THE NEWSLETTER OF THE MAINE HUMANITIES COUNCIL | S P R I N G 10 BIENNIAL REPORT ISSUE Taking Stock: Our Impact Across Maine 2008 – 2009 Grant and program activity, donors, and financials…p a g e s 11 – 21 1 Family Night at the Museum A Celebration of Picturing America for Head Start Families. 2 Real Life | New Books, New Readers as model for building a better world. 5 Lens on Cuba | People from all over the state gather to talk about Cuba. 8 People, Place, and Purpose Let’s Talk About It has the right mix. New Books, New Readers brings learning through discussion 10 Selected Grants to a group in Oxford County. photo: Diane huDson The Maine Humanities Council—a statewide nonprofit organization—enriches the lives of Mainers through literature, history, philosophy and culture. Our programs, events, grants and online resources encourage critical thinking and conversation across social, economic and cultural barriers. Reassuringly Unfamiliar: the Case for a State South Asianist We have a state fish, a state song—even a state soil…so why shouldn’t we have a state South Asianist? While I present this notion with tongue in cheek, it’s an idea that seems relevant to the story of Bates College scholar Sagaree Sengupta, who is featured in this issue. She certainly sees herself in that role, and rightly so. Though no missionary, Sagaree is nonetheless on a mission for the Council. She drives hundreds of miles across Maine to share with library patrons the surprises and delights of literature from South Asia. This is not a genre that most A LETTER people in Maine have much occasion to encounter, yet through our Let’s Talk About It program, they can visit—at a cost of only some time spent reading—cultures FROM THE that may be at once new and reassuringly familiar. People everywhere share basic human triumphs and concerns, issues that cross boundaries of time, culture, and EXECUTIVE geography. Maybe “reassuringly unfamiliar” would be the right term for this type of cross-cultural reading experience. DIRECTOR I’m grateful for our State South Asianist…just as I am for our many state New Englandists, and the scores of other scholars and facilitators who work across our programs, with local libraries and other organizations, to help the MHC get people out of Maine (literarily, if not literally) each month. Getting away can provide both perspective and—especially now—a welcome relief from bug season. Erik C. Jorgensen Executive Director 674 Brighton Avenue Portland, Maine 04102-1012 T 207-773-5051 F 207-773-2416 [email protected] www.mainehumanities.org BOARD OF DIRECTORS STAFF PROGRAMS CONSULTANTS Chair Charles B. Alexander Stephen J. Podgajny Victoria Bonebakker Annie Medeiros Charles C. Calhoun Douglas E. Woodbury Ellsworth Brunswick Associate Director Marketing and Program Assistant Teacher Programs Cumberland [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Allen H. Berger Patricia D. Ramsay Vice-chair New Sharon Yarmouth Martina Duncan Denise Pendleton Mary McVey Thomas K. Lizotte Assistant Director, Director of the Born to Read Accounting Patricia Bellis Bixel David Richards Dover-Foxcroft Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book [email protected] [email protected] Bangor Skowhegan [email protected] Treasurer Anne Schlitt Judith Daniels Liam Riordan Peter B. Webster Trudy Hickey Born to Read Union Bangor South Portland Office and Grants Manager Teachers for a New Century Jill M. Goldthwait Joel H. Rosenthal [email protected] [email protected] Secretary Bar Harbor Fairfield, CT Kathryn Hunt Erik C. Jorgensen Elizabeth Sinclair The Maine Humanities Council Bangor Sheila J. Jans Rachel Talbot Ross Executive Director Let’s Talk About It is an affiliate of the National Madawaska Portland [email protected] Literature & Medicine: Humanities ® Endowment for the Humanities. Diane Magras at the Heart of Health Care Alexandra A. Lawrence Kenneth Templeton [email protected] Editor: Diane Magras Rockport Brunswick Director of Development [email protected] Carolyn Sloan Design: Lori Harley Robert L. McArthur Maryanne C. Ward Program Assistant Auburn Pittston Karen Myrick Administrative Assistant/Receptionist [email protected] John R. Opperman [email protected] Julia Walkling Portland New Books, New Readers Stories for Life [email protected] The Maine Humanities Council—a statewide nonprofit organization—enriches the lives of Mainers through literature, history, philosophy and culture. Our programs, events, grants and online resources encourage critical thinking and conversation across social, economic and cultural barriers. FAMILY NIGHT On a Friday evening in early November, of this pilot project, inviting families nearly 150 Head Start children and their with children in these Head Start AT THE MUSEUM parents attended a Maine Humanities programs to immerse themselves in Council-sponsored Picturing America an experience of the arts. Twenty-five BY DENISE PENDLETON event at the Portland Museum of Art. early childhood educators from the When they arrived, they went on a York County and Cumberland County treasure hunt that took them through Head Start programs participated A Celebration of Picturing America museum galleries, dabbled in art in this pilot project. for Head Start Families activities in the museum’s education Patricia Clark, Director of Early studio, heard stories read aloud, ate Childhood Services/Instructor of Early pizza, and went home with a book and Childhood and Special Education a coupon for free Museum attendance at the University of Maine at Augusta for each family. noted, “A Head Start participating Picturing America, an initiative in the Picturing America program offers of the National Endowment for the preschoolers a chance to experience Humanities, provides a collection art and learn about artists in a way of high-quality reproductions of appropriate to their age and develop- American artistic masterpieces. ment. We incorporated children’s Along with teacher guides and web literature and many active literacy tools, these poster-sized reproductions activities to enhance the existing allow schools, libraries and other curriculum. Bringing art to children organizations to give children, families is such a natural concept and it is and communities a deeper appreciation gratifying to see the program in of our country’s history and character demand. All preschoolers can benefit through exposure to its art. from this collaboration because the With help from Maine’s Head Start resources are free and available online.” Quality Initiative and the University The MHC has also worked with of Maine at Augusta, the Maine Head Start programs in midcoast Humanities Council and Portland and central Maine in partnership Museum of Art developed a pilot with the Farnsworth Museum of Art project to provide trainings to the staff in Rockland and the Colby Museum of two Head Start programs, based of Art in Waterville to offer Picturing on the national partnership between America. The Portland pilot has Head Start and the National Endow- helped turn this venture into an ment for the Humanities. The first exciting ongoing project for Maine. training invited educators to the Museum to view artwork and learn how to effectively use the poster-sized reproductions provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. A second training explored ways that teachers could integrate books, such as those provided by the MHC’s Born Portland Museum of Art plays host to Read program. Family Night at the to almost 150 Head Start children who Museum was the culminating event not only explore the displayed artwork, but also dabble in creating their own. PHOTOS: DIANE HUDSON SPRING 10 1 have been consciously in love with children’s books since I bought The Illustrated Treasury of Children’s Literature in 1957. I had saved every nickel, every dime, every quarter that came my way for two years, and The Treasury was the first book I ever owned. Although REAL LIFE I couldn’t articulate a book’s transformative powers at that BY ANNALIESE JAKIMIDES time, I knew they had them. They took me to places and introduced me to people. They made New Books, New Readers Ime see things in new ways. is about much more than books And when I grew up and had children, and conversation. It’s a model I read children’s books to them, too. for building a better world. We borrowed books from our local library. Housed in an old church building in the center of Patten, population 1,200, the library gave away books when it acquired new ones because there wasn’t enough room. Many of the books came to live with us. But it wasn’t until I began facilitating LEFT TO RIGHT: Annaliese challenges each and discussion groups for the Maine every member of the group to tell their own stories; Sheila explaining a quilt she made, Human ities Council’s New Books, as the group talked about Sweet Clara and New Readers program that I truly the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson; understood their power. Margaret and Daniele; the room; Wayne, Mike, New Books, New Readers brings and Daniele. Next page: Wayne and Annaliese. PHOTOS: KRISTBORG WHITNEY 2 MHC together adults of varying reading levels, with silence? I am, by nature, a silence adventure. We know when our people with disparate experiences with books filler. And sometimes people need are missing or late. Where is Carmie? and literature and with the English time, silent space, in which to gather Pierre? John and Sheila? language, to discuss adult ideas through their thoughts, form their responses. Each monthly session consists of children’s books. Often they are picture In retrospect, I am grateful that books formed around a theme—books books with limited text. Sometimes the inaugural series for our group was that will belong to these people who are there is an early-reader chapter book “Friendship,” a prescient beginning, willing to come together and take risks.