Art Education students collaborate with the local community to develop lessons for the teaching of Wabanaki history and culture in public schools.

With the generous support of the Maine Humanities Council and the McGillicuddy Humanities Center, as well as the guidance from our community partners, the Art Education students in the Spring 2020 AED 474/574: Topics in Art Education have just completed a video unit of interdisciplinary/intercultural art lessons intended to address LD 295, the Maine law requiring the teaching of Wabanaki history and culture in public schools.

Originally the lessons were to be taught on-site to local middle school children, but when on-site instruction ended, the art education students switched gears to videotape lessons that would utilize common materials that children and teens might have in their homes.

These lessons can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdnKhY3-2fI7sPuVE-InWkg/playlists

We thank our community partners:

Kathy Pollard of Know Your Land and the lead project director of the Bangor Land Trust’s Edible Landscape Project  and Ann Pollard Ranco, enrolled member of the Penobscot Nation.

The students enrolled in AED 474/574 who developed these lessons were:

Iorthanis Andoniades
Blake Eden
Marion Harless
Sarah Picard
Kate Westhaver

Ann Pollard Ranco of Orono transports a bundle of walnut seedlings to be planted in a field on Sept. 4, in Central Penjajawoc Preserve in Bangor. The plants are a part of Bangor Land Trust’s Edible Landscapes Project. (Aislinn Sarnacki | BDN)


UMAECO

University of Maine Art Education Outreach program (UMAECO) strives to elicit global change through local action and awareness. These students aim to achieve this by learning about, collaborating with, supporting, and promoting their community partner, Gedakina. 

For more information about UMAECO, or their current projects, please visit their website.


Liam Reading is pursuing a major in studio art and minor in art history at UMaine. He also is a student in the Honors College, member of the UMaine Water Polo Club, and a science illustrator at ASAP Media Services on campus.

Reading has painted several large murals in the Bangor area. Next he plans to create a space-themed mural at the Orono Trampoline Park and another mural in downtown Bangor as a tribute to some well-known Maine figures, such as Stephen King or Andrew Wyeth.

In his spare time, Reading also likes to compose music and write lyrics, as well as complete freelance projects such as designing album covers and tattoos, and painting portraits and landscapes.

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