenters were heartwarming, imaginative, and collaborative, the participants were enthused, enriched, and energized, and the setting was beautiful!
The conference opened Thursday night with a celebration on The Summit of Point Lookout with music by Bangor High School jazz music students under the direction of George Redman. They were AWESOME! Greetings were given by the Deputy Commissioner of Education, Angela Faherty, the Director of the Maine Arts Commission, Donna McNeil, and Maine’s First Lady, Karen Baldacci.
We were wowed by the talents of Karen Montanaro and Michael Trautman. It was so wonderful to have the chance to see and hear about their work and participate. Karen and Michael are both treasures of Maine.
2007 National Teacher of the Year Andrea Peterson and Past President of MENC Lynn Brinckmeyer
Today, Friday, October 9th, started at Erickson Hall with the keynote shared by Music educator, Andrea Peterson, the 2007 National Teacher of the Year who is from Granite Falls, Washington.
Consultant Dennie Wolf shared the findings of the statewide arts education census. Working in regions conference participants collaborated and created maps depicting arts education opportunities in their region. The maps will help determine which school districts/regions will be identified as “imagination-intensive” communities to develop a set of tools that will allow other communities to take stock of the opportunities that they offer and could build.
Performer Scot Cannon "opening the door"
Just before lunch we were treated to performances by dancer Jennifer Bourgeault, poet Martin Steingesser, mime/theater artist Scot Cannon, and from ImprovAcadia, Jennifer Shepard and Larrance Fingerhut.
After a lovely lunch participants walked to the Education Center for the afternoon workshops with a wide variety of topics from which to select. The afternoon wrapped up with THANKS and many great door prizes.
If you weren’t able to attend the conference, over the next several days (maybe weeks), I will do a series of blog posts on the conference. This will give you a chance to relive the conference or give you a taste of what you missed from the conference. The posts will be called The Arts Connect Continues: Part 1, or whichever number it is in the series. If you were fortunate enough to attend I hope you will join the conversation by
Workshop presenter Kath Hartley assists music educator Pam Kinsey in creating a clay drum
adding your comments to the comment section under this blog post. And, if you’d like to be a guest blogger and submit a post on your view of a segment of the conference PLEASE email me! Photos will be added to each post as well so you can “SEE” some of the conference as well.
A GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED MAKE THE CONFERENCE A SUCCESS. It is not a small task and I appreciate the hard work and dedication to the planning of the event! I invite you to add a comment on the conference to this post.
