Bringing the community together
The University of Maine Art Education Community Outreach program is an intercultural program that acknowledges and celebrates the diversity found within both the state of Maine and the country we call home. UMAECO prides itself in supporting all peoples and especially those from minority populations.
UMAECO 2019
2019's Project: Art and Community Wellness (Wabanaki Health and Wellness Center)
Mission:
The University of Maine Art Education Community Outreach (UMAECO 2019), strives to elicit global change through local action and awareness. These students aim to achieve this by creating opportunities for collaborative art engagement and facilitating diverse cultural storytelling with community partners.
Vision:
The students of the UMAECO class of 2019 have decided to pursue collaborative arts projects through working with the Wabanaki Health and Wellness Center. We would like to facilitate the sharing and exploration of participants personal experiences through short stories and poems prompted by the themes of hope, home, and metamorphosis. Participants will then have the opportunity to respond visually to their own writings. Our intention is to collect the work that they create and present it to them in book form.
In order to do this we will be researching the benefits of storytelling. We will be exploring different ways to facilitate this among diverse populations by working with individuals to create artwork, documenting their stories, and presenting their experiences in multiple formats.
We hope that you will follow us on our journey!
Community Partners
This year we have chosen to work with the following community partners...
Wabanaki Health and Wellness Center:
The students of AED 474 have partnered with the Wabanaki Health and Wellness Center to aid them in creating a new logo for their peer support group, as well as two art making workshops.
Workshop #1: Sculpture, Jewelry, and Wind Chime Making with Found Objects
The students of AED 474 held a workshop at the Wabanaki Health and Wellness Center on Monday, March 11th, 2019. The students brought with them a surplus of found objects such as beads, thread, yarn, and other miscellaneous objects which were used to create sculptures, jewelry, and wind chimes. This activity encouraged artists to create whatever they wanted, with the purpose of teaching that you can repurpose anything to create something new. We had a blast with this project, and hope that others did too!
Orono High School:
The students of AED 474 have partnered with Orono High School to do a workshop with the students.
Humanities Day at the Bangor Public Library:
The students of AED 474 have come together to create a collaborative public presentation on Humanities Day, showing what we have been working on. Our interactive display seeks to engage our diverse local community. By posing the question "what is hope?" we will challenge you to link together the words you believe to best represent what hope means to you.
For more information on Humanities Day please view the Facebook Events Page.
We Hope to see you there!
These projects are made possible with generous support from the Alton ’38 and Adelaide Hamm Campus Activity Fund.