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Carol Trimble, Executive Director of the Maine Alliance for Arts Education (MAAE), announced that the statewide arts education organization has received a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Arts in Learning grant is for Building Community Through the Arts (BCTA), MAAE’s artist residency program in 13 Penquis Region high schools. MAAE is a statewide nonprofit organization that works to strengthen education in all of the arts for all Maine students.
“BCTA helps high-school students explore social issues and develop skills in the creative performing arts, while enriching the high-school curriculum,” Trimble said.
Initiated in 2000, just after the tragedy at Columbine High School, the program seeks to build a sense of community from the diversity of students within the academic high- school classroom, using the strategy of collaborative creation in the arts to break down social barriers and build a sense of trust. The NEA grant will extend the 2007-8 BCTA residencies, allowing the artists to introduce the students to professional examples of community-based theater and dance as a context for the students’ own creative work. The grant will also support after school workshops in creative theater and dance at five of the schools.
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Since 2000, approximately 200 Maine high school classes and 4,000 students have participated in BCTA artist residencies. The success of the program in fostering a more positive social climate in the classroom has been shown by the results of pre and post tests, administered to the participants each year. The program has so far been focused on the high schools in Penobscot and Piscataquis Counties, but secondary schools around the state are welcome to inquire about bringing it into their schools. For more information, contact Susan Potters, MAAE’s Education Director, and director of BCTA at 676-9494, or visit MAAE’s website at www.maineartseducation.org
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