Archive for January, 2014

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New England Summit on Arts Education

January 21, 2014

MAAI

Screen shot 2014-01-21 at 5.26.49 AMPhase 4 of the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative (MAAI) will include extended professional development. More information will be available at http://mainearts.maine.gov/Pages/Education/NESummit# as it becomes available. You’re invited to attend….

New England Summit on Arts Education

July 29, 30, 31, August 1, 2014

USM, Portland

$300 for 3 days, day 4 is optional for those interested in being a teacher leader for additional cost

Cost includes access to arts education learning, continental breakfast, lunch & snacks

Contact hours, CEUs, or Graduate credit available

The New England Summit on Arts Education will provide an outstanding opportunity for educators to dig deep into teaching, learning, and assessment in arts education. Please join educators from Maine and beyond for this fabulous 3-day professional development opportunity.

The Maine Arts Assessment Initiative (MAAI) was established in 2011 and has been responding to the needs of arts education ever since. The overall focus of the MAAI has been to create an environment in Maine where assessment in arts education is an integral part of the work all arts educators do to improve teaching and learning, and student achievement in the arts.

MAAI has provided professional development during the last three summers to Maine arts educators who wish to take on a leadership role and create a workshop to present to arts teachers across the state. The initiative has been building capacity by training arts educators on the “what” and “how” of arts assessment and finding the balance of formative and summative assessment, so they can provide the leadership in Maine through professional development opportunities.

During the next phase of the MAAI the goals will expand in response to teacher feedback and is offering a 3 or 4-day summit. The summit is designed to meet the needs of teachers and the workshops will be on such important topics as proficiency, standards-based, student-centered, leadership, advocacy, creativity, 21st century skills and much more.

There will be multiple opportunities for networking as we broaden our knowledge in arts education. The Summit is a perfect opportunity for those who want to learn the core principles or advance further into the Arts Assessment field.

Participants will be able to choose one of three strands based on experience.

Strand # 1 – Developing Teacher Leader                                                                             This strand is designed primarily for teachers (teaching artists or arts educators) who have not already been involved in the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative and would like more of a foundation in arts assessment, and connections with teaching and learning.                            This strand is also for teachers in Maine who would like to become a Teacher Leader for the MAAI. The 4th day is required to become a Teacher Leader.

Strand 1 is open to any participant (from Maine or beyond).

Strand #2 – Arts Assessment Team.                                                                                                 This strand is designed for a team to arrive with ideas that will be developed into an arts education plan to be implemented when returning to school/district. The work accomplished during the summit could be similar to Strand #1 or #3 but will be customized to the team’s needs, individualizing your team plan. Consider possibilities when forming your team. K-12 district VPA teachers, classroom teacher, an administrator, a teaching artist, community cultural organization or institute member, parent, and/or school board member.

Strand 2 is open to any team (from Maine and other states, at least 2 participants per team)

Strand # 3 – Arts Assessment in Practice Strand.                                                            This strand is designed for the individual who is ready to dig deeper into arts assessment, and connections with teaching and learning. Benchmarking, proficiency, fine tuning that perfect lesson or unit, networking with others who are in a similar place.

Strand 3 is open to anyone returning as a Teacher Leader, graduates of arts assessment courses, and anyone who feels they are ready to dig deeper into arts assessment.

Comments from Maine Arts Assessment Summer Institute participants:

  • The relationships I have developed has changed my life forever for the good and the ripple will go on for years to come!  I loved the activity about a collaborative community and glancing upon that poster throughout the time period and I will use that for my own classroom.
  • Thanks for all the hard work that was put into the planning and developing this year’s institute! I love what we do!! I am so pleased to be a part of this!!
  • Thank you for setting up this opportunity for me to really think about how I teach, and how I can expand my practice so my students can have a deeper understanding and appreciation for what they learn in the art program.

Comment about the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative from a Teacher Leader:

  • There are not enough words to describe how appreciate I am of this initiative.  It has made me a better teacher and has made a difference in my students art education.

Posted in assessment, Communication, Community, Creativity, Curriculum and Instruction, Leadership, Professional Development, Standards Based Education, VPA | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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MAEA Exhibit for Educators

January 20, 2014

After Hours, Saco Art Museum

On Saturday, January 25 the opening for the Maine Art Education Association members art exhibit will take place at the Saco Art Museum, 1:00 – 3:00. A HUGE THANK YOU to Alison Price who is responsible for making all the arrangements for the show. Alison’s helpers with the arranging and hanging of the 56 piece show were Diane Noble and Piper Bolduc – thanks to both of them for their help!

The show is filled with beautiful work including various media, techniques, and themes! Many of the artists have work for sale in the gift shop of the museum including prints, cards, photographs, and jewelry.

Please join MAEA members, families, and friends to view the work of the following art educators. Congratulations to all the artists! The show is in place until March 1, 2014!

  • Betsy Allen-McPhedran
    Readfield Elementary School, Readfield
  • Dana Altman
    Thornton Academy, Saco
  • Debra Arter
    Camden Adult Ed, Camden
  • Barb Berry-Palm
    Brunswick Junior High School, Brunswick
  • Debra Bickford
    Westbrook High School, Westbrook
  • Piper Bolduc
    Old Orchard Beach High School, Old Orchard Beach
  • Vicki Bove`
    Gorham Middle School, Gorham
  • Sandy Brennan
    Wells Elementary School, Wells
  • Robin Brooks
    Lincoln School, Augusta
  • Wendy Burton
    Messalonskee High School, Oakland
  • Kate Cargile
    Lewiston Middle School, Lewiston
  • Lee Cheever
    Lazydog Studio, Brunswick
  • Donna Coffin
    Retired (Brunswick High School)
    Bailey Island
  • Cam Davis
    Acton Elementary School, Acton

Cam Davis, encaustic triptych

  • Christine DelRossi
    Mt. Ararat High School, Topsham
  • Mari Dieumegard
    Breakwater School, Portland
  • Debbie DiGregorio
    C.K. Burns School, Saco
  • Jennie Driscoll
    Brunswick High School
  • Elaine Fletcher
    Frank H. Harrison Middle School, Yarmouth
  • Jennifer Fox
    Lisbon High School, Lisbon Falls
  • Suzanne Goulet
    Waterville Senior High School, Waterville
  • Cathy Grigsby
    Stevens Brook Elementary, Bridgton
  • Lauren Head
    Gould Academy, Bethel

Lauren Head, Vessel, steel

  • Hollie Hilton
    Albert S. Hall School, Waterville
  • Holly Houston
    Yarmouth High School, Yarmouth
  • Charlie Johnson
    Mt. Desert Island High School, Mt. Desert
  • Genevieve Keller
    Windsor Elementary School, Windsor
  • Jayne Kinney Young
    Deering High School, Portland
  • Manon Lewis
    Boothbay High School, Boothbay Harbor
  • Joanne Maloney
    Wentworth Intermediate School
  • Rhonda Mann
    Marshwood Great Works, South Berwick
  • Kelly McConnell
    Breakwater School & Maine College of Art, Portland
  • Kay McKeever Allison
    Lewiston Middle School, Lewiston
  • Jennifer Merry
    Thornton Academy, Saco
  • Chris Milliken
    Wells Junior High School, Wells
  • Heather Monsen
    Brunswick High School, Brunswick
  • Nanci Nason
    Lebanon Schools, Lebanon
  • Argy Nestor
    Maine Arts Commission, Augusta
  • Diane Noble
    Young and Fairfield Schools, Saco

Diane Noble, Tidal Cove - Tenant's Harbor, acrylic -

  • Heidi O’Donnell
    Belfast High School, Belfast
  • Pam Ouellette
    Lisbon High School, Lisbon Falls
  • Mary Pennington
    Mountain Valley Middle School, Mexico
  • Donna Powers
    Biddeford High School, Biddeford
  • Allison Price
    Brunswick High School, Brunswick
  • Gail Rodrigue-duBois
    Oak Hill Middle School, Sabattus
  • Karen Rubin
    Biddeford High School, Biddeford
  • Raegan Russell
    Berwick Academy, South Berwick
  • Meryl Ruth
    Porcelain Grace Studio, Cumberland
    (formerly at Deering High School)
  • Patricia Sevigny-Higgins
    Marshwood High School, South Berwick
  • Jane Snider
    Hancock Grammar and Lamoine Consolidated Schools, Hancock and Lamoine
  • Jodi Thomas
    Thornton Academy, Saco
  • Linda Thorndike Williams
    Hussey School, Berwick
  • Michael Vermette
    Indian Island School, Indian Island
  • Sue West
    Chewonki Semester School, Wiscasset

Sue West, City Branches, mixed media

  • Tina Wood
    Marcia Buker Elementary School, Richmond
  • Deloris A. White
    Berwick Academy, So. Berwick

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Rhode Island School of Design

January 19, 2014

Design Science Symposium STEM to STEAM thru Synergy

PROVIDENCE, RI – The Fourth Biennial Design Science Symposium, STEM to STEAM thru Synergy: Bridging Morphology, Biomimicry, Sustainability and Synergetics, will convene January 31 – February 2, 2014, Metcalf Auditorium at the Chace Center and at the Edna Lawrence Nature Lab, on the RISD campus.

The Symposium will be a highly interactive meeting of makers, thinkers, practitioners, and educators, who will gather in order to explore the multidisciplinary field of Design Science. There will be presentations, panel discussions, workshops, a film screening, tours, and an exhibit.

Keynote speakers will include RISD’s Interim President, Rosanne Somerson, Dayna Baumeister, PhD, Biomimic & Co-founder of Biomimicry 3.8, Dennis M. Bartels, PhD, Director of the San Francisco Exploratorium, and Richard Bresnahan, Master Ceramicist and Artist in Residence, St. Johns University.

Somerson recently filled the position of former RISD President, John Maeda, a champion of the educational initiative, STEM to STEAM. STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. It represents an integrative and multidisciplinary approach to education. STEM + A = STEAM.

Presentations from notable speakers, including Deborah Gist, PhD, Commissioner of Rhode Island Department of Education, Kavita Ramanan, PhD, Mathematician & Professor, Brown University, Lefteris Pavlides, Architect & Professor, Roger Williams University, Thomas T. K. Zung, Architect & Design Historian, Buckminster Fuller, Sadao, & Zung, and Eric Goetz, owner of Bristol-based racing boat builders Goetz Composites, amongst others. Goetz will speak about the recent commission to restore of one of Buckminster Fuller’s most iconic structures, the 24-ft/7.3m Fly’s Eye Dome.

Participants will have the opportunity to attend hands-on design science workshops, facilitated by engineers, inventors, designers, and mathematicians. Facilitators will include George Hart, Bob Sanderson, Leftheris Pavlides, Chris Kitrick, Joe Clinton, Ed Popko, Dick Esterle, and Gary Doskas.

Debut film screening and discussion with film-maker and author Christopher Zelov, who recently completed a documentary film (30 minutes), A Visit with Magnus, featuring Father Magnus Wenniger (born 1919), who is a monk, mathematician, and builder of polyhedron models. Zelov, along with Phil Cousineau and Brian Danitz co-edited the book Design Outlaws on the Ecological Frontier and co-created the award-winning documentary Ecological Design: Inventing the Future.

Participants will enjoy tours of both the Arthur Loeb Design Science Teaching Collection and The Edna Lawrence Nature Lab. The Loeb Collection is quite special, featuring of hundreds of three-dimensional polyhedra and two-dimensional patterns that inspire students and faculty to examine nature’s fundamental responses to design problems. The Nature Lab, with its growing collection of more than 80,000 natural history objects, books, visual resources, microscopes and a digital work station, serves as an invaluable research facility for the RISD community.

Concurrent to the Symposium will be an exhibit titled, Investigating the Lab: Relationships between Art, Design, and Science, co-curated by RISD faculty, Carl Fasano, and RISD alum, Sophia Sobers. The exhibit will be on display in the Waterman Gallery, adjacent to RISD’s Edna Lawrence Nature Lab. Looking at the influence and application of science-driven and science-inspired work, this exhibition will showcase the wide range of ways students engage science within their work. Ranging from detailed illustrations to organ inspired jewelry, the exhibition showcases a cohesive undercurrent of studio practice, and works of art and design, which access a wide range of scientific topics.

Panel discussions with RISD faculty, Peter Dean, Carl Fasano, and Amy Leidtke, will address the question “What is Design Science?” and a student panel will discuss their work and studio practice that which engages science.

The Synergetics Collaborative and The Edna Lawrence Nature Lab have organized Biennial Design Science Symposia at RISD since 2007. This Symposium, the RISD and Brown STEAM Clubs will participate, lending their energy, talents, and enthusiasm to the event.

To register, visit http://www.SynergeticsCollaborative.org. Register by January 10 to get the early bird discount. RISD and Brown students attend the event at no cost. Participating K-12 Educators will receive a Professional Development Report from RISD.

For more information contact Jaime Marland, jmarland@risd.edu

Posted in Communication, Curriculum and Instruction, Food for thought, Opportunity | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

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Talking Walls

January 18, 2014

Back again!

If you’ve been in education for some time you will most likely remember the book written by Winthrop resident Margy Burns Knight. Margy came to the school where I taught on more than one occasion when we did interdisciplinary units that included all students in Grades K-8. It was a fabulous opportunity to engage students in thinking about who they were as an individual and their connections to the world.

imageDuring one residency Margy came with the book illustrator  Anne Sibley O’Brien and met with each grade level of students to talk about the meaning of walls in the individual student’s life. As a follow-up each student created an illustrated poem that was put onto a dyed 8″x 8″ gray fabric. They looked like stones and were put together onto a dyed sheet with a little space in between. The artwork was about 5 queen sized sheets large at completion. It became part of the library attached to the ceiling in a circle similar to a tower. Students could walk through the tower/wall/space by arches that were cut out. It was marvelous!

Margy and Anne are back with an updated version of the wall and are hosting a teacher workshop to learn about how to use the book with students. How are walls part of your life?!   I hope you will consider attending, I am sure you won’t be disappointed! Information below with registration details!

February 7, 2014
Come celebrate the new Talking Walls – Discover Your World
by Margy Burns Knight, illustrated by Anne Sibley O’Brien
– updated and rewritten for read-aloud effectiveness
– compiled into one volume

3:45 – 4:45 FREE TEACHER WORKSHOP
519 Congress St #2B, Portland, ME 04101, 2nd floor – Maine Charitable Mechanic Association Library

The first forty educators who register are invited to an hour-long free workshop with the author and illustrator to introduce the new Talking Walls – Discover Your World, and to share examples of how to use the book to meet Common Core standards for informational text, grades K-8: Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, and Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity.

Each participant will be entered in a drawing to win a free copy of the book at the launch party (see below).

To register: Email name, school and contact information (subject line: Teacher Workshop) to margyburnsknight@gmail.com by February 1, 2014

5:00 – 8:00 LAUNCH PARTY (during First Friday Artwalk)
Mainely Frames
541 Congress Street, Portland

– Refreshments: Wine & cheese & crackers
– Display of original Talking Walls illustrations
– Books available for purchase and autographing
– “Reconciliation and Forgiveness Wall” – Community activity honoring the life of Nelson Mandela
– Drawing for free copies of the book (for educators who attended the workshop) – 5 winners

Posted in Communication, Community, Creativity, Curriculum and Instruction, Food for thought, Opportunity, Professional Development | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

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Coming Soon!

January 17, 2014

Sugar Bean Poster Small-page-001

Posted in Communication, Community, Dance, VPA, YAHOO | Leave a Comment »

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Dr. Elliot W. Eisner

January 15, 2014

Stanford professor passes, a great loss

Screen shot 2014-01-14 at 4.20.31 PMWhen I entered college in 1972 Elliot Eisner’s book Educating Artistic Vision had been recently published. It was used as a text in one of my Foundations of Art Education courses and provided a basis for looking closely at what I was considering spending my career doing. I remember it fondly and I plan to go to the attic this weekend and find that text just for a walk down memory lane. I am sure that some of you have memories from your teacher training days and Dr. Eisner or perhaps another researcher?! If so, please share a comment.

One piece that I love that Eisner wrote is about, not just visual art, but all the arts.

Ten Lessons the Arts Teach

The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships.  Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail.

The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution
and that questions can have more than one answer.

The arts celebrate multiple perspectives.  One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.

The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity.  Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.

The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor number exhaust what we can know.  The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.

The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects.  The arts traffic in subtleties.

The arts teach students to think through and within a material.  All art forms employ some means through which images become real.

The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said.  When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.

The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source
and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.

The arts’ position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young
what adults believe is important.

SOURCE: Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind, Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. (pp. 70-92). Yale University Press. Available from NAEA Publications.

The entire National Art Education Association community is saddened by the loss of our dear friend, mentor and leader, Dr. Elliot W. Eisner, 81, of Stanford, CA, on January 10, 2014. Elliot served as President of NAEA from 1977 – 1979 and is renown for his work in art education, curriculum reform, and qualitative research. His vision, intellect, and generosity of spirit will be celebrated at the 2014 NAEA National Convention in San Diego as we remember Elliot and his widespread influence. The family requests that memorial gifts be made to NAEA’s Eisner Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Eisner Lifetime Achievement Award, established in perpetuity by the Eisner family and NAEA, recognizes individuals in the field of art education who have made a sustained and significant contribution to the field through their work as a teacher, lecturer, or artist-including those who work in preschool, primary school, secondary school, and colleges and universities.

Find out more about the Eisner Lifetime Achievement Award at
www.arteducators.org/awards

Posted in Communication, Community, Curriculum and Instruction, Visual Arts | Tagged , | Leave a Comment »

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NEA Grants

January 15, 2014

Consider applying

FYI, the Arts Endowment is hosting a series of webinars to share updates for our 2014 guidelines and application process. Please join us on January 14th at 2:30 PM EST for the Arts Education webinar. Here’s the link to register:

Art Works Arts Education Guidelines Webinar
January 14, 2014 2:30 pm
Join us for a one-hour Art Works Arts Education grant guidelines workshop. A presentation by NEA Arts Education staff will be followed by a Q&A session.
Link:
Register for the Webinar

If you, your colleagues, or constituents are interested in any of our other discipline areas, the link to the entire list of webinars is here: http://arts.gov/videos/webinar

All webinars will be archived and available for viewing shortly after broadcast.

The 2014 guidelines are on the National Endowment website.

Posted in Opportunity, Professional Development, Standards | Leave a Comment »

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Arts Education for America’s Students

January 14, 2014

A Shared Endeavor

A Shared Endeavor is a recently released statement which represents a groundbreaking joint endeavor with twelve major arts organizations stemming from the Accord meeting in Washington D.C., May 2013.  A Shared Vision defines what quality arts education looks like at the local level, encourages partnerships, and calls on organizations and individuals to actively support and promote:   

  • Policies and resources for arts education.
  • Access to arts education for all students.
  • Collaboration between school-based arts educators, other subject area teachers, and community-based artists and arts educators.
  • Long-term advocacy partnership between all providers of arts education.  

A Shared Vision can be used in a multiple ways. Please share it with your administrators, colleagues, and community members. Encourage other educators to distribute the statement to education organizations. Be a leader and use Shared Vision to start a conversation at the local level, within your school and community.

The arts(1) are part of a balanced education, providing America’s learners with essential skills and knowledge they need to be productive, college and career ready citizens. A core academic subject of learning,(2) the arts are supported by a rigorous set of voluntary national standards(3) and assessment frameworks(4) designed to improve and support arts learning. In addition, forty‐nine states support sequential arts learning in their public schools with state‐adopted arts standards.(5)

The American public values a quality arts education in our schools.(6) When America’s public schools invest in certified arts educators, students gain the opportunity for a sequential, standards‐based education in the arts. Certified non‐arts educators in schools expand students’ opportunities for arts learning by providing curricular connections among the arts and other subjects.(7) Furthermore, students gain deeper, additional standards‐based arts learning experiences through America’s cultural organizations, community arts organizations, and teaching artists. It is the convergence of the contributions of all partners and opportunities that provides a quality arts education for our students.

Despite the rich body of data(8 )demonstrating how students benefit from quality arts education, many American children lack access to it in their schools. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, students in high poverty schools are more than twice as likely to have no access to the arts.(9) We believe that the inequity of access to quality arts education must be addressed. Too often, arts education is squeezed out of America’s public schools.

An education without the arts is inadequate. Therefore, we call on our public policy leaders to provide a systemic and rigorous arts education for all students in all public schools by leveraging the expertise and experience of the partners involved in arts education. To this end, the signatories of this document will support efforts to:

  • Advance policies and resources that ensure access to arts education for all students— delivered by certified arts educators—and that develop artistic literacy through a sequential, standards‐based arts education.
  • Ensure that all students have access to in‐school and community arts learning opportunities that add value to a standards‐based PK‐12 education in America’s public schools.
  • Encourage certified arts educators, community arts providers and certified non‐ arts educators to provide quality arts education for their students by collaborating together in support of improved instructional and classroom practices.
  • Foster proactive, long‐term advocacy collaborations among certified arts educators, community arts providers, and certified non‐arts educators that engage parents, school leaders, and other key stakeholders to support student access to high‐quality arts education throughout the school and community.

Screen shot 2014-01-13 at 8.24.10 PM Screen shot 2014-01-13 at 8.24.26 PM

Screen shot 2014-01-13 at 8.19.42 PMInterested in endorsing this statement? Email SharedEndeavor@gmail.com

1 The arts are defined here as dance, media arts, music, theatre and visual arts, following the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, http://nccas.wikispaces.com. Each state defines the arts differently within statute. Reference http://www.aep‐arts.org/
research‐policy/state‐policy‐database/ for further state information.
2 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Title IX, Section 9101, 11, http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg107.html; http://www.aep‐arts.org/wp‐content/uploads/2012/07/State‐of‐the‐states‐2012‐FINAL.pdf
3 http://artsedge.kennedy‐center.org/educators/standards.aspx                                                     4 http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/arts/howdevelop.aspx                                                        5 http://www.aep‐arts.org/wp‐content/uploads/2012/07/State‐of‐the‐states‐2012‐FINAL.pdf
6 Americans for the Arts (2005), “New Harris Poll Reveals That 93% of Americans Believe That the Arts Are Vital to Providing a Well Rounded Education,” http://www.americansforthearts.org/sites/default/files/pdf/news/press‐releases/2005/06/New‐Harris%20Poll‐
Reveals‐93‐Percent‐of‐Americans‐Believe‐Arts‐are‐Vital‐to‐Well‐Rounded‐Education.pdf
7 http://nccas.wikispaces.com/file/view/Arts%20and%20Common%20Core%20‐%20final%20report1.pdf/404993792/Arts%20and%20 Common%20Core%20‐%20final%20report1.pdf
8 http://www.americansforthearts.org/by‐program/networks‐and‐councils/arts‐education‐network/tools‐resources/arts‐ed‐navigator/ facts
9 http://www.aep‐arts.org/resources‐2/report‐arts‐education‐in‐public‐elementary‐and‐secondary‐schools/

If you’d like to download this information in document form please go to http://www.seadae.org/Corporatesite/files/6e/6e73488d-bd16-4394-b0f5-78629c1d7aeb.pdf or http://www.seadae.org/ or email me.  

Posted in assessment, Communication, Community, Creativity, Curriculum and Instruction, Leadership, VPA | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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Vox Nova Chamber Choir w/ DaPonte String Quartet

January 13, 2014

Performing at Bowdoin College

Vox-Nova-Chamber-Choir2-e1378146111426

Music of the Spheres: The Ecstasies Above

Vox Nova Chamber Choir, a Midcoast-based ensemble dedicated to the creative exploration of modern and contemporary vocal music, will present a concert of contemporary choral music with the DaPonte String Quartet and other guest artists on January 18th, 2014, at 7:30pm and on January 19th at 3:00pm in Studzinski Recital Hall at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.

This exciting concert features two major choral works for voices and strings. The Ecstasies Above, the title piece on the program, is an otherworldly and serenely expressive work set to the prodigious poem Israfel by Edgar Allan Poe. The program concludes with a pleasingly emotive work that swells to satisfying heights, entitled Sunrise Mass, by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo.

Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. They are available at Shermans in Freeport, Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick and Now You’re Cooking! in Bath, and from choir members. Admission is free with Bowdoin I.D. and as always, students attend free of charge.

Vox Nova Chamber Choir was founded in 2009 by Shannon Chase and Karen Topp and features members of the Maine Midcoast community, including Bowdoin College faculty and alumni. The group champions the expansive body of modern and contemporary choral music and seeks to engage audiences in a fresh musical experience through exposure to new music composed by living composers. Although the choir typically performs an entirely a cappella repertory, Vox Nova has become known for inventive programming and has sought in recent years to engage in meaningful collaborations with soloists and instrumentalists in order to bring the audience a well-rounded listening experience.

Dr. Shannon M. Chase holds degrees in choral conducting and literature from The Florida State University, The University of Maine, and The University of Southern Maine. She studied under such notable conductors as Rodney Eichenberger, André Thomas, Dennis Cox and Robert Russell and completed professional training with such notable conductors as Helmut Rilling, Anton Armstrong, Donald Nuen, Doreen Rao, Weston Noble, Robert Shaw and Sir David Wilcox. Dr. Chase has served on the faculties of The University of Oregon, Bowdoin and Colby Colleges and most recently, Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University. She is Founder and Music Director of Vox Nova Chamber Choir, Instructor and Founder of PRIMA Musica, a studio for vocal instruction, and teaches courses in and conducts the Southern Maine Youth Chorale, an advanced choir for youth singers at USM.

CONTACTS

Dr. Shannon M. Chase, music director

admin@voxnovachamberchoir.com

(207) 462-5669

Posted in Music, Opportunity | Tagged , | Leave a Comment »

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A Dancer’s Shell

January 12, 2014

Creating a shell

This video called A Dancer’s Shell created by choreographer Harry Shum, Jr. is an interesting depiction of a feeling or point in time or a place that exists for many. Mr. Shum is one of the stars of the television show Glee. Learn about Harry…

Posted in Communication, Dance | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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