Maine Alliance for Arts Education announces a new strategic focus for the organization.
Now in its 34th year of serving the arts education community in Maine, the Maine Alliance for Arts Education (MAAE) has just completed an organizational assessment to determine how to best meet its mission to encourage and strengthen educational excellence in visual art, music, theater, and dance in all Maine schools and communities.
With the retirement of long-time Executive Director, Carol Trimble last December, the MAAE Board of Directors has used the transition time before hiring a replacement as an opportunity to assess the needs of the arts education community in Maine and MAAE’s core strengths as an organization. Going forward, MAAE will focus its strategic efforts in two key areas: Advocacy and Professional Development. MAAE acknowledges its many partners throughout Maine for providing invaluable assistance and support during this planning process.
Going forward, MAAE will work in collaboration with established and new partners and networks of educators, parents, arts organizations, communities, and supporters to advance arts education in Maine guided by these two priorities:
1. Advocacy
Proactively influence arts education policy at the state and national level through monitoring and lobbying legislation that affects arts education, and, over time, developing and supporting advocacy strategies at the local level among schools, parents, community partners, arts organizations, and cultural institutions to sustain and improve arts education.
2. Professional Development
Support arts educators, classroom teachers, school administrators, and parents to improve and promote arts education in all Maine schools by planning and implementing professional development activities through workshops, conferences, training, distribution of resource information, and other innovative programming.
In order to strengthen its statewide mission, the Board has also decided to phase out, over the next few months, two regional programs: Building Community Through the Arts in the greater Bangor and Penquis areas, under the leadership of Susan Potters, Education Director, and Learning (Arts) in Community (LINC) in Hancock County—as well as the Imagination Intensive Communities (IIC) program.