Portland Press Herald: MECA’s new President sees Arts Education as key to navigating an ever-changing world
“Laura Freid has a resume peppered with Ivy League schools that led to a globe-trotting job with a world-famous musician, which she left to become the newest president of Maine College of Art & Design.
“‘I wanted to do something in my career that could really help artists stay artists their whole life,’” she said.”
Take Magazine: Q&A: Laura Freid, MECA President
“Named president in the spring of 2017, the journalist, creative entrepreneur, and world traveler Laura Freid is in her first full semester at the helm of Portland’s Maine College of Art & Design, the state’s sole accredited visual arts institution.
The former publisher of Harvard Magazine, who last year ended a 12-year run as CEO of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad project where she traveled for 4,280 days with a troupe of 30 classical musicians, artists, and production staff performing through the U.S., Europe, and Asia, Freid has lived a lot of lives.”
MECA Community Members Receive Kindling Fund Grants
MECA community recipients who were awarded Kindling Fund Grants: Salt Visiting Instructor of Photography Yoon S. Byun; Mali Mrozinski ’04 of Doublet Design; MECA Library staff member Cody Ross, with collaborator and MECA Library Director Shiva Darbandi; Jenna Crowder ’09 of The Chart; former BFA faculty member Deborah Wing-Sproul; Influx project collaborator Julie K. Gray MFA ’12; and Pilar Nadal MFA’13 of Pickwick Independent Press.
An awards reception celebrating the new grants as well as last year’s awardees will be held on Saturday, January 13, 2018, at SPACE Gallery from 5:00–7:00pm.
Old Port Magazine: 'MECA's Next Chapter'
“For new president Dr. Laura Freid, forging community connections is a priority.
On the first day of fall classes at the Maine College of Art & Design (MECA) in Portland, the hallways of the Porteous building on Congress Street are thrumming with energy. There’s a fresh sense of promise and possibility at every school on the first day of a new academic year, but at MECA, it seems multiplied…”
Portland Press Herald: 'Portland Museum of Art announces artists for 2018 biennial'
Image: Daniel Minter, ‘A Distant Holler’
The PMA’s 10th Biennial is intended to highlight artists with meaningful connections to Maine, with a focus this year on the influence and presence of Wabanaki artists. The PMA chose Nat May, former Executive Director of SPACE Gallery, as the guest curator for the exhibition.
Maine College is Art is proud to have a number of artists from our community featured:
Gina Adams ’02, Stephen Benenson (Adjunct Instructor of Foundation), Anne Buckwalter MFA ’12, Jenny McGee Dougherty ’05, David Driskell Hon. DFA ’96, Daniel Minter (Assistant Instructor of Illustration), and Joshua Reiman (Assistant Professor of Sculpture and MFA).
Cedars Magazine: 'The Bold Vision'
MECA students came together with The Cedars Learning Community to develop an innovative, intergenerational approach to teaching art to seniors.
In this Public Engagement Seminar, instructed by Kelly McConnell (left), Director of Art Education Outreach & MAT Associate Professor, student artists practice their skills in real-world settings with Community members.
“We asked the elder artists what they hoped to get out of the class,” Kelly recalls. “They told us, ‘at the end of this class, I hope we will be friends.'” (They did.)
Seven weeks flew by with elder artists practicing techniques, art students practicing teaching and social outreach strategies, and both grabbling with questions ranging from nose rings to the nature of art.
