me arts ed

John Holdridge new associate!

The Maine Arts Commission today announced the appointment of John Holdridge as Arts in Education associate. John will oversee the agency’s arts in education programs while seeking to bring the arts closer to the center of the ongoing discussions about education in Maine.

“The Maine Arts Commission is delighted to welcome John Holdridge to our team,” said agency director Donna McNeil. “John brings a deep and full knowledge of the field, particularly in the realms of teacher training. He is enthusiastic and genial, and we will leverage John’s experience to amplify the educational aspects of all our endeavors.”

John has been involved in the field of arts and education for the past fifteen years. After five seasons as a professional actor with Perishable Theatre’s Shows for Young Audiences in Providence, RI, John became the Resident Teaching Artist with the ArtsLiteracy Project in the Education Department at Brown University.

While at the Artsliteracy Project John worked as a teaching artist partner in K-12 classrooms of all levels and content areas, mentored teacher and artist partnerships learning to integrate their fields as a way to deepen and demonstrate student comprehension, and created and facilitated professional development opportunities for several districts in Rhode Island, Boston, MA, St. Paul, MN, Inhumas, Brazil and the summer lab school at Brown University. In addition to these duties John taught in the teacher education program at Brown, served as the curriculum specialist for the NEA sponsored teacher training institute, and presented at local and national conferences including the annual meeting of the Arts Education Partnership at Lincoln Center.

“I am hoping that in my position I will be able to contribute to the education conversations that are taking place here in Maine and nationally,” said Holdridge. “There is currently a huge emphasis being placed on creativity, imagination, and innovation in our learning environments. I want to make sure that teaching and learning in and through the arts remain at the center of that conversation. I’d like to solidify the role of the teaching artist in and around schools, support teachers and students as artists, develop effective models for arts integration and help Maine become a regional and national leader in the field.

“I am excited that the past three years have brought about a change in leadership at the Maine Arts Commission as change often provides new opportunities for growth,” Holdridge explained. “I know that the agency director wants Maine to be a leader in the field and I expect that means that all of us at the associate level will be encouraged to be leaders within our own areas of expertise.”

Since moving to Peaks Island in 2007, John has been working as an independent education consultant leading professional development workshops for teachers and creative writing and theatre residencies for students while completing his MS Ed degree at the University of Southern Maine. While at USM he developed and taught Creative Literacy: Building Literacy through the Arts, a graduate level course for professional teachers.

John Holdridge can be contacted at the Maine Arts Commission through e-mail, john.holdridge@maine.gov, or via the phone at 207/287-2790.