Wednesday 12/14: Introduction to Sgraffito: Participants will learn to make scientific drawings, using a critical friend's feedback and revisions, and eventually record the scientific drawing on a porcelain tile, which will then be fired and returned to the participant. Mark making, careful observation of both the subject and your critical friend's drawing, the technical aspects of clay and sgraffito will all be covered.

Facilitator: Tim Christensen, artist and educator 

Time: 4:00-6:00

Contact hours: 2

Registration required: Please RSVP here.

Wednesday 11/09: Points of Entry: Seeing More: How can the viewer stay for a while with a painting? What tools can assist in making personal connections? A way of expanding and deepening the art experience is to enter from different perspectives. After presenting The Entry Point Approach from Harvard Project Zero, we will apply different entry points—aesthetic, narrative, experiential for example—to works of art in the museum to see how our appreciation and understanding increase. We will also apply the approach to poetry. The session will end with exploring applications to students in relation to visual experiences and academic content.

Facilitator: Ellen Goldsmith, artist and educator 

Time: 4:00-6:00

Contact hours: 2

Registration required: Please RSVP here.

Wednesday 10/19: Scientific Illustration: Native Marine Ecology and Art: Join artist, educator, and environmental advocate Karen Talbot in an artistic exploration of native marine life in this hands-on drawing activity. Karen will review the art of scientific illustration, share her connections between art and ecology, and will lead an art-making activity that educators can bring back to their classrooms.

Facilitator: Karen Talbot, artist and educator 

Time: 4:00-6:00

Contact hours: 2

Registration required: Please RSVP here.

Wednesday 9/21: Meet and Greet: Please join Andrea Curtis, Education Manager and Margaret Rizzio, Education Project Assistant for a meet and greet to launch the 2016 FAM Educators Cohort. In addition to learning more about the Cohort, educators will have a chance to tour the museum and visit Julia's Gallery. 

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Education Manager; Margaret Rizzio, Education Project Assistant 

Time: 4:00-6:00

Contact hours: 2

Registration required: Please RSVP here.

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators will have the opportunity to practice their arts-integrated lessons in the galleries and sharpen their gallery teaching skills by leading visual noticing activities among their peers. Educators will receive feedback from museum professionals and fellow educators. 

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Ellen Goldsmith, Poet

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 2

Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: What engages us in cartoons? What engages us in poems, essays, short stories? Both cartoons and writing throw light on our everyday life and illuminate larger issues -- often by using language in surprising ways, often by joining different frames of reference. In this hands-on workshop, we will look at some of the roots of the humor in successful cartoons, what interests us, what holds us, what leads to further thinking. Then, using selected cartoons, we will engage in writing activities -- in pairs, individually and as a group -- sometimes in response to image and caption, sometimes in response to the caption or image alone. The goal of these activities is enjoyment as well as discovery, entry into new topics, new territory for writing.

RSVP Required: Please register here

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators have free access to FAM galleries to build arts-integrated lesson plans with Arts in Education Program Manager, Andrea Curtis. This is an open space for teachers to think, collaborate, and create.  

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators enjoy free access to the FAM galleries to research their favorite artists and paintings.  Through careful noticing and research, we will study various artists and themes throughout the school year and connect this learning to the classroom.

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators will have the opportunity to practice their arts-integrated lessons in the galleries and sharpen their gallery teaching skills by leading visual noticing activities among their peers. Educators will receive feedback from museum professionals and fellow educators. 

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Karen Talbot, Artist and Advocate

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 2

Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Join artist, educator, and environmental advocate Karen Talbot in an artistic exploration of native marine life in this hands-on drawing activity. Karen will review the art of scientific illustration, share her connections between art and ecology, and will lead an art-making activity that educators can bring back to their classrooms.  

RSVP Required: Please register here

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators have free access to FAM galleries to build arts-integrated lesson plans with Arts in Education Program Manager, Andrea Curtis. This is an open space for teachers to think, collaborate, and create.  

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators enjoy free access to the FAM galleries to research their favorite artists and paintings.  Through careful noticing and research, we will study various artists and themes throughout the school year and connect this learning to the classroom.

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators will have the opportunity to practice their arts-integrated lessons in the galleries and sharpen their gallery teaching skills by leading visual noticing activities among their peers. Educators will receive feedback from museum professionals and fellow educators. 

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager, and Jane Bianco, Associate Curator

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 2

Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators will have the opportunity to sharpen their knowledge of Maine artists with a fun night of arts-learning games in the galleries.  Through careful observation, gallery research, a little imagination, and occasional clues, participants will enjoy this interactive arts-learning experience as they explore the FAM galleries.  We will follow-up this experience with a discussion of classroom connections.  No art or art history experience is required.  

RSVP Required: Please register here

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators enjoy free access to the FAM galleries to research their favorite artists and paintings.  Through careful noticing and research, we will study various artists and themes throughout the school year and connect this learning to the classroom.

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators have free access to FAM galleries to build arts-integrated lesson plans with Arts in Education Program Manager, Andrea Curtis. This is an open space for teachers to think, collaborate, and create.  

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators will have the opportunity to practice their arts-integrated lessons in the galleries and sharpen their gallery teaching skills by leading visual noticing activities among their peers.  Educators will receive feedback from museum professionals and fellow educators. 

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Roger Dell, Director of Education

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 2

Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: In this workshop we will contrast and compare several graphic works by Andrew Wyeth and discuss the ongoing debate about in which “school” Wyeth belongs.

RSVP Required: Please register here

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators enjoy free access to the FAM galleries to research their favorite artists and paintings.  Through careful noticing and research, we will study various artists and themes throughout the school year and connect this learning to the classroom.

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators have free access to FAM galleries to build arts-integrated lesson plans with Arts in Education Program Manager, Andrea Curtis. This is an open space for teachers to think, collaborate, and create.  

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators will have the opportunity to practice their arts-integrated lessons in the galleries and sharpen their gallery teaching skills by leading visual noticing activities among their peers.  Educators will receive feedback from museum professionals and fellow educators. 

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Margaret Rizzio, Artist

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 2

Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Learn about ephemera art while participating in this hands-on art-making activity with local artist Margaret Rizzio. Participants will use various vintage print materials to create mail art just in time for Valentine’s Day classroom activities.  

RSVP Required: Please register here

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators enjoy free access to the FAM galleries to research their favorite artists and paintings.  Through careful noticing and research, we will study various artists and themes throughout the school year and connect this learning to the classroom.

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators have free access to FAM galleries to build arts-integrated lesson plans with Arts in Education Program Manager, Andrea Curtis. This is an open space for teachers to think, collaborate, and create.  

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Roger Dell, Director of Education

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 2

Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: During this session, we will select several works by Maine women photographers and examine them from sociological and artistic points of view. Early artists, such as Berenice Abbott, and contemporary artists, such as Joyce Tenneson and Olive Pierce, will be considered and discussed from the vantage point of themes, techniques, and styles.

RSVP Required: Please register here

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators enjoy free access to the FAM galleries to research their favorite artists and paintings.  Through careful noticing and research, we will study various artists and themes throughout the school year and connect this learning to the classroom.

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Andrea Curtis, Arts in Education Program Manager

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 1

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

Description: Educators have free access to FAM galleries to build arts-integrated lesson plans with Arts in Education Program Manager, Andrea Curtis. This is an open space for teachers to think, collaborate, and create.  

No RSVP Required

Facilitator: Ellen Goldsmith

Location: FAM Main Lobby

Contact Hours: 2

Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Materials: Planning materials 

In works of art, we respond to shape and color. This hands-on workshop will explore our responses from a number of vantage points: 1.) Looking at paintings, 2.) Responding to poems that take different shapes, and 3.) Engaging in collage activities where shape and color trigger words. Participants will brainstorm about how the activities they engaged in and what they experienced will fulfill learning and creative objectives they have for their students.

Facilitator Bio: Ellen Goldsmith is the author of three books of poetry -- Where to Look, Such Distances and No Pine Tree in This Forest Is Perfect which won the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center 1997 chapbook contest. In Maine, she has taught for Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, the Farnsworth Art Museum, 5-Towns CSD Adult and Continuing Education and the Coastal Senior College. Her teaching explores the connections between poetry and art and the way the creative process opens door to learning and feeling. She is a docent at the Farnsworth Art Museum and professor emeritus of The City University of New York.

RSVP Required (20 participants max): Please register here.