Arts For Impact- Arundel’s Visual Arts Program
Statement of Needs
Mission Statement: The mission of the Maine Alliance for Arts Education is to promote and encourage education in all of the arts for all Maine students.
According to our research, the town of Arundel severely lacks resources for children to interact with peers from the same area. This absence then forces them to find support in bordering locations. Arundel’s government website states that children have the option to attend K-5 in Arundel, a middle school in Kennebunk, and a high school in either Kennebunk or another local town. Children jumping between towns for school causes them to have a limited chance of creating lasting connections with peers. Furthermore, it can be suggested that there’s little public engagement in Arundel as the citizens are forced to travel to outside areas like Saco, Biddeford, or Kennebunk for jobs, food, education, etc. Having such little resources within Arundel leaves their youth, and even adults, isolated.
Another part of the basis for travel and disengagement is that Arundel doesn’t offer a diverse amount of after-school, summer, or recreational activities. Looking at the Arundel Parks and Recreation website, only four programs are offered either during the academic year or summer, each centered around sports, educational support, and occasional field trips. Having a narrow selection of programs disallows students who may have other interests, such as visual arts, from participating and connecting with other youth. Another critical detail is that Arundel’s programming only serves students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade, leaving all high school students to find support elsewhere. Having access to extracurricular activities and programs at a high school age is crucial for development, and the National Institute of Health suggests that kids from the ages of fourteen to seventeen are a vital age at which teens form important and long-lasting relationships with their peers. Therefore, not having a safe, engaging, and sociable environment for Arundel High School students only contributes to their already isolated geographic situation. Our organization plans to fill the gap with an intentional focus on this age demographic of 14-17.
We understand that the lack of Arundel’s youth’s community engagement and education opportunities is not simply due to the town’s geographic location; the absence of arts, entertainment, and recreational opportunities all contribute to a population void of community and educational resources. To remedy this problem, MAAE has devised a six-week community art program called Arts For Impact, designed to establish and develop lasting relationships and engagement between youth and town residents. Students will be using the visual arts to contemplate and respond to three central questions: how one defines a community, what makes a town a community, and how individuals can become engaged community members.
Our choice to use the visual arts as a method of connection comes from a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, which has discovered that art can help improve community empowerment, personal development, and local image/identity. We believe the arts can be defined into multiple categories. Art can be expressed through dance, through a canvas, or the lens of a camera. MAAE has chosen the visual arts because of their heightened ability to be collaborative and hands-on. Introducing the visual arts to the students during the summer months and in a low-pressure environment will help students discover a new source of enjoyment while also offering a means of connection. In turn, students will demonstrate what they believe community is and can be through the expression of art with their peers.
We hope that by introducing the visual arts into classrooms during the summer months at the Arundel Recreation Center, we can create not only long-lasting friendships and appreciation for the arts but, more importantly, an increased level of community engagement.
Project Overview
Here at the Maine Alliance for Arts Education, we are asking for a one-time investment of $55,100 to establish an annual six-week visual arts program for students ages 14 to 17 in Arundel. This program is designed to increase community engagement and arts education. The money will be handled and distributed by our organization, and the program will be run by vetted volunteer community members.
Arundel currently lacks community engagement opportunities for students due to its rural nature and largely dispersed education system. Our program will provide an opportunity for that engagement and, coupling that with visual arts, provides students with a concrete emotional and physical connection to their community.
Over the six weeks, 25 students will participate in four visual art projects, including a collaborative mural, collage portraits, a photographic chapbook, and a collaborative portrait drawing. Across those works, students will use acrylic paints, mixed media, oil pastels, graphite, and watercolor paints. Each project will encourage students to consider three major questions: How does one define a community? What makes a town a community? And, how does one be an engaged community member?
During week six of our program, a gallery of student work will be assembled in Arundel’s Recreational Center. Students will get to celebrate their work with local teachers, coaches, family, friends, and other invited community members in a community space. This event will also open doors for further community and family involvement in the form of more potential volunteers, down the road.
Goals & Objectives
Our organization seeks to accomplish a set of two goals and one objective through the Arts For Impact visual arts program. These benchmarks derive from our organization’s mission and the long-term vision of Arundel being an actively engaged community that values the visual arts as a mode of connection.
Goal: After three years, we aim for at least a 50% retention rate of returning students to the 6-week program
The success of our first goal largely depends on student feedback and the likeability of the Arts For Impact (AFI) program because if students do not enjoy the program, they won’t return. It is our responsibility as an organization to create programs that not only aid the needs of the entire community but also the wants of those directly involved. Therefore, to ensure that we succeed, we have placed a heightened focus on our evaluation methods, specifically the weekly check-ins. After each project, students will participate in a short writing prompt regarding what they liked, disliked, struggled with, or would change about the curriculum, art mediums, or project itself. Once their responses have been scribed, the program staff will facilitate a discussion for students to share their perspectives with the group. During discussion, staff are required to take note of the discussion highlights with an emphasis on changes or complaints. Student responses will also be collected. The gathered feedback is then used for the adjustment of the overall program and projects within it.
Along with measures taken during the program, our organization will be documenting the number and names of students who attend each summer. Doing so will allow us to keep a physical record of those who have participated in prior programming and determine whether they are a returning student. Since our launch is set for summer 2024, a three-year timeframe allows our organization a tangible amount of time to establish recursive relationships with and between students.
Goal: Have at least an 85% attendance rate throughout one 6-week program
Similar to our first goal, the attendance rate of students depends on the enjoyment of the program and the relationships they build. AFI’s program is designed so that youth and staff work collaboratively through their projects, weekly check-ins, and icebreaker games. These activities will help students familiarize themselves with one another, make friends, and encourage the building of a community. Facilitating ways for students to connect with others, especially those who are unfamiliar, increases the likelihood of attendance because students can feel comfortable in the space, with peers, and with staff.
Weekly check-ins, as described in goal one, will also act as an opportunity for students to voice their concerns or suggestions about the program. Allowing students to do so gives our staff the chance to adapt the curriculum on a student-first basis. The more our curriculum fits students’ wants and needs, the more students will attend.
To track the attendance of students, program staff will have a daily sign-in checkpoint upon entering the recreational building. Having it right when students enter guarantees that they will be accounted for and welcomed to the program day. Small interactions such as a sign-in can greatly impact the overall student-staff relationship, which further boosts students consistently attending the program.
Objective: Through the completion of four projects, we seek to give students exposure to foundational skills of the chosen artistic mediums by the end of each bout of the program.
In addition to the end products, students have the opportunity to expand their knowledge about the visual arts weekly during the program. Each week, while completing the assigned project students will be taught foundational skills of the chosen artistic medium for that week. The skills learned about each medium are meant to be transferable to students’ artwork or future academic endeavors. To get feedback on the curriculum, students will complete an additional pre and post-evaluation specific to the visual mediums and projects completed. The evaluation will ask students to score which mediums were most liked/disliked, and which ones they foresee continuing to use.
To know the second goal has been met, our objective is to ensure that each student completes the four projects over the six weeks. Where students are not being graded or evaluated for the quality of work, the pre and post-evaluations, along with completion, act as a measure of evaluating exposure to artistic mediums chosen for the program.
Project Description
Here at the Maine Alliance for Arts Education (MAAE), we are asking for $55,100 to launch an annual six-week visual arts program, Arts For Impact (AFI), for students ages 14 to 17 in Arundel. The requested funds will be used to buy art supplies for at least three years of programming, staff pay, and general program needs. Students in Arundel are spread across various school districts, and that, coupled with the town’s rural location, means that the town’s youth have little to no opportunity for community engagement. Our visual arts program aims to not only connect with students but also parents/guardians, educators, and volunteer staff.
Studies done by Hanover Research show that students who are actively engaged in their community have increased levels of academic achievement and associate more positive feelings with education than students who are disconnected. Additionally, in a world where technology is becoming increasingly accessible for students, it is more and more common, especially in rural towns, that children are becoming isolated and less willing to engage with peers. Our program, which also encourages an increased appreciation for the visual arts, seeks to foster connections between Arundel teens and other Arundel residents.
Educators for our program are salary-based employees who have received background checks and have been established with the MAAE for several years. We plan to have two educators for the six weeks. Their career fields range from being instructors in public and private schools to artists, musicians, and actors. Separate from educators, our program volunteers are unpaid or internship staff who are selected on a competitive basis. We plan to have four volunteers for the six weeks. Volunteers must have received or currently be pursuing higher education within fields of arts, education, music, or other humanities. Along with their experience, two rounds of interviews and a background check will be conducted to certify that volunteers are qualified to supervise and interact with youth. Responsibilities for educators and volunteers are divided into two roles: the leader role and the helper role. Educators are the leaders in the program, responsible for teaching curriculum, foundational skills for each artistic medium, and general supervision of students. Volunteers are our helpers, providing on-hand support to students during projects, assembling student lunches, running games, and supervising students.
The AFI visual arts program is set to establish its first six-week session in the summer of 2024 with 25 students. The selected dates for the program are July 8th through August 16th. Our organization has chosen to run the program in the summer to reflect both students’ and parents’ busy schedules during the school year. The summer also offers an option for students to stay busy during a time when, otherwise, they may be left alone due to working parents or inaccessibility to other programs. So, our organization’s program presents itself as a solution to these possibilities. The costs of the AFI program for families will be $300 for the entire six weeks. Compared to Arundel’s current recreational program prices, which range from $600-$1000, AFI is a more feasible option for families that cannot afford higher pricing.
A typical program day will begin with students being dropped off by buses at 9 a.m. and remaining at the recreational center until they are picked up by buses at 3 p.m. Since students will be spending what would be a normal lunchtime at AFI, lunches will be made and provided to students. For those who prefer, students are also welcome to bring outside meals.
During the six-week program, each week will focus on the discussion of and attempt to answer three main questions. Those being: How does one define a community? What makes a town a community? And, how can someone be an engaged community member? These questions will correspond with and act as the backbone for the visual arts projects students will complete during the project. Over the six weeks, students will create a collaborative mural, collage of self-portraits, photography chapbooks, and round-robin paintings. To meet our projected six-week period, the projects will be conducted in phases.
Phase 1
During weeks one and two, students will create a collaborative mural based on popular landmarks in Arundel that the class identifies as significant. To get landmark ideas, students will be put into groups to discuss amongst themselves places they have memories tied to or visit often. Based on the discussion, students will start to plan their composition. The second week will be for the mural painting. It is our hope the mural will be completed at Arundel’s Recreation Center.
Phase 2
During week three, the students will be tasked with making collage portraits from local newspaper clippings, personal photos, magazines, etc., with the prompt: Collect places, people, objects, foods, or whatever else you find that you think describes your idea of a perfect community. Students will use the week to collage images onto canvas and complete a short writing prompt that describes their creation.
Phase 3
During week four, students will engage in a two-step process photographic chapbook. Monday and Tuesday will be to identify teachers, friends, family, coworkers, coaches, etc., who are from the Arundel community and reach out to them. Students will ask the chosen individuals to be photographed and complete a short bio that includes their name, pronouns, relationship to the student, job, and how long they’ve lived in Arundel. On Wednesday students will be asked to share results and start to plan the chapbook. The last two days will be reserved for the creation
and completion of the chapbook.
Phase 4
During week five, students will be tasked with creating round-robin paintings in divided groups. Each one will be asked to follow the prompt, “Draw one image that you think is associated with or represents being part of a community.” After each image, students will pass their incomplete images around their group for addition. After completion, students will revisit their final piece and discuss what they notice about others’ contributions versus their own.
Phase 5
During week six, a ceremony will be held at Arundel’s Recreation Center to celebrate the student’s artwork created throughout the six-week program. This event is intended to engage members of Arundel to visit for the program’s completion and appreciation of visual art.
To evaluate the progress and success of our program, we will have students complete a written prompt, weekly check-ins, and two pre- and post-evaluations: retention and social impact for the first and a second on curriculum and visual arts. Students will scale their experience overall, whether they would return for another program, their ideas about collaboration, and more. Regarding art, students will evaluate their favorite and most difficult mediums they worked with, also leaving suggestions for future ones. The written prompt, completed before and after the program, asks students to describe their ideas about and experience with their community. Lastly, weekly check-ins are an opportunity for students to reflect and share their perspectives regarding each project and the artistic medium that was explored.
Evaluation
At The Maine Alliance for Arts Education, we have specific goals, objectives, and outcomes for the AFI summer visual arts program, which is geared toward students ages 14 through 17 living in Arundel.
- After three years, we aim for at least a 50% retention rate of returning students to the 6-week program.
- Have at least an 85% attendance rate throughout one 6-week program.
- Through the completion of four projects, we seek to give students exposure to foundational skills of the chosen artistic mediums by the end of each bout of the program.
Because we have been conducting similar programs for almost five decades, we’ve established a meticulous system of pre- and post-program evaluations along with a reflective writing prompt to track our progress toward these annual goals, objectives, and outcomes. The purpose of our evaluations is to gain perspective on the impact our program has and evaluate how we can continue to strengthen our service to Maine communities.
To measure whether we have reached the stated goals and objectives, we will be using a set of pre and post-evaluations, along with weekly check-ins, that center around a few main ideas: comfortability using artistic mediums, new content learned, the likeability of curriculum, social impact, educator assessment, and the likelihood of returning for future programs. One pre- and post-evaluation will focus on the social factors and community aspect of the program while the other focuses on curriculum and artistic mediums. The evaluations themselves will be surveys that ask students to rank how well they understand and feel we have done integrating, maintaining, and teaching the aforementioned topics using a scale rating of 1 through 5, one being the lowest and five being the highest. Further, during the fifth week of the program, students will answer a short reflective writing prompt that asks them how their idea of community has changed throughout the projects.
In addition to our well-established system of evaluations, we have chosen to include weekly check-ins for the visual arts program. Our decision to do so reflects the crucial need for our teachers and volunteers to be aware of and adaptable to students’ likes, needs, and possible struggles they may face throughout the six weeks. These check-ins will be conducted at the end of each completed project in which students reflect on the project in a writing prompt. The prompt asks students to share at least one aspect they enjoyed, one they struggled with, one they learned, and one suggestion for improvement. Once completed, students informally discuss responses with staff and peers. Knowing such information allows our educators and volunteers to make changes to the curriculum as needed while also assessing the program’s viability. Furthermore, the check-ins will specifically contribute to measuring the success of the program objective and exposure to skills in each artistic medium.
We aim for the program to run annually, so measuring the possible increases in graduation rate, school retention, job security, access to extracurriculars, and average population age yearly will also be a valuable determiner of the program’s impact. We will be able to attain such information through the yearly census along with aid from partners like the Maine Department of Education and Maine Education Association. These statistics are crucial for our future programming because they allow us to assess the improvements the Arundel community has experienced as a whole, along with areas still needing improvement.
These prompts, evaluations, and statistics will be taken into consideration when hiring volunteer staff, establishing a curriculum, and setting goals for our future programs. Further, we use feedback and data to continually refine and modify our programs based on response and community needs.
Students in Arundel are spread across multiple school districts, which, coupled with the town’s rural nature, means they get little to no social interaction with fellow Arundel youths. Additionally, Arundel lacks public community spaces, especially geared toward high school-age students. Our program offers a solution to these issues while simultaneously educating participants about the importance of visual art, an appreciation that has continuously dwindled since the use of technology in children began to (and continues to) increase. With our program’s intended outcome, relationships between students in Arundel will flourish along with access to extracurricular programs such as Arts For Impact.
Requested Budget for Arts For Impact
Budget Justification
To get the Arts for Impacts program started, we require $55,100 to buy supplies, pay our educators, and provide food and transportation. In addition, we have added $5,000 as backup funds if lunch donations are low or if supplies are broken, stolen, or run out sooner than expected. Therefore, our total budget is being requested at $55,100. Below is a breakdown of each line item and its monetary contribution to our budget.
Supplies have been grouped together as line items based on their similar purpose (i.e. cups, plates, tableware). The cost for the supplies reflects them being purchased in bulk, wholesale amounts, and they can be used for at least three program summers, making it a one-time investment. We are able to get cameras at a wholesale rate and intend to use them as long as they work.
Lunch, snacks, and drinks are divided between donations, students choosing to pack lunch, and the $800 listed below. To depict the separate amounts, donations have been represented as their own line item with the variable X, as we cannot estimate the exact number or cost of donations. The other food and water line item, totaling $800, represents the supply we are buying. Similar to supplies, food, and water are being purchased in bulk with the expectation to last one program summer. If needed, emergency funding will be used to purchase more.
Transportation and rental costs have been listed as indirect costs as they are fixed rental rates by the bus company and recreational center. We have defined their cost by multiplying the rental rate by the number of days facilities and transportation are needed.
Budget Breakdown
| Items | Projected Cost |
| Acrylic paints — 30 kits x $13 each | $390 |
| Brushes/Glue sticks/Scissors — (15 packs of 5 brushes x $0.75) + (27 packs of 3 gluesticks x $0.69) + ( 1 pack of 45 scissors for $34) | $64 |
| Smocks/Gloves — (20 smocks x $10 each) + (2 boxes of 100 gloves x $10 each) | $220 |
| Colored Pencils/Markers/Crayons — (25 packs of Colored pencils x $1.30) + (27 packs of markers x 3.35) + (28 packs of crayons x $0.89) | $150 |
| Cameras — 20 cameras x $600 each | $12,000 |
| Volunteer Staff — 4 (in-kind) | $0 |
| Lunch/Snacks/Drinks — (90 loaves of bread x $4; 5 jars of peanut butter x $5; 2 jars of fluffernutter x $3; 7 jars of jelly x $4) + ( 2 packs of family size sharable sun chips x $30) + (18 cases of water x $6) | $600 |
| Lunch/Snacks/Drinks (in-kind) | X |
| Rental Cost of Arundel Recreation Center (indirect) — $500 a day for six 7-day weeks | $21,000 |
| Transportation (indirect) — 45 hours of transportation x $125 per hour | $5,700 |
| First Aid — $155 for a class B kit + $65 for a class A kit | $250 |
| Educator Pay — 2 x $17 per hr x 6 weeks (180 program hours) | $6,120 |
| Paper Towels/Tissues/Hand Sanitizer — (8 packs of 12 paper towels x $30) + (30 tissue boxes x $1.00) + (10 packs of 40 individual hand sanitizers x $3) | $300 |
| Cups/Plates/Tableware — (41 packs of 51 cups x $1) + (67 packs of 22 foam plates x $0.89) + (10 packs of silverware x $14) | $240 |
| Back-up funds | $5,000 |
| Total | $55,100 |
Organizational Background
Here at The Maine Alliance for Arts Education, we promote, encourage, and strengthen education in all aspects of visual art, music, theater, dance, and writing for all Maine students, schools, and communities. We accomplish this by advocating for arts education and providing model programs and connections for students, educators, organizations, artists, and other supporters of arts education.
The Maine Alliance for Arts Education (MAAE) was founded in 1973 and incorporated in 1980. Through a creative network of teachers, artists, volunteers, and supporters, the Alliance works at the state level and in local communities to strengthen educational excellence across the arts. MAAE is a member of the national Kennedy Center Alliances for Arts Education Network, which has recognized the nonprofit for its exemplary work on the local level and in educational advocacy. Additionally, we partner with several organizations, including the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Education Association, and the Maine Arts Commission, to spread our programs across Maine and serve Mainers of various communities.
In a world where technology is increasingly accessible for students, it is more common, especially in rural towns, that children are becoming isolated and less willing to engage with peers. Studies done by Hanover Research show that students who are actively engaged in their community have increased levels of academic achievement and associate more positive feelings with education than students who are not. Visual arts is a unifying force that, through education, can teach individuals important social and critical thinking skills to foster a more engaged community. MAAE strives to be a part of the unification and guarantee that Maine communities receive educational access to the visual arts.
We are overseen by an active 10-member volunteer board of directors and operated by 20 educators, artists, parents, and volunteers. It is our collective goal to enhance the education of visual arts and foster long-lasting connections through our programs, communities, and in our organization. These individuals are fit to manage the organization and facilitate programs because of the diverse and creative backgrounds our staff, board members, and volunteers bring to the table. Each member has been involved in the arts for a number of years as teachers, artists, musicians, actors, and more. Their experience is essential to the quality of our program and ensures that our organization is qualified to carry out our mission. Jeri Pitcher is our Education Program Director for MAAE. She has always been a resourceful and inclusive leader when it comes to using art to educate the public sphere. With her twenty-five-plus years as a director of the Chicago Works Progress Administration (WPA), which aids in the funding of creative endeavors, we are happy to have her as a part of our team.
Our uniqueness lies within our educational visual arts programs that seek to bridge the gap between students, parents, and other community members who may not otherwise meet. With a focus on rural communities, we specialize in getting Mainers, especially youth, more connected. Likewise, we pride ourselves on the various perspectives that MAAE brings to the table, which improves our ability to measure program success and ensure our communities are served.
