BANGOR — The Bangor School Department and the Maine Alliance for Arts Education joined forces on May 28 to celebrate and raise community awareness about two innovative arts programs at Bangor High School. The focus of the event, held in the barn of John Rohman’s house, was shared between the high school’s new Visual and Performing Arts Academy, designed to offer interested students a full program in their chosen arts field, and its annual two-week dance residencies, now in its 15th year.
The dance residencies, part of alliance’s regional Building Community Through the Arts program, give students in English and science classes an opportunity to explore academic concepts through dance.
Betsy Webb, superintendent of Bangor schools; Kal Elmore, BHS visual art teacher, and William Bell, BHS music teacher, spoke about the VPA Academy, which has added a second pathway of in depth learning to the initiative begun by the creation of the school’s STEM Academy in 2012.
Susan Potters, director of the Maine Alliance for Arts Education, BHS English teachers
Angela Domina and Stephanie Hendrix, and science teacher Michele Benoit showed examples of the interpretive pieces created by the students during the dance residencies, and described the impact on the students of the collaborative creative process itself. The event, which included a student art exhibit and music by student jazz and string ensembles, was, in part, intended to raise community support for the dance residency program.
For information, contact Susan Potters at maaebangor@aol.com or 439-3169, or go to maineartsed.org.