ARTS & HUMANITIES GRANTS

awarded 10/1/08 - 10/8/09 by the

Maine Arts Commission & Maine Humanities Council
Award
Title: Spindleworks Oral History
Sponsor: Spindleworks $765
Spindleworks, a center for artists with disabilities founded in 1978, worked with a local historian to host a series of oral history
workshops. Paricipants learned how to record oral histories of artists in the program and presented their work to the community.

Title: Heat Stroke: New England Wax, Artists Working in Encaustic

Sponsor: Saco Museum $1,000
This special exhibition features work from New England Wax, an assoc. of artists who work in encaustic (a beeswax-based painting
medium). The exhibition will offer the opportunity for local and regional artists to exhibit their work together and exchange ideas.
Public programming in the form of lectures & demonstrations also will be provided.

Title: Preserving & Celebrating Place-Based Narratives

Sponsor: Five Rivers Arts Alliance $1,000
In an effort to present, share, and record place-based narratives from Southern Midcoast Maine, the Five Rivers Arts Alliance is
sponsoring a series of “Arts Night at the Library” events February thru May. In addition to 3 public interviews, the final event will be
an opportunity for members of the public to record their own story as part of the Story Bank recording project.

Title: Ebune Project

Sponsor: Museum of African Culture $500
Ebune is a month-long celebration of spring in the African Igbo tradition. The Museum of African Culture used the opportunity to
connect local students and the general public of all cultures through public events related to education and art. Events included
mask-making workshops and discussions, and the celebration ended with a parade on April 5.

Title: Whitefield Bicentennial Map

Sponsor: Town of Whitefield $1,000
As part of Whitefield's Bicentennial, artist Natasha Mayers will lead Whitefield students in the creation of an 8x12-foot mural depicting
historic landmarks and events in town. Tile-making workshops will allow the wider Whitefield Community to provide a tile border for
the mural. A written record of the project with photographs will be archived at the Whitefield Historical Society.

Title: Dance in Context: Building Informed Audiences

Sponsor: Bates Dance Festival $500
Dance writer Debra Cash will conduct a 3-week residency at Bates which includes writing in-depth program notes, providing
pre-performance lectures, and moderating post-performance discussions on the work of contemporary choreographers Robert Battle,
Tania Isaac, and Bebe Miller. Cash will also offer a course on Dance and moderate a panel discussion.

Title: Maine Youth Summer Theatre Institute - A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Sponsor: Stage East, Inc. $500
PROJECT SUSPENDED. Stage East, Inc., a non-profit community theatre group in Eastport, planned to work with teens from
Washington County to create two summer performances of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. -- The project ran into
staffing problems and did not happen. The awarded funds were returned to the Council.

total awarded: $14,865

 ARTS & HUMANITIES GRANTS
awarded 10/1/08 - 10/8/09 by the
Maine Arts Commission & Maine Humanities Council
Award
Title: Akiko Busch, Artist-in-Residence
Sponsor: Haystack Mountain School of Crafts $500
As part of Haystack’s Vistiting Artist Program, award-winning writer Akiko Busch will be artist-in-residence June14-26, 2009. During
her residency, she will work with 2nd session participants at Haystack, present a public program, and write a monograph reflecting on
contemporary craft. The result will be published as part of the school’s monograph series.

Title: Flag Day at the Portland Observatory Museum (1807)

Sponsor: Greater Portland Landmarks, Inc. $1,000
A community celebration will take place on Flag Day (June 14) at the Portland Observatory Museum to promote public appreciation of
the unique history of Portland. Highlights will include free tours of the Observatory and Mujoy Hill area, flag making and art
activities for children and families, and sea shanty music by local musician David Peloquin.

Title: Bringing History to Life

Sponsor: Friends of Par Sem $600
As part of the group’s Fifth Annual Victorian Tea and in honor of the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, a program is planned July
19 at the Parsonsfield Seminary which will feature enactors portraying President Lincoln and his wife. They will speak on personal
experiences with slavery and the Underground Railroad.

Title: Passamaquoddy Language Revitilization Project

Sponsor: Passamaqouddy Tribe $1,000
Master Passamaquoddy tribal linguist David Francis is 93 years old and has been the key to developing a dictionary of the endangered
tribal language system. Passamaquoddy historians and linguists will record Francis speaking and defining every word in the
dictionary. Sound files will be preserved for the public in a computer system being developed by the Univ. of Me.

Title: Promoting the Art and Culture of the Lubec/Campobello Area

Sponsor: Association to Promote & Protect the Lubec Environment $1,000
The Association will prepare and disseminate a map and guide (with companion website) to inform visitors about local arts and cultural
places of interest like studios & galleries, museums, musical performances, and historical societies. During the summer, the Lubec
Memorial Library will host a month-long exhibit by artists featured in the guide.

Title: Celebrating Nevelson

Sponsor: Everyman Repertory Theatre $1,000
This year Rockland will celebrate a former resident, the internationally-renowned sculpress Louise Nevelson. The celebration will
include a talk about her position in American art history, focusing on the collection of her works held by the Farnsworth Museum.
There will also be a presentation (the Maine premier) of Edward Albee’s play “Occupant” about Nevelson’s life.

Title: Bar Harbor Music Festival

Sponsor: Bar Harbor Music Festival $1,000
Funding will bring guest composers Douglas Anderson and William Dickerson to the Bar Harbor Music Festival’s “New Composers”
forum and concert July 14 &15, 2009. Anderson teaches at Manhatten Community College and conducts for the American Chamber
Opera Company. Dickerson is on the faculty of The Third Street Music School Settlement in NYC.

total awarded: $14,865

 ARTS & HUMANITIES GRANTS
awarded 10/1/08 - 10/8/09 by the
Maine Arts Commission & Maine Humanities Council
Award
Title: A Bicentennial Mural for Lubec
Sponsor: Lubec Historical Society $1,000
Lubec’s Bicentennial in 2010 provides an opportunity to reflect on the area’s past. This project will create a mural depicting significant
landmarks, events, people, and scenes of Washington County life, with the work being done by community residents and visiting
artists. The mural will be a permanent installation on the exterior wall of the Lubec Historical Society.

Title: “Pointed Firs Meet the Sea” Library Mural

Sponsor: Long Creek Youth Development Center $1,000
Residents of the Long Creek Youth Development Center will study the writings of Sara Orne Jewett, including The Country of the
Pointed Firs. In addition, they will create a 10’x24’ mural in the Center’s library, depicting a forest-to-the-sea landscape as a tribute to
the Maine author.

Title: The Circus Ship: An Island Author and History Tour

Sponsor: Island Readers and Writers:An Initiative for Maine Children $1,000
The 1836 shipwreck in Penobscot Bay of a side-wheeler steamboat carrying a full circus and brass band will serve as the basis for an
Island Author and History Tour. Acclaimed Maine children’s book author Chris Van Dusen, whose new book The Circus Ship was
inspired by the incident in 1836, will be part of the October trip to visit children on eleven Maine islands.

Title: In Good Time: The Piano Jazz of Marian McPartland

Sponsor: Maine Alliance of Media Arts $500
As part of a documentary film being produced about 91-year-old jazz legend Marian McPartland, this grant will help acquire archival
images for the film to illustrate key events in her life. The project by local filmmaker Huey explores McPartland’s life as a pioneering
woman jazz musician, composer, and host of National Public Radio’s “Piano Jazz”.

total awarded: $14,865