OGUNQUIT – The Ogunquit Museum of American Art is launching a new pilot program in which the museum has partnered with a local school to enhance student learning of the visual arts in Maine. For the inaugural 2022 season, Biddeford Primary School has been selected for the program. This new initiative will connect students with original works of art, providing an opportunity to copy a work of Maine-inspired art in a museum setting with a pencil sketch. In addition to providing school buses for transportation, the museum will provide approximately 340 students with an art bag full of supplies for drawing and creating art. For more than half of the students, this will be their first time in an art museum.
“We are thrilled to continue to grow our education department using outreach to make our permanent collection more accessible for students,” said Amanda Lahikainen, PhD, executive director of Ogunquit Museum of American Art. “When they come to the museum with their classmates, they will recognize the work of art and have the confidence to discuss and engage with the object.”
Biddeford’s first and second grade students will learn about a work of art in the classroom before traveling to OMAA to see it in person. This year, the students will study an example of a modernist painting, Sleeping Girl, a 1922 oil painting by Walt Kuhn in class, and then travel to the museum to see it in person.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with the museum to support student engagement in a real-life art experience,” said Concetta Domenico, Maine artist and art educator at Biddeford Primary School. “As a teacher and an artist, my goal is to instill within each student a greater sense of self-worth while encouraging independence, co-operative, creative thinking, and decision making. This results in a sense of confidence and allows students to “dream big” when it comes to their personal goals.”
Opened in 1953, OMAA was founded by Lost Generation artist Henry Strater. Closely tied to one of the earliest art colonies of the American modernist art movement, OMAA today houses a permanent collection of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, and photographs from the late 1800s to the present. The museum showcases American art by mounting seasonal modern and contemporary exhibition programs from May through October. OMAA’s seaside landscape—a three-acre sculpture park containing 18 small gardens—complements its exhibitions and overlooks Narrow Cove and the Atlantic Ocean. The museum is through Oct. 31. More information at www.ogunquitmuseum.org.
