Artist-in-Residences
Community Art: mayo street arts
In October of 2012, Maine College of Art art education students collaborated with Mayo Street Arts in Portland, ME. Mayo Street Arts is a neighborhood and community based visual, performing and literary arts center. MECA art education students worked with over a dozen Mayo Street neighborhood children and parents to decorate Little Free Libraries. The Little Free Library project promotes literacy and love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide.
As MECA art education students, our job was to assist the children in decorating five, free-standing doll-house sized book repositories. We witnessed that the children were inspired by their immediate surroundings and chose from a variety of paint colors. Reminiscent of the frosting-like textures of a Wayne Thiebaud’s paintings, children worked collaboratively to apply vibrant colors expressing thick brushstrokes. The children immersed themselves in the expressive and physical qualities of applying colorful paints, much like the great abstract
expressionists Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning are known for.
This community-oriented art and literacy project provided the space and time for a multicultural community to collaborate, and create unique projects which promote both art and literacy. As a result of the commitment and participation of parents, children and MECA art education students, Portland’s Bayside neighborhood was strengthened.
As MECA art education students, our job was to assist the children in decorating five, free-standing doll-house sized book repositories. We witnessed that the children were inspired by their immediate surroundings and chose from a variety of paint colors. Reminiscent of the frosting-like textures of a Wayne Thiebaud’s paintings, children worked collaboratively to apply vibrant colors expressing thick brushstrokes. The children immersed themselves in the expressive and physical qualities of applying colorful paints, much like the great abstract
expressionists Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning are known for.
This community-oriented art and literacy project provided the space and time for a multicultural community to collaborate, and create unique projects which promote both art and literacy. As a result of the commitment and participation of parents, children and MECA art education students, Portland’s Bayside neighborhood was strengthened.