Maine Humanities Council

Home of the Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book
“In reality, every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have experienced in himself. And the recognition by the reader in his own self of what the book says is the proof of its veracity.”

— Time Regained
Marcel Proust

1. Great Art for Child Care: MHC & Picturing America

A Head Start teacher finds inspiration from a Picturing America poster.
photo: Denise Pendleton

On May 7, Born to Read, in partnership with the Portland Museum of Art and Maine’s Head Start Quality Initiative, offered a pilot training of the Picturing America initiative to two southern Maine Head Start programs. Picturing America is the National Endowment for the Humanities’ effort to distribute high-quality reproductions of American artistic masterpieces to public and private schools, libraries, and communities. Along with teacher guides and web tools, these poster-sized reproductions are intended to help students and citizens of all ages understand America through its art.

For Born to Read’s training, 18 teachers from Head Start programs in York and Cumberland County came to the Museum. The training included a presentation by Museum Education Director Dana Baldwin in the Wyeth Gallery, activities designed to link art from Picturing America to pieces in the museum’s collection, and time for teachers to make plans for how they might use their posters with children after the summer break. In her plan, one teacher wrote a note to remind herself to “explore creativity-everyone is an artist. Look at art in different ways. Inspire the children!”

This fall, participating teachers will be invited to a follow-up training provided by Born to Read on how to link children’s literature with Picturing America. Staff from the museum and from the Head Start Quality Initiative will visit classrooms to provide technical assistance as teacher implement their plans. As a wrap-up, families whose children have experienced Picturing America will be invited to a free Family Night at the Museum.

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2. MHC News

The 2009 judges ponder an entry.
photo: Martina Duncan

Letters About Literature

Letters About Literature, the national program sponsored by the Library of Congress and made possible in Maine at the MHC by the David Royte Fund, garnered a selection of particularly powerful and compelling letters to judges this year with more than 1,500 students participating across Maine (breaking our record). In this contest, students from grades four through 12 write a letter to their favorite authors, living or dead, showing how a particular work changed their lives or perspectives.

It is an inspiring project for judges involved as they read the words of students who have lost parents, are dealing with obstacles of peer pressure, and are beginning to find their voices. Many of the students let readers into something private and often profound in their lives. It’s also a testament to the power of literature, which can be as powerful to a 12-year-old as it is to the adults whom we serve in our other programs.

To all Letters About Literature participants: thank you. Your thoughts moved us and helped changed our perspectives. For the 2009 Letters About Literature awards, click here.

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The spring 2009 issue of Synapse, the e-zine of Literature & Medicine, is online. Learn about this MHC-created program’s current activities with VA hospitals, partners nationwide, and the inspiration it has fostered overseas in Argentina, where a training participant is developing a similar program based on our model.

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Pull on those sneakers or hiking boots: June’s Born to Read book list is all about walking, hiking, and exploring outside. Books explore the joys of getting out and experiencing the natural world, as well as the experiences people and animals have—or might have—when on a stroll.

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Podcast Update

New podcast episodes include readings from the Maine Festival of the Book and a school librarian’s introduction to Rules by Cynthia Lord. The latter has special significance: Rules won the Maine Student Book Award, was reviewed in the July 2008 issues of Notes from an Open Book, and one of our Letters About Literature winners this year wrote about it!

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3. Recent Grants and Grant-Funded Events

$1,000 to Everyman Repertory Theatre, Rockport, for Celebrating Nevelson
A celebration of Rockland resident and internationally-renowned sculptor Louise Nevelson, beginning with a talk on Nevelson’s position in American Art History and continuing with the Maine premier of Edward Albee’s play about Nevelson’s life, “Occupant.”

$950 to the General Henry Knox Museum, Thomaston, for Revolution and Evolution: Federal Period Clothing
Revolution & Evolution: Federal Period Clothing is a public exhibition of historic costume that ties into the General Henry Knox Museum’s summer teacher institute exploring everyday life in early American history.

$500 to the Lisbon Library, Lisbon, for Lisbon Library Summer Reading Program
The Lisbon Library Children’s Department will present two of Joan Creamer’s Magic Sceptre presentations (one for Kindergarten-Grade 2 & one for grades 3-6) to kick off the 2009 Summer Reading Program.

$450 to the Chinese and American Friendship Association of Maine, Portland, for Visions of Maine’s Chinese Past
This project makes unique, historic photographs of Maine’s Chinese community available to the general public in a contemporary Chinese context by placing those photographs on display in local Chinese restaurants on a rotating basis.

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4. What We’re Reading

This list of book recommendations from MHC staff includes The Salamander Room, Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family, Since Yesterday: The 1930’s in America, and Reflections in Bullough’s Pond: Economy and Ecosystem in New England.

 

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5. Quote of the Month

“I am more aware of how we health care professionals often try to force patients to do what we think is best for them without really trying to communicate and understand them.”

—from a participant in Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care®

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