Artists & Education, #107

Suzette McAvoy:

There's never been a time when I felt that there weren't artists to be continually inspired by or to be discovered. And people often say to me, aren't you going to run out of people someday when you just are showing artists connected with Maine and it just hasn't happened and it doesn't seem to happen, so there's always somebody to discover and more art to see.

Roger Dell:

So I'm a big advocate for art teachers in the state of Maine being rehired if they've been let go and hiring more because we need more. The irony is business wants creative workforce, but without teachers, art specialists modeling creativity, innovation and imagination, where will our children see that?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 107, Artists and Education, airing for the first time on Sunday, September 29, 2013. Art belongs to all of Us how do we ensure that the making and enjoyment of art is accessible to Mainers? Suzette McAvoy, director of the center for Maine Contemporary Art, and Roger Dell, director of Education at the Farnsworth Museum, answer this question. Today. Art belongs everywhere. Art, to the observant eye, is everywhere anyway. When I was in second grade, one of my classmates could draw Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang with age defying accuracy. Try as we might, the rest of us in Ms. Bissonnet's Rose School class could not hope to mimic the technical prowess our friend Chris had. Chris became known as the artist. I was never known as the artist. I was the reader, the singer, the playwright. I became, much later in my academic career, the scientist. My formal art education ended in eighth grade. I could not draw, at least not well, so art became off limits. My talents, I concluded, were not of the visual persuasion. Fast forward a few years, taking a break from my doctoring, writing and parenting I pick up a camera and set out into the world to see what I can see. The camera is soon paired with an iPhone. Soon I am taking pictures and sharing them. People seem to like them. I'm told I may have talent in this area. How can that be, I wonder? I am no artist. I have no formal training in this field. Yet because art can be found all around us, I have access to all that artists might also observe. And like artists, I have a set of eyes of my very own. Individuals like Suzette McAvoy of the center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport and Roger Dell of the Farnsworth Art Museum remind us that we all have the ability to see. Whether we have a degree in fine arts or we are mere dabblers. We are all capable of observing and savoring the art all around us. Art belongs everywhere. In the classroom, in the museum, in the home, and in the greater world. We need only open our eyes, literally or figuratively, to understand that this is so. We hope that you enjoy thinking about your own inner artist as you listen to our interviews to today. Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I first learned about the center for Maine Contemporary Art several years ago and was impressed yet again by the scope of art that we have here in Maine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

All sorts of different art, but this specifically more visual.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And last summer I was able to go in there and experience a very unique lights sounds a very interesting way of looking at art. So today I'm privileged to have with me Suzette McAvoy, who is actually the director and curator of the CMCA and has been since September of 2010. Suzette, it's great to have you here. Why does Maine need contemporary art?

Suzette McAvoy:

Thank you. I'm so pleased to be here. Well, Maine has had a relationship with visual artists since the mid-19th century, since Thomas Cole first came to Mount Desert and then a whole wave of landscape painters have followed him in his footsteps. And as they say, all art is contemporary ones. So our mission at CMCA is advancing contemporary art in Maine. It's really to be a catalyst for this legacy of Maine's role in American art. Really sort of pushing the ball forward, always sort of stretching what people's idea of art is and can be.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You were recognized in the July issue of Maine Magazine as one of the 50 Mainers who admire that we are supposed to admire and inspire. Of course, I always have inspired. I've been inspired by artists and people who work in the art world. It's hard for me to believe that the CMCA has actually been around for 61 years.

Suzette McAvoy:

Isn't that incredible? It surprises me as well when I think about 1952 and what the state of Maine was at that time. And, you know, really there weren't too many art institutions other than the Portland Museum. And the Farnsworth was only 4 years old at that point. They started in 1948, and they're our closest neighbor of arts institutions. And then, of course, there were the college and university museums, but they certainly weren't what they are today and weren't so open to the public. So the fact that there was this group of contemporary artists who came together to found an institution that was really dedicated to contemporary art at that point in time when, you know, contemporary art in America was actually a challenging area to be in. You had Abstract Expressionism and sort of European modernism. But this was pretty much right after World War II. So it was surprising. And the fact that we have remained a constant in the art community in Maine since 1952 is really extraordinary. And it sort of speaks to, I think, the really vibrant and strong role that artists continue to play in the Maine community.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As I mentioned in the introduction, last summer, I was at the cmca, which is in Rockport currently, and there was a very interesting exhibit. There was a textiles, I believe, a fiber arts exhibit at around the same time. But there was an interesting exhibit on the top floor of the museum. And there were lights and sounds, and they were using electronics. And it was. I can't remember exactly what it was. Sounds of the Forest. Do you remember what I'm talking about?

Suzette McAvoy:

Yeah, it was a sound installation by Nate Aldrich and Zach Poff. Nate is a professor up at the University of Maine at Orono. And one of the things that we do at CMCA is really sort of stretch the boundaries of what our is and the mediums that it can be embraced. And so we always are looking for work that suggests a new way of thinking about the world, of experiencing it. So sound art, performance, video work, even new ways of working with photography and sculpture and painting, all of those things that. That might ask people to think about and see the world in new ways, ways they haven't thought about it before? It's really sort of engaging people in that new way of thinking.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How do people respond? What do they say when you put out there this idea that sound could possibly be art or that performance video, a video of a performance that is also a visual art?

Suzette McAvoy:

Well, some people are initially resistant, but then I think that one of our jobs as an arts institution that's open to the public is to really make it an inviting opportunity for people to maybe get familiar with something that might be off putting to them at first. And that's so wonderful about CMCA is I think that we can offer that to the public. We have a very welcoming sort of attitude there. It doesn't seem off putting. And I think that is sort of reflective of Maine in general. People come to CMCA and they see work that wouldn't be out of place in New York City or in more urban area. And they, I think, find it more approachable somehow here. They seem. Because also the artists are really part of the community here and they're not. They don't seem to be sort of separate from everyday life. They're really part of our life here. And I think that that somehow makes it more approachable to some people. And then I often try to go out and give gallery talks. We have. Our receptionists are willing to engage people in conversation. And to me that's really what art is. It's really a conversation. It's a way of communicating between people. It's really visual language, but it's a way to express things that aren't necessarily expressible in words.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I presume that you could have gone anywhere, you could have gone to New York or Boston or another big city that had or even Portland to be a curator and to be a director of a museum. Why would you choose a smaller museum up the coast of Maine?

Suzette McAvoy:

Well, I first came to Maine in the fall of 1988 to take the job as curator at the Farnsworth Museum. And the Farnsworth at that time was a very different institution. It was much smaller. We hadn't yet broken out onto Main street or the Wyeth center wasn't part of it. And I stayed there off and on. I was there full time through 1995 and then took five years off when my daughter was born. Came back in 2000 and stayed in 2006. So through that whole time, I saw the institution really grow. And I also saw what it could do as a positive impact on the community because the Farnsworth really was part of that whole transformation of Rockland and consequently the Mid Coast. So that was a really, I think, a positive experience. And the fact that there are so many extraordinary artists that are in this Mid coast area. You had Lois Dodd and Alex Katz and Kenneth Noland. I mean, really Robert Indiana, really internationally known artists that I was able to do exhibitions with and to interact with on a very personal level that I felt that in A big city, I probably wouldn't have had that kind of access here. People come to Maine and they're, I think, more relaxed and more open to being approached. And there's less sort of political maneuvering that has to be done to get to the artists at that level. So it's been really extraordinary to be able to work with artists at really the peak of their career, but also to be discovering young artists that are coming up and coming. Like Danica Phelps, an artist that's originally from Rockport who now shows internationally. Or Ethan Hayes Shute, another young artist from Freeport that we showed two years ago who now lives in Berlin and is showing last at the Marrakesh Biennial. Or Steve Mumford, who has a studio in Tennant's Harbor, Maine, who just, you know, did a series in Iraq and Afghanistan, a series of work that we showed a couple of years ago. So there's just. There's never been a time when I felt that there weren't artists to be continually inspired by or to be discovered. And people often say to me, aren't you going to run out of people someday? When you just are showing artists connected with Maine? And it just hasn't happened. And it doesn't seem to happen. Every time I go to somebody's studio, I always ask them, is there somebody I should be looking at? And they always tell me, somebody. And I go and check that out. And, you know, so there's always somebody to discover and more art to see.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I have noticed, having been to the CMCA Art Auction, which happens every year

Suzette McAvoy:

in July, the end of July, at

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

the end of July, I have noticed that there seems to be not exactly an equal number, but certainly a representation of younger artists. There are the more established artists. I know you've had Lyndon Frederick and others of his caliber, and. But then you also have some of the younger artists who are just more newly in their careers. Is this another way of making art more accessible?

Suzette McAvoy:

It is. And one of the things that sort of sets CMCA's auction apart is that it is an invitational. We actually invite 100 artists every year. And we try to find a balance between established artists and up and coming artists, and. And that is really to introduce their work to a buying audience. I mean, one of the things that we really want to promote is this idea of collecting art, of living with art. I'm a big proponent of what I call the slow art movement. You know, there's this big thing now with slow food. But one of the things that I think is really challenging for Arts institutions these days is to get the viewer to slow down enough to really look at art, to really engage with it. We're so used to getting images quickly these days and to making snap judgments and reading things quickly online and on the screen. That physical engagement with a unique work of art really requires people to look over a sustained amount of time and to slow down and to think about things and to engage with it. And so living with art allows that kind of sustained looking and that kind of engagement. And so it's something that I really try to encourage people to do is to acquire original works of art so that they can have that experience on a daily part of their life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You also have an interesting program at the CMCA called the Art Lab program. And this is again, yet another way of bringing art to individuals, but to individuals who are younger it is.

Suzette McAvoy:

One of the first things that I did when I came to CMCA in the fall of 2010 was to really get, was to look around and see what are we missing here, what are we lacking. And I thought one of the things was there's really no place at CMCA right now where a young family could come and really feel comfortable with their kids. And so we took one of the galleries and turned it into a classroom, a studio, a hands on studio that we call Art Lab. And it's really that idea of experimenting and experimentation with materials. That's why we like the kind of lab idea that this isn't about instruction where you are, where it's sort of a process that's outlined with a known end product. It's about experimenting. And that's what art is really about, is that sort of open ended creative process. So Art Lab was established with this idea that there would be a place that people visiting could just drop in and that there would be materials out there and that they could engage with what was there. And then shortly after that, we started what we call Art Lab for all ages. And it came from a very simple idea that we would just on the first Saturday of every month, we would have it free of charge, drop in without registration. So you didn't have to think about it in advance. It wasn't going to be parent child, like a lot of models. It was literally for all ages. So that the project that we were doing that day was designed to be something that adults as well as kids would want to engage in. And it was a success from the beginning. We really did get all ages to turn up and they continued to come, I mean, anywhere from our neighbors across the street. Who are in their 80s who are regular visitors to Art Lab to 2 year olds on their parents laps. And we have grandparents and neighbors and friends and teenagers. And so just this idea of creating community through creating art together has been a really positive outcome of the whole Art Lab program that we have

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

here

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Give me examples of some of the projects that you have people of all ages doing well.

Suzette McAvoy:

One of the most popular ones is our mystery bag projects where everyone is given a brown paper bag with a number of objects in it. It's usually a found piece of wood, some just little things that are collected around the home and then they make sculptures out of them we also do monoprinting. There's a holiday card making project that everyone really enjoys. There's a number of. One of the things that people really enjoyed was there were these exquisite corpse cubes, which are actually three blocks that are painted with a head, a torso or legs on each different side. So that when you put them in different combinations, you have a different figure that is composed out of the three parts. So there's just a lot of different mediums that we use. We try to do 3D and two dimensional projects and they're all conceived by Marci Bronstein, who's our art lab instructor. And she's just great about continually coming up with ideas that people seem to really enjoy. And as I mentioned, the whole premise is to just put the materials there and give people a model, a finished product, and then just let them create in their own way and approach the materials in their own fashion.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

The center for me in contemporary art is having. It's outgrowing its space, I should say. And you're looking towards the future and there are big plans in place. I know that a lot of things have to happen between now and possibly what happens in the future, but I think you're in a process of maybe trying to raise some money.

Suzette McAvoy:

Yep, we are. We're about to launch a $4 million capital campaign to acquire a building in downtown Rockland and to do renovations and to move in, we hope, by 2015. It's really after a year long study of looking at where we are and where we think we need to be in order to really fulfill our mission of advancing contemporary art in Maine. And the building that we're looking to buy is at 21 Winter street in Rockland and it's right across the street from the Farnsworth Museum and adjacent to the Strand Theater. So it really brings us into the heart of downtown Rockland. And, you know, a lot of the art energy in the mid coast has really moved definitively I think, to Rockland. And there's a really vibrant downtown community there that we could be part of. And there's just going to be, I think, a synergy there between the Farnsworth and the Strand and cmca. And we're sort of the three, you know, the third leg of the stool there of addressing performing art, you know, more historical classic art, the established museum and then emerging art and sort of the next wave of sort of feeding into that next generation. So we're excited, they're excited, and I think it's going to be a really a terrific next phase to our history.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How can people find out about or maybe possibly donate towards your campaign? How can people find out about the CMCA?

Suzette McAvoy:

Well, on our website cmcanow.org so it's cmcanow right on our homepage is our vision statement so people can go to that to see what our plans are and where we are hoping to be heading. And there's also a donate button there so you can always do that. We're always looking for people to encouraging them to be members and to donate. So we have both our annual operating campaign and then now this capital campaign that we're going to be really going after over the next year.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And people can also find out more information about Art Lab and either how to donate or how to be involved.

Suzette McAvoy:

Absolutely. There's a link there for Art Lab and you'll see that we have Art Lab for Kids, Art Lab for Adults, and Art Lab for All ages. There's also information about our upcoming exhibitions and we also have a Facebook page, center for Maine Contemporary Art, that we post a lot of photos and a lot of information about all of the programs that we do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I've been Speaking with Suzette McAvoy, who is the director and curator at the center for Maine Contemporary Art and also one of our 50 Mainers to admire and inspire, from the July 2013 issue of Maine Magazine. Suzette, it's really been a great pleasure to speak with you about art and making art accessible for all. So thank you for coming in.

Suzette McAvoy:

It's been my pleasure. Thank you.

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Anyone who has spent time on the

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

mid coast and has an aesthetic sense

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

has probably spent time at the Farnsworth

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Art Museum up in Rockland.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And today we have with us Roger Dell, who is the director of education

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

at the Farnsworth Art Museum. And it's quite a privilege to have you with us. Thank you for coming in.

Roger Dell:

Thank you so much for having me, Roger.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I know that one of the things that we've talked about a lot on the show is education and how do we bring art to people and people to art and how do we make

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

it a more integral part of their lives? And I think this is something that

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

you've spent a fair amount of time working on yourself.

Roger Dell:

Absolutely. I think when we separate art out and we think about it in privileged places like museums and galleries, we're missing something that goes back thousands of years where art was totally integrated into everybody's life. Any culture. You look at ancient Greece, ancient Egyptian, the medieval cultures, and then certainly around the world, Africa, Oceania, Native American. Many places didn't have the word art at all. They had objects that were made primarily for religious and utilitarian reasons, that were beautiful and were artfully done, but the object itself didn't become venerated like we did in the West. That really began with the Renaissance and through modernism. So I'm actually calling for going back medieval to a certain extent and looking at art as an integral part, an important part, not a frill, not an extra, but deeply embedded in the way we perceive the rest of the world. Because you can think about art in and of itself. But it also helps us become visually literate for the whole world that we live in. So when we leave the gallery or the art museum, what do we take out as we look at our environment? And I think if we were more visually literate, more critical, we wouldn't allow ugly buildings to be built and cities to fall into decay. We would take care of them because we wanted them to be beautiful, just like the objects in the museum. So I have a deep and abiding interest in bringing art into everyday life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's an interesting comment, because as a doctor, I've worked in many medical facilities and have seen the difference between ones that are very much designed with the patient and the aesthetic in mind versus ones that really were kind of thrown together. And there seems to be a significant. And we know there are studies that have to do with healing and beauty. It also speaks to just a certain level of care that we would want our patients to have that beauty. But you're suggesting that we kind of broaden this and just put it out there in general for the population at large?

Roger Dell:

I think it's not so much putting it out there for them. It's helping them discover that they love beauty, too. And they can be artists or they can be audiences of art. They can go to art museums. And when I say the arts now, I'm thinking of dance, music, theater, literature, and the visual arts. And so everybody has that capacity to appreciate it and also to make art, too. We have a lot of classes at the Farnsworth for adults. Art making classes, using their hands, painting, sculpture, life drawing. We're starting a new class in a couple of weeks, how to make films and videos for adults, for older people. We do this with younger people, but why not older people? And one of the things that always moves me when I have an older person say, I never did draw. I couldn't draw. I can't draw a perfect circle. I can't draw a straight line. Well, nobody can without a ruler or a protractor. So somebody told these people, and they bought it, that they didn't have talent in either singing or drawing. And so for 20 years, 40 years, most of their life, they didn't try. And now, as adults, they're taking classes, which is great and wonderful, and we want more of that. But it's just sad to me that for all of those years, they didn't sing, they didn't dance, they didn't try these things, because typically, some adult when they were young told them, you know, try something else. You're not good at this, or you don't have talent, you're not artistic. Every kid is artistic if given access to resources, some adult education, and an atmosphere that lets them discover their own creativity.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You're not from Maine originally.

Roger Dell:

I'm not.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been many places. But you were born in Manhattan.

Roger Dell:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you were at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. You are at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Fitchburg Art Museum.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

There must have been some formative things

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

that occurred in your early life that caused you to be one of these children who actually believed that you could do art or you could become visually literate.

Roger Dell:

My parents took me to the great museums in New York as a little boy because I was fascinated with not so much the art museums, as it turns out, that that became my life track, but with the American Museum of Natural History, because they had the skull of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which they still have, which I just saw two weeks ago, seated on the floor in an old fashioned museum case, glass with a wooden trim. And I was like 4 years old, and I crawled up to it and its teeth are nine inches long. That was awesome. Awesome. So I was awestruck by objects and by things that were magnificent and also things that were beautiful. And I also, I guess, drew a bird once that everybody thought was fabulous. And I immediately became the artist of our family. And that support, whether that bird was good or bad, I haven't a clue. It doesn't exist anymore. But that support from my parents, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, and I'm saying with kids today, if we can put them in a position to begin to discover their own creativity, we will be amazed about what they do. We can't even predict what kids do when given video cameras, digital cameras, camcorders, paints, clay, stone, because we've never seen it before and they've never had the chance before. So I'm a big advocate for our teachers in the state of Maine, our teachers in every state in America being rehired if they've been let go and hiring more because we need more. The irony is business wants creative workforce, but without teachers, art specialists, modeling creativity, innovation and imagination, where will our children see that?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's an interesting question because we've become very focused, especially with the economy being shaky in the last few years. We've become very focused on sort of value for money. And it's easy to measure things. Like if you have a big college football team, they bring in revenue for the university. Sometimes it's harder to see the value of an arts education. But there are probably some things that you could offer that would counter those arguments about the value of art.

Roger Dell:

Right? And there are all kinds of studies that show the arts in a creative economy being absolutely important. I mean, just taking Rockland, for example, There are about 25 art galleries in a town of 7,600 people in large measure, because in 1948, the Farnsworth opened its doors and was kind of a magnet for culture. Now we have a very active music scene up there. We have all kinds of wonderful performance going on. And then most importantly, in many ways is the great restaurants that we have in Rockland. But this all came about through a kind of renaissance that began, and I guess I am tooting our horn right now with the Farnsworth opening and having a 60 year run of supporting culture in that area, which led to jobs and people opening restaurants and hotels and B Bs. So there is that economic part, what I call the utilitarian or functional part or instrumental part of art. But then there's also art for the soul and soul making that's so important. And if people don't have that anymore, I really worry. One of the things that I'm concerned about is the lack of arts and humanities education, not only in elementary, middle and high school, but in our colleges. When professors of the humanities are retiring now, they're not being replaced, courses are being cut from the syllabus. And so there's less and less courses in the humanities. And when I say the humanities, that does include art history, aesthetics, philosophy, anthropology, history, and a number of other literature, of course. And so if that isn't being taught in the elementary, middle and high school and in college, where will people be exposed to arts and humanities?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We'll return to our program in a moment.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

The goal of the Dr. Lisa Radio

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Hour is to help make connections between

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the health of the individual and the

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health of the community. The goal of Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes

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is to deepen our appreciation for the natural world. Here to speak with us today is Ted Carter.

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We at the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour know that our listeners understand the importance

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You were the curator of gallery education at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and that is maybe as far away from Maine as one can get, except maybe Alaska. I'm not really sure of the geography, but probably as far away.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How did you end up here? What are some of the differences that

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

you see and the similarities that you see between Honolulu and Maine?

Roger Dell:

When I was being interviewed at the Farnsworth for my present position, I told my wife, who was back in Massachusetts, that when you come up here, you're going to think it looks like home. And what I meant by that was Honolulu and I Had to quickly add the rejoiner, not the weather, but beauty, nature, these fingers of dark land going into this blue, blue ocean, the light and the kind of more casual living and yet a kind of sophistication because we find on the mid coast that people want their excellent restaurants. They want the Metropolitan Opera in New York to be telecast in high definition television every Saturday when the Met is live. So there's a coming together of nature, beauty, sophistication, culture that reminded me of Hawaii. And when my wife came up here, she felt the same way. It wasn't a direct route from Honolulu to Rockland. Over the years I was hired to help build the new museum in Chicago, which was the Museum of Contemporary Art. And then I was teaching in the Green Mountains in Vermont outside of Burlington for two and a half years. And then I worked in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, which is an old mill town on the Nashua river, doing the same thing, working with kids in public schools, putting on public programs in the places that I've lived. I've always taught in the evenings as an adjunct professor. So in Fitchburg I started teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in their arts and education program. And I taught there for 10 years. And then I also taught at the extension school at Harvard for eight years. Those two 10 years overlapped. So I've had the good fortune of hands on practice, of what we've been talking about during the day and then going and teaching it to really bright students in the evening. And when we moved up to Maine, I continued my association with both schools at Harvard. So after Massachusetts, for the last six years we've been in Rockland.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I probably don't have to ask this

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

question because I think anybody who's listening knows the answer. But what drives you? I mean, it seems like you've.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

There's some drive, some internal drive that

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

you probably have had since you were quite young that keeps you feeling so passionate about art and education and bringing art to other people.

Roger Dell:

I think it's awe, the awe that I felt when I looked into the mouth of that Tyrannosaurus rex. And then the awe that I felt in all of the art that I've looked at in museums in Europe and Japan, around the world, in America. It's awesome to see human hands creating these magnificent objects that brighten our lives. And I'm, you know, I dabble a little bit, but I don't consider myself an artist. But I can understand by my dabbling how difficult it is to come up with beauty, new ideas. And when I say Beauty. I don't mean all paintings have to be lovely seascapes in Maine. Some of the greatest art is about warfare and terrible things, but they've moved us. Like Picasso did this painting right before World War II called Guernica, about saturation bombing in Spain that Franco was part of. And it moved people. It moves people. So it's hard to call that beautiful. And it's not colorful, it's monochromatic, but it moved people. So I think I've just been impressed with the working of human hands, creating objects all around the world that have moved us. And I want young people, especially, though I do a lot with adults, but young people to discover their creativity in themselves. Because for me, we can talk about wind power in Maine and solar power, tide power, and all kinds of power, but the power that I think we're letting slip through our fingers is the power of the creative mind of our young people, you know, and we're up against huge odds that no other generation ever had to go up against, with technology being so pervasive. We can do creative things with technology, but there has to be a balance. And so I think using your hands to make art for young kids is something we need to encourage everywhere we can. And when it comes to school, what I'm talking about comes under a broader title, which we call Project Based Learning. Get kids out of the classroom, out of their seat, into the world, and create your lessons around things that are meaningful to their existence. And you'll be amazed at what they come up with. And they're going to learn all the basics, too, if it's taught properly, if the pedagogy is correct. But they're going to enjoy school. They're going to love school. And art is one way. We know that certain kids who wouldn't be in school, they would have dropped out, have stayed in school. They wanted to be in the school play. They want it to be in the chorus. They're working on a mural. All of those things are communal. There's talk going on, there's communication. They feel included. And so when they're in school more, they're taking more math, more science. So I just urge all Mainers and all Americans to find ways to bring art into a parallel position with the art. Other disciplines. And art is a discipline, and it's an academic discipline. There's an intellectual part to it, too. It shouldn't be a frill, it shouldn't be a special, it shouldn't be an extra. It needs to be central. And ironically, we're Missing the boat by thinking just math, reading, and standardized tests are the ways to go. Do we really want our children to be proficient in only those things? I mean, what about music in their life? And what about beauty in the form of art? I think we want our kids to be more well rounded than that. But we're kind of on the slippery slope because things that can be measured get measured. Things that are hard to measure, like beauty and art, often don't get measured. And I'm not saying that we should measure them in an academic way, but we have to honor them because we know that they help build community and they do things for kids that are more general. Instead of improving two points on a math score. We know that it causes empathy. When you look at somebody on the stage who's performing, a schoolmate, and you know that you're next to go up there, you're going to have some empathy. And if we have empathy, that could lead to understanding. And if we have understanding, that could lead to embracing. And if we have embracing, that could lead to love in a way. I mean, this is what we're talking about. So the arts, I mean, that sounds a little hippy, dippy, but I'm saying that arts are about soul making and about community making, and art brings people together. And if we need to talk about academics, we know that when arts are deeply embedded in public schools in America, attendance goes up. Just attendance. I'm not saying the quality of instruction, but just attendance. So that means students are taking more math, science, etc. And the other thing we know is that when arts are deeply embedded, not fringe, but deeply embedded students, vocabulary increases.

Suzette McAvoy:

Why?

Roger Dell:

Because the arts are about a discussion, a critique. If you work with theater people, all they're doing is talking about the performance. What went wrong, what went right, how to improve it, how are they doing. Same with music critique and certainly with art critique. So the vocabulary increases. And there are all these other, what I call general outcomes that are definitely present when the arts are stable and in place and not being cut this year and added back a little bit at a time over the next 10 years. And this kind of process is cyclical. It's happened before. The arts were cut. I remember in California in the 70s, art teachers were cut. Then they were brought back because. Is that what school's going to be? Nothing but, you know, drill? No, it needs to have this other humanistic, artistic part.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

One of the most, I don't know, compelling artistic moments of my life was actually at the Farnsworth, and the photographer was Paul Caponigro.

Roger Dell:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And this was maybe two years ago. And as a doctor, you might imagine I haven't had much in terms of formal art education, but it didn't really matter. I stood in front of his photographs and I. And I felt them. And I think that this is the type of thing that we can use to communicate with our children. So do you bring children through and try to help them with that as well? Help them with the appreciation?

Roger Dell:

We have thousands of students who go through the Farnsworth every year just for what you're talking about. And, you know, I feel it's not so much help them. Kids are open. It's like, let's not close them down. So they will stand before Paul Copernego's work and they'll be moved and they bring their own baggage. It won't be the same experience that you've had and, you know, bring all of that that you've had in your life, but they've had their life too. So on our guided tours, we have these wonderful guides called docents, and they're trained in what we call the Socratic approach. So asking leading general open questions of these students. And it begins with simply noticing, what do you see? How do you see it? And if they say something in response, why do you say that? So it's very reflective and it's not telling them just the art history of the Paul Capernigro photograph, which comes out in the discussion. But it begins with where these kids are. Most of Paul's photographs are of nature, of beauty. These kids live in Maine. They see it all the time, they bring it themselves. So, you know, our docents are schooled in not talking right away, letting kids wander through the galleries a little bit, bringing them back and opening it up to a discussion. It's amazing what they say. I mean, they see the most cogent and important parts, typically, because they experience it. And so we have a lot of groups going through and we were able to receive money from bank of America. So every group that goes through, every single one, we cover the bus fees and fares. There's no charge for the students to come in. There's no charge for the docent program. So in our own small way, we're trying to reach as many students with the first program that I mentioned, Stories of the Land and its People, and with bringing kids in to see our wonderful collection. We also have a teen program, an after school teen program where kids make films about their life on the Mid coast. The first one they did using only an iPhone. The whole movie, it was tremendous. And we screened it in the Strand Theater, which is a wonderful old theater up in Rockland. 350 people came out to see this movie. That was four years ago. Since then, they've made five movies. One was on homeless teens on the Mid Coast. So we had teens making a film about other teens who are homeless on the Mid Coast. But even though they're homeless, they love art. And not through the Farnsworth. They discovered art by journaling their music, dancing. And so this whole film, it's called Artworks, was about how teens saw other teens using art to get through really difficult times. The last film they just completed was all about bullying, but not the kind of bullying that I might remember when I went to school. Part of it was about that, but cyberbullying and how terrible and devastating that is for our young people. So we have amazing kids all over, and all they need are, as I said before, some resources, adult supervision, and the permission to kind of plumb their creativity. It's there, and I've seen it. When I worked in Chicago with a different population, an urban, poor population on the south side of Chicago. There were students there who had never picked up a crayon and a piece of paper. And they were in middle school. And the schools that I worked with were on the south side of Chicago, on South State Street. Some of these kids had never seen Lake Michigan. It was like four blocks away because it was too dangerous to go out there. I'm just saying that we need to put kids in safe places where they can discover their creativity, because they definitely have it. And by the way, their solutions to our problems are going to be really based on their creativity. So our problems are so intractable, with poverty, with war, with pollution, the ecology. You and I aren't going to solve those problems, but a new generation will need to tackle them. And if they can have a creative way of looking at things, an interdisciplinary way, that will be tremendous, and they have a shot at it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Roger, there's a lot going on at the Farnsworth.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I know that people will be interested in finding out more. So what's the best way for people to learn about the education programs and just the museum in general?

Roger Dell:

Just going to our website as a start, or just calling up the museum? There's a wonderful newspaper up there called the Free Press, comes out every Thursday, and we have either ads or articles about what we're doing or just hopping in the car and driving on up. We're open seven days a week until October so we're available, and on First Fridays we're free in the evenings. So there is a lot going on. And there's a lot going on in Portland. It's a great state. I mean, kind of getting back to one of your questions, the similarities between Honolulu, where there's a lot of art and a lot of activity going on are palpable. But Honolulu is a city of 800,000 people, Portland small, and Rockland, you know, it's tiny, but doesn't mean that we don't have the same kind of energy and creativity going.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I feel very fortunate that you took the time to come down here and talk with us about art and education and the work that's being done at the Farnsworth Art Museum up in Rockland. We've been speaking with Roger Dell, who

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

is the director of education at the

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Farnsworth Art Museum, and I encourage everybody who's listening to go and spend some time in your wonderful place.

Roger Dell:

Thank you so much.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 107, Artists and Education. Our guests have included Suzette McAvoy and Roger Dell. For more information on our guests and extended interviews, visit drlisabelisle.com the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is downloadable for free on itunes. For a preview of each week's show, sign up for our E newsletter and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter and Pinterest and read my take on health and well being on the Bountiful Blog. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Artists in Education show. Thank you for enabling me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Sa.