Charles L. Johnson
Kristen Mosca shares “Dill Pickles Rag” by the great Charles L Johnson. Kristen has played the piano since she was 9 years old and fell in love with Ragtime as a teenager. This song was a hit in 1906 and it was the second rag song to sell over a million copies after Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag”.
Re-stART: MAEA 2021 Fall Conference- September 17-18, 2021
The Maine Art Education Association (MAEA) Fall Conference is being planned after a year without it and after the struggles we have all faced with the pandemic. This will NOT be held at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts as they are still working on a reopening plan. MAEA is planning a full return for 2022. Instead, this fall MAEA is offering an in-person “satellite” conference at several venues, studios, and locations throughout the state. This will be a two-day event, in small groups, with 18 studio offerings! The conference will run from 8am-5pm during those two days. Room and Board will not be offered for most studios, however with so many locations, you may be able to find one close, or experience some of the great hospitality Maine has to offer. This does cut down on the conference cost significantly though as well!
The theme of the fall conference is Re-stART. With the worst of the covid crisis hopefully behind us and the acknowledgment of many social disparities, we are looking forward, using the silver linings and new understandings we have learned to continually improve our practice, our wellbeing, and our social interaction. We see this as something of a new beginning, a chance to make systemic changes and to highlight the best of mankind and of ourselves. This is an opportunity for us to make the changes we know can improve the structures we have found ourselves in. A chance to “Re-stART”. While not all workshops will focus on this theme, we hope it is something we can all reflect on as we begin a new school year this fall. Join MAEA this fall to learn a new craft, refine an old one, and/or develop art making skills with fellow arts educators!
Registration opens July 1st at 7:00 AM. Make sure to read the descriptions thoroughly for locations, recommendations, and other applicable fees (specifically for those that offer room and board). If you’re not a member of MAEA now is the time to become one so you can participate in the conference.
Off the grid
Thoughtful, meaningful, figuring it out, asking questions, listening to students, high standards. When it comes to teaching all of these represent Rob Westerberg. He acts in a very serious way and approaches most actions with a humorous twist. Recently he posted a piece called “Off the Grid” on his blog “Goober Music Teachers”. He describes what he’s learned during the pandemic, how he’s embraced the situation and a caution on the importance of not comparing what you do as a teacher with what the next teacher is doing. I’m certain that this year has revealed much to us individually. My greatest hope is that the shifts we’ve been forced to make and have chosen to make have been an opportunity to learn about ourselves, like no other time in our teaching careers. No matter if your career is at the beginning, middle or end there is something for everyone to ponder in Rob’s pandemic story. I’m always grateful when Rob takes on a subject and blogs about it. His posts give me a chance to pause and reflect. The next two paragraphs are the first two paragraphs of his post. You’ll find the link to Rob’s blog post at the end so you can continue reading.
IN ROB’S OWN WORDS…
Would you believe me if I told you this has been one of the most satisfying, rewarding and happy years of my career? The phrase, “going off the grid” is a spot on reflection of what every music teacher in the country has gone through the past 14 months. Nothing has been “normal”, and a lot has been taken from us and our students since March of last year. How that has individually impacted us is dependent on many factors including whether we’ve been allowed to be in person or not, what grade level we teach, general choral or instrumental, single teacher in a school district or one of many. In any given year prior to this one, each music teacher’s journey is incredibly unique. That’s never been more true than this one.
But a funny thing happened to me right around the middle of November, and it carried through to this very week: my kids and I were learning and growing, and realizing that we were learning and growing. We started enjoying this journey together.
Rob is the 2020 Maine York County Teacher of the Year. He is co-creator of the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative (MAAI) turned Maine Arts Leadership Initiative (MALI) and presently MAEPL, Maine Arts Education Partners in Leadership, with the revised mission to “develop and promote high quality arts education for all.”
I invite you to read Rob’s FULL POST – Off the Grid, May 15, 2021. Rob can be reached at THIS LINK.
Amazing project
Secretary Bellows hosts student artists and their artwork at office
AUGUSTA – On Wednesday, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows hosted student artists from King Middle School in Portland and Sweetland School in Hope, Maine-based artist Rob Shetterly and Assistant House Majority Leader Rachel Talbot Ross of Portland for a viewing of the students’ artwork and poetry on display in the Secretary of State’s main office.
The students made the artwork in partnership with Americans Who Tell the Truth, a non-profit arts and education organization founded to foster and inspire a profound sense of citizenship in students.
“Challenging young people to think deeply about the world and their place in it through art and poetry is a wonderful project and we’re honored to display it,” said Secretary Bellows. “I was delighted to get the chance to meet the students and hear what they learned about themselves through this project.”
“These students, some of them immigrants, are all well aware that this country has struggled to live up to its own ideals and struggled to infuse its laws with justice, so for them to meet Shenna Bellows and Rachel Talbot Ross who are dedicated to making those ideals real for everyone and making all of our laws just, was an incredible thrill,” said Shetterly, an artist whose portrait project became Americans Who Tell the Truth. “The students went home with new respect for Maine government and what they can do as citizens.”
“I was honored to spend time with students from King Middle School and Sweetland School alongside Secretary Bellows and Rob Shetterly,” said Talbot Ross, a legislator from Portland who represents the district that includes King Middle School. “I was really inspired by the words, the artwork and the level of engagement from the students in examining the lives of people who have been dedicated to truth and justice. It’s clear these students will carry on our legacy in years to come.”
Several of Shetterly’s portraits hang in both Secretary Bellows’ and Rep. Talbot Ross’s offices in the State House Complex.
The art will be on display on the second floor of the Nash School Building, which houses the Secretary of State’s main office, at 103 Sewall Street in Augusta through next week.
Music and Theatre Camps
USM Summer Youth Music and Theatre Camps are happening this year. Five great camps on the USM Gorham campus. Registration is open, space is limited. We have some changes for 2021 as we recover from the last year.
Theatre Academy (SMTA) is still an overnight camp, but Youth Band Day Camp (SMYBDC), Music Academy (SoMMA), Choral Academy (SMCMA), and Junior Music Academy (SMJMA) will be commuter camps this year. We’ll have most of the same great faculty as every year, and some new ones we’re excited to work with.
Below are the five opportunities. Available at the link above you will find downloadable posters to hang in schools and other locations for interested students.
If you have questions please contact Lori Arsenault, University of Southern Maine School of Music.
Amazing performance
Back in 1988, while traveling to Nova Scotia my family, I learned about the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo which is held each summer in Halifax. It was an amazing performance, theatrical in nature with a mixture of both military and civilian performers. I was very impressed, having never seen anything similar before that time. Below I’ve embedded the video of the Top Secret Drum Corps from Basel, Switzerland performing at Basel Tattoo 2012. If you ever have a chance to see one in person, I highly recommend going. I’m certain some students are interested in seeing this video.
For music
Are you an organization that empowers youth through music in after-school and out-of-school settings? Then this opportunity is for you!
The Lewis Prize for Music is now accepting 2022 Accelerator Awards applications. Accelerator Awards are open to Creative Youth Development (CYD) music organizations seeking to influence youth-serving systems so all young people have access to learning, creating, and performing experiences that reflect their culture and identity.
Applications are open from May 18-July 16, 2021 at 5pm PST.
Connect with UsWe will be hosting informational sessions to help cover any questions you may have about this process.
Telling a story
This is an interesting article from the New York Times written by Larry Buchanan and Matt Stevens and published on May 5. They review the history of the choices of US Presidents for art work in the Oval Office. Paintings and sculptures, the choices and placement. Not only do the authors provide this information but it is done interactively. A great use of technology to help you imagine what relatively few people have the opportunity to see in person. In 1995 I have the chance to visit with President Clinton in the Oval Office and my time there was relatively short. The moments there were exciting and considering what art work was in place was not part of my thinking. I hope you find this article interesting and will consider sharing with colleagues and most importantly your students. Most ages would enjoy seeing the interactive part on a big screen. CLICK HERE for access.
Learning with others
NYC Arts in Education Roundtable has opened their virtual workshops to all. Take advantage of these trainings focussed on business, messaging, and self-care. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!
ITAC, International Teaching Artist Collective, offers many networking opps, and this is a monthly gathering where Teaching Artists can share their best practices and ideas. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE!
The Teaching Artist Project, TAP, a social-justice-based network of teaching artists based in NYC offers their Summer Institute virtually this year. During this three day intensive, teaching artists across the country will work with Teaching Artist Project staff to develop skills, lessons, and activities that will help support their students and bring activism through art into the classroom. More info here and here.
Arts well represented
I am sure that many of you are familiar with the youth leadership group that the Maine Alliance for Arts Education (MAAE) supports. If not, below is a letter written by one of ABC’s (Arts are Basic Coalition) Student Leadership Group who recently experienced the 2021 Maine Youth Action Network (MYAN) conference. The work of MYAN and the leadership group are closely related. Thank you MAAE and students for participating! And a great big thanks to Delia for sharing her story.
Hi Everyone. My name is Delia Harms and I’m one of the members of ABC’s Student Leadership Group. I, along with Michaela Carrow, another Student Leadership Group member, and Madison Westrich, a leader of one of our recently formed Arts Advocacy Teams, facilitated a workshop at the 2021 Maine Youth Action Network (MYAN) conference in April. MYAN’s mission is to build healthier communities for young people, and this year’s virtual conference was specifically centered around building connections among young people after a year of such tragic loss and disconnect.
As students involved with ABC, we saw that our experience with and passion for the arts fit perfectly into MYAN’s goals for this year’s conference. A strong presence of arts programs in schools is essential to building those healthier communities for young people. The arts in schools create emotionally safe environments for students to express themselves and grow together. This is the message we hoped to deliver throughout our workshop. This is why we focused our activities around creating space for meaningful conversations, all while building that inclusive, connected environment that we see the arts fostering in our schools.
I got to watch the group of students participating in the workshop get to know each other in small groups and engage in exciting conversations about advocacy efforts in their schools and what they are passionate about, which was wonderful for me to see as a facilitator. We are hopeful that we can continue to foster these safe spaces for conversations, often using the arts as a catalyst, at more events in the future and in our own schools in collaboration with all of our arts advocacy teams across the state!
You are currently browsing the archives for the Food for thought category.
me arts ed 