The Maine Alliance for Arts Education is a statewide non-profit whose mission is to promote and strengthen education in and through the arts for all Maine students. This mission is driven by the conviction that the process of learning in the arts – when students are not passively learning, but actively exploring and responding to their world and expressing the meaning they discover in it – is the paradigm for good education itself, and deepens learning in all subjects.

MAAE works to bring this creatively engaged model of education to ALL Maine students – not just those who are interested or gifted in the arts. Even in schools with strong arts programs, we are concerned to bring the arts to students who may not be electing the arts themselves. Thus, our Building Community Through the Arts high school program brings creative theater and dance integration into high school English classes to engage students who wouldn’t normally have chosen those arts experiences.

“ALL Maine students” also means students throughout Maine. MAAE’s bi-annual Advocacy Day in Augusta brings arts student representatives from all parts of the state to the Augusta Statehouse to advocate one-on-one with their legislative district representatives, and brings community arts organizations from every Maine county to add their support for arts education at the Hall of Flags. This year, working closely with the Maine Department of Education, we have been bringing our statewide message about arts education literally around the state itself, bringing arts students and teachers together with members of their community in local “conversations about the arts in our schools” hosted by community arts organizations.

MAAE is a member of the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network. It was formed in 1973 and incorporated in 1980.