me arts ed

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.