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.
OUR PROJECTS
2016: Art and Story Telling
The students of the UMAECO class of 2016 have decided to pursue collaborative arts projects that work with communitys of elders. This population has the knowledge that comes with age and experiance and we would like to facilitate the sharing and exploration of their personal stories through collaborative art pieces. We seek to work with diverse groups of elders utilising art making processes to bridge the expanding gap between our generation and theirs.
2015: Photovoice
Home and Homelessness – A Photovoice Project: In the spring of 2015, students enrolled in AED 474 Art and Community at the University of Maine (UMaine) organized and implemented a service-learning project based on the concepts associated with Photovoice (https://photovoice.org/), a process of using photography as a means of giving voice to social issues and concerns, and helping those who do not have a voice find a new means of speaking up and out. The 2015 project brought together University of Maine art education students and teens associated with Shaw House (a shelter for homeless teens in Bangor, Maine) in a visual/photographic conversation around the concepts and experiences of “home and homelessness.” The UMaine students worked with the residents of Shaw House to document their experience of Bangor through photographic images and the process of turning these images into cyanotypes. These images were exhibitied, along with those from students at Orono High School, as part of Visualizing Home and Homelessness, an exhibition held in the Lord Hall Gallery on the UM campus from October 9 to November 13, 2015. This exhibition was part of the Maine Photo Project (http://www.mainephotoproject.org/), a statewide collaboration between 32 of Maine’s cultural institutions.
2014: Shaw house
Taught by Dr. Albertson, this class focused on the theme of ‘knowledge, empathy and action.’ Students worked with residents of Shaw House to create and market ceramic and found object pins to sell in area boutiques, raising awareness of the problems and needs of area homeless youth through film-making, media interviews, public presentations and in social media, to fund the purchase of musical instruments for the Shaw House teen shelter. Students completed graduate level research papers about their project. They raised approximately $750, but later, as a result of a newspaper article in the Bangor Daily News, donations were sent directly to the Shaw House, funding the purchase of instruments, sufficient to form a jazz band.
2013: Art Empathy
Taught by Dr. Albertson, this class focused on environmental activism, awareness and fund raising through creation, marketing and selling of hand made ceramic mugs. Students learned techniques to manufacture a large number of handmade ceramic mugs, decorated with imagery of Maine wildlife. They reached out to the media and conducted interviews on TV, and in the newspapers, on facebook and in a blog they created. They presented at the Hope Festival as well at the spring conference of the Maine Art Education Association, and completed research papers on their project. Proceeds from the sales funded trail cameras at the Hirundo Wildlife Refuge in Old Town, ME. Students raised almost $3000.