me arts ed

Aroostook Centre Mall

In celebration of Youth Art Month (YAM), the Northern pARTners County Regional Art Educators are sponsoring a County Student Art Exhibition with its first Essence of the North Student Art Exhibition.

On March 13th art educators from throughout the region arrived at the mall with piles of art work in hand to install the YAM exhibit. The art teachers worked for hours to put the work in place in an empty store front at the Aroostook Centre Mall.

WAGM news was there to interview Washburn art teacher Beth Walker and Ashland art teacher Sue Beaulier.

An opening reception was held on March 15th and many visitors including student artists, parents, friends, family members, and school administrators.
The art teaches were pleased at the turn out and proud of all their students work.  The art work has been well received by all visitors and will remain in place until April 9th. Congratulations to teachers and students of Aroostook County.

Northern pARTners Art Educators

Creative center in Presque Isle

Learn more about this wonderful center that has just moved from the Aroostook Centre Mall to downtown by clicking here. Bangor Daily News article written by Jen Lynds.

Target grants for literacy, the arts, field trips

I often receive emails from folks looking for grants. Recently a colleague sent information on the Target literacy grants with a deadline of April 30th. So, I went to Targets grant webpage and found a plethora (I love that word) of grant information.

I suggest you go there as well since they list the arts as one of the three areas they focus on in their grants program. Deadline is April 30th, $2000.00 grants available. I have also received emails from teachers letting me know they have received funding from Target so it really works! If you have received funding from Target please comment below and let us know!

Please click here for the link.

An opportunity for you and your students

On my visit to MECA (Maine College of Art) last month I mentioned in the blog post that I met several people. One of them was artist Asherah Cinnamon. We had a delightful conversation and I learned more about the artwork she is presently creating.

Asherah is involved in a collaborative contemporary art installation project called FRIENDSHIP IN HARD TIMES. She extends an invitation for you and your students to participate in this project that is scheduled to open in June at the University of New England’s Art Gallery on Stevens Ave. It will be on display at its Annual Sculpture Garden Show through September.

The project explores the concept of friendship in contemporary times. Using strips cut from hundreds of brightly colored recycled plastic bags, the installation was inspired in part by the friendship bracelets used in many communities today.

The installation celebrates the traditional female practices of braiding, and of
collaborating to develop a work of art larger than any one person might create. The project encourages creative recycling and invites groups of people to work together, exploring the role of friendship in contemporary life through handwork, discussion, and writing.

YOU ARE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE in any or all of these ways:

1. Collect brightly colored or printed, clean plastic bags of any thickness or size.
2. Gather a group for a demonstration and work session of cutting and simple braiding for the installation.  All participants who wish to be named will be acknowledged in the literature of the project.
3. Write (a story, poem, song) about a time when someone was a friend to you in hard times, and or a time when you were a friend during their hard times.
4. Donate a copy of your writing to the project, and/or take turns sharing what you wrote with each other in a group. Collected writings will be on view at the exhibition in June, and eventually in a project blog.
5. Sign up to help install the final work during the second week of June.
6. Become a sponsor. Sponsors will be acknowledged in all project literature an events.

Maine artist, Asherah Cinnamon, BFA (MECA’08), MSW (BU’79).
For more information, to help, or to set up a group demonstration and work
session contact Asherah at acinnamon@meca.edu
Earlier works by the artist may be seen by clicking here.

Check this out… interesting websites

• An outgrowth of photorealism…Hyperrealism is a relatively new method of painting where an artist uses techniques to create the illusion of looking at a photograph. It is fascinating. Please click here to learn more and see artists work on a blog called “my modern MET”.
• ASCII Art… You’ve probably seen class or school pictures that are converted to a picture. Well, at this site you can use this program to convert art work to a combination of text, numbers and symbols. Please click here for the site.

Congratulations to Will and Emma!

Eleven students competed in the state finals for Poetry Out Loud that is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Maine Arts Commission plans and implement the regional and state finals.

The exciting event took place at the beautiful Waterville Opera House in front of a very large audience including First Lady Karen Baldacci.

Bangor High School senior William Whitham was the winner and Messalonskee High School student Emma Bailey was the runner-up.

William travels to Washington, DC to compete on the national level and a chance to win a scholarship for $20,000. This is Will’s second time traveling to the finals. Congratulations to all the participants and best of luck to Will!