me arts ed

Your chance to meet the Commissioner of Education!

Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen will be in the Ellsworth region Monday, March 21, as part of his Listening Tour. He will start the day by meeting with superintendents and curriculum coordinators from the region over lunch prepared and served by students at the Hancock County Technical Center in Ellsworth. He will then spend time with students, teachers and Principal Tom Wissink at Sumner Memorial High School in Sullivan. Sumner is a School Improvement Grant school that is investing federal funds in an intensive effort to raise student achievement. Bowen will hold a public forum in the evening to hear from parents, teachers, and anyone else who is interested in sharing ideas about improving education and making suggestions about the work of the Maine Department of Education.

The following events will be open to media coverage:

1:30-2:30 p.m., Monday, March 21
Sumner Memorial High School, 2465 Route 1, Sullivan
Visit classrooms
Principal: Tom Wissink
Superintendent: Henry Ashmore

6-8 p.m., Monday, March 21
Ellsworth High School
Public forum

*For the school visits, please check in at school offices.
*The Commissioner will try to be available for quick media interviews immediately after the classroom visits, around 2:30 p.m. for about 10 minutes. He needs to be in a meeting with teachers and the principal at 2:30 p.m.

For more information and updates on the Listening Tour, go to:
http://www.maine.gov/education/commissioner/listening-tour

Maine Leaders to Explore the Critical Connection Between Imagination, Creativity and Economic Development

A collaboration of public and private organizations has come together to host a community-wide event so that Maine can lend its collective voice to a national conversation on how to foster the innovation and creativity needed to compete in the 21^st-century global marketplace.

“From Imagination to Innovation: Maine Participates in the Lincoln Center Institute’s Imag’nation Conversation” will be held from 4 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, April 5, in USM’s Hannaford Lecture Hall, Bedford Street, Portland. To register, go to http://bit.ly/aAdRV4. Tickets are $20 for the public and $5 for students.

The Maine Center for Creativity and the University of Southern Maine are presenting the event. Collaborators include the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, the Maine Arts Commission, the Portland Creative Corporation, the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Maine Department of Education, Wright Express, the Maine Alliance for Arts Education, the Maine Humanities Council and Maine Public Broadcasting.

Through a keynote address and a series of discussions in concurrent workshops, the “Conversation” will provide opportunities for people from diverse sectors to consider how we can integrate imagination into our schools, workplaces and communities in such a way that it advances creation of a vibrant economy and quality of life.  “We hope to bring people together from different walks of life to discover that imagination is essential not only in the arts,” said Jean Maginnis, executive director of the Maine Center for Creativity, “but also in the success of all of us in the state of Maine.”

To help focus the discussions, participants will be asked to respond to the following three questions:

• How does imagination function in your field/work/sector?
• How do you cultivate and sustain imagination in your work?
• What will it take for us to foster these practices in Maine?

Conversations from each of the 50 states are being documented and compiled for presentation at a national “Imagination Summit” in New York scheduled for July of this year. It’s expected that an action agenda will be developed to make the cultivation of imagination a key element in our schools and part of a national public policy agenda.

The Portland event will feature nationally known artist Eric Hopkins of North Haven, who will offer the keynote address. Other speakers include University of Maine Professor of Civil and Structural Engineering Habib Dagher; mimedancer Karen Montanaro;  Aaron Frederick, entrepreneur and a founder of Rippleffect, the non-profit that exposes teens to the coastal Maine experience; and Carol Farrell, co-director of Figures of Speech Theatre. Veteran Maine journalist and public affairs consultant Patsy Wiggins will serve as moderator.

“As part of our mission as a public university we provide a forum where people of diverse perspectives can come together and think creatively and provocatively about how to better understand and advance the important issues of the day,” said USM President Selma Botman.

For more information on the Lincoln Center Institute (LCI) and the “Imag’nation Conversations,” visit http://lciweb.lincolncenter.org/imaginationconversation/

For More information, including contacts at the collaborating organizations, contact Jean Maginnis, executive director, Maine Center for Creativity, (207) 730-0694 jmaginnis@mainecenterforcreativity.org