me arts ed

Fun evening at the Merrill Auditorium

Sophie and Josie, photograph by Langley Willauer

What a delight to attend the performance of “From the Top” at the Merrill Auditorium last Wednesday evening. I felt so proud of all the students who participated but especially our Maine young folks. Teenage violin playing sisters Josie and Sophie Davis from Waldoboro performed Largo ma non tanto from Concerto in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. Wilson Bristol from Freeport performed on the piano Tocacata from Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee’s Sonata No. 1. It was a special treat to have Dianne in the audience and join the interview with Wilson.

The host of the National Public Radio Show From the Top, Christopher O’Riley, was charming and it was special to have the opportunity to not only hear him in person, but to watch him in action.

I could hear the excitement of the audience with the warm applause offered each time the opportunity arose. My husband and I sat next to two young boys (about 6 years old) and their mom’s. I couldn’t help but think someday in the future they will have great memories of attending the performance with their parents.

After the performance we attended the reception and were thrilled to meet the performers, their families, friends, and the members of the From the Top staff. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting their Director of Education, Linda Gerstle, and learning more about their M.S. Lindsay Arts Leadership Program. They firmly believe that “young people can make an important contribution to the world by sharing who they are and what they love to do..”

It is a shared belief and I see it as one of our responsibilities as arts educators. I look forward to hearing this performance of From the Top on the radio and hearing it all over again.

This is VERY COOOOOOL!

It is called Nature Numbers and needs no introduction! Please click here for 3 minute and 43 seconds. It is well worth the time.

Phase II of the arts education census work

Gail Scott, Project Director

Last week a committee of readers met to review the applications of communities who applied to be named Imagination Intensive Communities (IIC). This is part of the second phase of the statewide arts education census work that was started over two years ago.

Please click here for the census report which is located on the Maine Department of Education arts education webpages. The report has a great deal of information that can be useful in your community arts education work.

Several communities submitted an application for IIC and the panel of readers agreed that all the communities who submitted documentation are doing very exciting and worthwhile work with young people. The documentation they provided showed over and over the resources they have to support the development of imagination in children and youth.

Dennie Wolf and Cathy Melio reading applications

The six communities selected will be named in the near future and a panel will visit their communities to document and learn first hand and indepth about the outstanding work they are doing with young people.

The project is being conducted by the Maine Alliance for Arts Education and the Maine Department of Education. The project is supported in part by a grant from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Betterment Foundation and the Maine Arts Commission supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

We couldn’t ask for a nicer day!

For those of you who don’t know I am Greek. My father was born in Greece and my mother is first generation, born in America of Greek decent as well.

Easter is the most special holiday of the year for the Greeks. We certainly have the religious traditions we continue recognizing but we also have the family traditions which include food.

We had a wonderful day today with our traditional foods which included a leg of lamb on the grill, roasted potatoes, carrots, spanakopita, salad and galatoboudiko (a dessert similar to custard).

And of course the red eggs. We dye them a bright red color and than we play a sort of like game where we crack them, hitting pointy end to pointy end and rounded to rounded until there is one person left with an unbroken egg. That person will have good luck during the next year. We say Kristos Anesti (Christ has risen) and Alithos Anesti (he has truly risen) while cracking eggs.

And the celebration of Spring abounds. We counted our good fortune as we sat on the deck and soaked in the sunshine and warm weather. Not one of our guests could remember an April 3rd that was so beautiful!

Visual art teachers invited to participate – from Jessica Andresen

My name is Jessica Andresen and I am an art teacher at Orono High School and currently a graduate student at the University of Maine in the Art Education program. For my thesis project I am collecting data about the role that censorship plays in K-12 public schools in Maine.

The benefits of this research are that data will be collected on the types of censorship that occur in public art classrooms in the state of Maine, and it will help educators self-reflect on censorship in their own professional lives, and learn from other educators who have had censorship issues in their schools. From these data, the nature of censorship in Maine art classrooms, and how censorship is represented in the public school setting can be analyzed. Possible ways of responding to a material challenge can be drawn. It is also important for post-secondary schools that are preparing art educators because it is important to make sure students are ready to address how censorship occurs and how to be ready when it does.

I would greatly appreciate it if K-12 art educators would take the time, approximately 20 minutes, to fill out a survey on censorship. Please email jessica.andresen@umit.maine.edu and I will send you the survey.

It will only take a moment and all feedback would be greatly appreciated. After the survey is completed, you may be contacted to participate in an interview. Please note that no real names will be associated with the data collected, and pseudonyms will be provided for all who choose to participate. Once participants have returned the survey, the survey will be saved as a word document on the computer with a pseudonym attached and the email will be deleted. The pseudonym will only be linked to the real name by a key that will only be accessible to the PI and graduate advisor, Dr. Laurie E. Hicks. All interviews will be recorded and the interviews will be linked to the pseudonym given. Recordings will be transferred to the PI’s computer as an MP3 file as well as kept on tape in the PI’s home office. These data will be kept on the PI’s computer in her home office and will kept by the PI until research has been completed, no later than May, 2011. At this time all tapes will be destroyed.

Students Recognized at the Blaine House

Readfield Elementary student with First Lady Karen Baldacci

In the last six years since its beginning in 2004, the Maine Youth Excellence in Art program has given young artists from all of Maine’s 818 public and private K-12 schools an opportunity to have their artwork exhibited in Augusta. To date, more than 500 student works have been shown in the state capital.

There are thirty-nine students participating in the current exhibit representing Readfield Elementary School, Maranacook Middle School, Wiscasset High School, Indian Island School, Riley School,  Viola Rand School, East Grand School, Brunswick High School, Waterville High School, Dr. Lewis S. Libby School and Madison Area Memorial High School.

On Tuesday of this week the Maine Arts Commission held a tea at the Blaine Hosue for the current exhibitors. Family members and art teachers proudly watched as the young artists received a certificate and medal while they had their picture taken with the First Lady.