me arts ed

Lisa Gilman Recognized for her Work at Winthrop Middle School

This past summer while at the Middle Level Education Institute at Thomas College Patti Kinney asked me to write an article for the National Association of Secondary School Principals. I said I’d be glad to and got to work thinking about the article.

Photo of the mural Lisa's students created, Service Learning project

In October Patti emailed and reminded me of the deadline. I know the importance of outstanding arts education programs at every level but having spent so much time teaching middle level education I am most at home at that level. So writing about the work Lisa does with her students at Winthrop Middle School was a treat for me. You can access the article called “What Makes a Visual Arts Program Crucial to Middle Level Education?” by clicking here.

Argy and Lisa at the MAMLE conference-Oct.09

Since the article was published in the October issue Lisa contacted me and learned that an article that she has written on the service learning project painting the mural was published in the October issue of School Arts. You can acces it by clicking here. It is a terrific article and the layout with pictures of the mural is awesome! CONGRATULATIONS LISA on a terrific job! 

Center for Maine Contemporary Art Shifts

Recently, CMCA announced it had to let go of four of their staff members.  The lay offs include Education Director Cathy Melio. This will undoubtedly impact the services CMCA has provided.

Cathy at the Arts Connect! conference

If you’ve worked with Cathy you know words that describe her include creative mind, high energy, dedicated to the work, efficient and I could go on. Her work bringing Visual Thinking Strategy professional development workshops to the mid-coast has been well received. Her “Fear No Art” workshops leave students and teachers wanting more. And, her ongoing work with exhibits at CMCA has included her thoughtful way of incorporating an educational opportunity for all ages.

In October Cathy facilitated a workshop at the “Arts Connect!” conference that was met with excellent reviews. And on top of preparing for the workshop she was responsible for the raffle. Her passion for arts education is greatly appreciated.

I only hope that CMCA can get on track to include opportunities developed by Cathy and Education Directors before her, to provide educational experiences once again for the young people and art educators of Maine.

FORUM

On Saturday, December 5, 2:30-5pm at the Camden Public Library there will be an open forum moderated by Robert Shetterly. The CMCA Board, artists, patrons, members and the community. The meeting is an opportunity to express your concerns and ask questions about the recent and sudden closing, financial history and health, plans for staffing, mission/direction and future plans if any for changing the status/ownership/location of CMCA.

State of the Art Building Includes Art

The new Penobscot Judicial Center opening on Monday in Bangor will include art work by three Maine artists: Nina Jerome, Jan Owen and Eddie Harrow. The art work inclusion is through Maine’s Percent for Art Law. You can read the entire article written by Jessica Bloch published in the Bangor Daily News on November 21st by clicking here.

Report Just Released

The Center for Arts Education’s latest report analyzes the relationship between graduation rates and indicators of arts education. The study focuses on 200 public high schools in the New York City area. Findings reveal that schools with more access to arts education have the highest graduation rates.

Access the report by clicking here.  More findings on the correlation between arts education and graudation can be found at the Keep Arts in Schools site.

This text was taken from a post on the Getty Teacher Art Exchange List-serv.

If you were here I’d sing you a Turkey day song out loud

Thanksgiving is (almost) my favorite day of the year. I love a day to remind me of how fortunate I am. So, I take a moment to THANK all of YOU for the important work you do each day with students across the great state of Maine.

My wish for you on Thanksgiving day is for happiness. Whether you spend the day with relatives, friends, strangers or perhaps alone on this special day…. may you have joy in your heart and a feeling of gratefulness!

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And the song, I should create it and post it on youtube but until then here are the words (I learned in elementary school).

A turkey sat on the barnyard fence and he sang this sad, sad, tune.         Thanksgiving Day is coming, gobble, gobble, gobble and I know I’ll be eaten soo, ooo, ooo , oon.                                                                             Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, I would like to run awaaaaaaaaay                                                                                   Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble I don’t like Thanksgiving Daaaaaaaaaaay!

Happy Turkey Day!!! Please take a moment and let us know what you are grateful for by posting a comment below.

A Friend Passes On

Several years ago there was an education director at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland who greeted my 8th graders with something I’ve repeated over and over.  “When you visit the museum think of it as visiting friends. Each time you come, you will meet new friends and some of your old friends will be here to visit with again.”

It doesn’t matter which museum I visit, whether in Maine, out of state or in another country, I think of that story. This connection or friendship happens not only with art work but also with artists through reading and learning about their lives.

And some of my “old friends” include Christo and Jean-Claude. So when I learned that Jean-Claude’s passed away on November 18th, at the age of 74 I felt sad. We go back several years!

I am sure many of you are familiar with collaborations the husband and wife teamed up to create. In the early 1970s they hung a 400-yard nylon curtain across a Colorado Valley. In 1976, they built a 24 mile-long “Running Fence”, fabric construction that appeared to flow across California hillsides until it disappeared into the sea. Their works of art were temporary and each created without a penny from corporations or the government.

One of their most well known is the wrapping of the Pont Neuf in Paris and of course the most recent in New York City was the chraffron material that made 7,500 gates in Central Park. How many of you visited that exhibit during February vacation in 2005? I was there with my younger son and a friend on his first trip to New York at the age of 14.

Later on that year I teamed up with colleague and art teacher Anne Kofler and we “wrapped” our school in Union in celebration of Christo and Jean-Claude’s visit to Maine. They spoke at the Merrill Auditorium in November 2005. Did any of you attend that presentation?

Before our visit Anne and I had our K-8 students from Union Elementary and D.R. Gaul Middle School create artwork on 3″x12″ white drawing paper using black sharpies. They started with their names in the center and went around and around with contour lines. Every student and staff member participated with the idea that everyone has an important part in the school community (and world) and that each of our parts are important to the whole. Without everyone doing their part there is a hole.

We exhibited them touching and lining the walls up and down the steps, wrapping the entire building. We contacted Christo and Jean-Claude letting them know of our work and invited them to school while in Maine. Sadly, they weren’t feeling well but Jean-Claude called the school to let us know they had received our invitation and with regrets could not visit.

Anne and I made a book to illustrate what we had created at school and the impact it had on our students. We attended the presentation that night and hopped into the line where attendees were having their posters signed by the artists. We didn’t have anything for them to sign but we did present the book to them. It was a special night to remember.
Thanks to Anne for sharing her photographs and taking me down memory lane. Please share your Christo and Jean-Claude stories by clicking on the “comments” below.

New York Youth Poet Laureate

This is quite a performance by 16 year old Zora Howard, the New York Youth Poet Laureate, sharing her original poem “Walking”.

Singer, Songwriter, Playwright, and Theatre Director

“The Opposite Side of the Sea” was released in March 2009. Check out this creative music video. So curious as to how they made it I had to watch more than once… … combining music, visual art, dance and theatre!

Inspirational and Powerful

Learn more about how one persons dream and vision is transforming classical music and education in Venezuela! This is a segment from 60 Minutes.

In this season of Thanksgiving, you won’t want to miss this heartwarming story!!!       To view, please click here.

New Format for Maine Art Education Association

The MAEA board meeting for November was ustreamed, thanks to the skills of Sarah Sutter and her collaboration with Shalimar Poulin. What is ustream? UStream is basically a free service that allows anyone to set up a broadcast “channel” and share their live event with the world.

Several teachers joined the meeting for the first time since they were able to do it from their classrooms or homes. You will have the opportunity to attend meeting in January virtually.

At the meeting Sarah shared the wiki that has been created for members to share information and have conversations. The wiki is located at http://mainearted.wikispaces.com/.

The Fall 2009 Newsletter is posted on the wiki and was created by Shalimar.