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BUCKSPORT — A
countywide program set up five years ago answers
a need among high school students who excel in
facets of the arts or who need another outlet to
enhance skills.
The program,
Learning In Community (LINC), matches pupils
leading their class in visual and performing
arts, music and creative writing with
corresponding area professionals.
The students,
who are nominated by high school teachers to
participate, spend 20 hours a year with their
mentors. The Maine Alliance for Arts Education
in Augusta established LINC.
This year was
the first for Bucksport’s participation in LINC.
Art teacher
Holly Bertrand said the program was an
“excellent opportunity” for the students to
participate. “I think it’s wonderful,” Bertrand
said.
She said LINC
gives students exposure and access to people who
have made a career from their own artwork, as
well as “dispels the myth of the starving
artist.”
“It keeps art in
the forefront. Art is just as important as
English and math,” Bertrand said.
David Cadigan,
coordinator for the project, said it allows more
for the gifted student who has exhausted every
avenue at school.
“We provide
that,” Cadigan said.
The cost per
year to keep the program going is roughly
$25,000, which is paid through a number of
grants and a $250 per three-student fee
allocated from participating schools, he said.
Carol Trimble,
executive director of the Maine Alliance for
Arts Education, agreed that the idea came from
the understanding some children need more than
conventional teaching.
“Something like
this was needed,” Trimble said, adding that the
experience moves students ahead in their art
forms.
LINC serves 12
to 15 students a year from
Hancock County high schools, she
said.
Trimble said the
program is highly successful.
“A student is so
hungry for what [the mentors] have to give,”
Trimble said. “By far, the most powerful benefit
is to the students who move ahead in their art.”
While there was
no formal tracking of former students’
performances in the long run, she said she has
heard of students going on and majoring in their
talents in some kind of formal education.
The list of
mentors is prestigious — one that has been added
to each year.
Included are
musician Paul Sullivan; impressionist painter
Lydia Cassatt; executive director of The Grand
and actor Bob Libbey; and poet William Hathaway.
Hathaway said he
began as a mentor a couple months ago, adding
that he began with the project because he
thought it might be intriguing.
“I am interested
in having life interesting,” he said. This was
one way to open another door to uncharted
territory, he said.
He said he
didn’t have any goals when he started. His main
mission was to help the program, he said.
“I naturally
hope, we all hope, that we are some use to
somebody,” Hathaway said.
Sometimes in
life you make a difference in ways you didn’t
really expect, he said.
Ken Lozier, a
high school senior and aspiring thespian, said
he has learned far beyond interpreting scripts.
His mentor was
The Grand’s Libbey.
Lozier said
Libbey cinched his desire to be in theater.
“There are so many ways to get involved,” he
said.
At a minimum,
Lozier said, he gained a friend, “somebody to
talk to, somebody who understands” an actor’s
passion. |
