Maine Arts Commission Director Interviewed on MPBN Television

Donna McNeil, director of the Maine Arts Commission, was interviewed on MPBN recently as part of the Conversations with Maine series. This series introduces influential people within Maine to a wider audience. The entire video is viewable now on the website of MPBN.

Emmy winning interviewer Frank Ferrel introduces many thought-provoking topics throughout this conversation. The discussion includes the importance of arts in education, the creative economy, the business of being an artist and importance of artists to our everyday lives.

Enjoy this wonderful piece of advocacy for the arts in Maine and beyond.

Click for video.

Maine Arts Commission Director to Feature on MPBN Television

Maine Arts Commission director will be featured on Conversations With Maine on MPBN television this Thursday night at 8:30 pm.

Interviewer Frank Ferrel  has received three Emmy nominations for his work on Made in Maine and won an Emmy for the episode entitled “Small Boats.”
Frank is an experienced broadcaster with 13 years producing and hosting news and features for the broadcast service of the Christian Science Monitor winning national awards.

Frank lives in Bath, where he pursues an active interest in traditional music and folklore. He is an accomplished fiddle player and has published three collections of traditional fiddle music, one of which was chosen by the Library of Congress to include on their select list of 25 Representative Recordings of American Folk Music.

Who better then to interview the agency’s director and to ask her questions about the arts in Maine? This is sure to be a not to be missed episode that will highlight Maine’s cultural sector.

This television broadcast will be repeated on MPBN radio at 12:30 pm, on Wednesday, April 14.

Maine’s Creative Economy Model Could Guide the Nation

The Maine Arts Commission Director met with the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Rocco Landesman, and U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree in Washington Tuesday to discuss the success of Maine’s Creative Economy.

Stories documenting this meeting have appeared in the Portland Press Herald on January 19 and in the Bangor Daily News on January 20. Click the names of these papers to read these articles.

An Update from Maine's Representatives at NEA Education Leaders Institute in Chicago

Chicago is an inspirational city for creativity, and six of us Mainers are enjoying our stay here as one of five teams participating in the National Endowment for the Arts Education Leaders Institute 4. Hosted by the Illinois Arts Council at the renowned Spertus Institute in downtown Chicago, ELI 4’s goal is to give our teams time to design projects that advance arts education in our states and nation. Maine’s application received high marks from the NEA during the review process. Team members include Donna McNeil; Gibson Fay-LeBlanc of Portland’s The Telling Room; former Attorney General and candidate for governor Steve Rowe; Sue Gendron, Commissioner of Education; Jen Ryan of Harvard’s Project Zero; and Linda Nelson, Executive Director of Opera House Arts at the Stonington Opera House and Maine Arts Commission member. The team is designing a long-term project to use the arts to reframe our public schools as learning environments which foster creativity, imagination, and innovation, thereby advancing Maine’s economy and future leadership. Stay tuned for more details . . .