Ogunquit Museum of American Art: Educational Programs

The Museum hosts many educational programs for children and adults.

Expand Your Horizons (and have a lot of fun!)
at the Museum's Special Programs,
featuring Tuesday Nights at the Museum

The Museum is now closed for the season, and will reopen in the spring of 2010.

The Board of Directors and Staff thanks Museum members, volunteers, donors, and the visiting public for another successful season, its 56th in operation.

Below is last summer's sechedule: Our 2009 Educational and Special Programs included music recitals, lectures, films, tours and children's hands-on programs. Due to limited parking space we encourage car-pooling whenever possible. Unless otherwise noted, all programs are free to OMAA members, as well as non-members with Museum admission.

Tues, July 7, 7 pm
Marsden Hartley: American Modernist
Gallery talk by Donna Cassidy

Donna Cassidy, Ph.D., is Professor of American & New England Studies and Art History at the University of Southern Maine. Click here to read more about Donna Cassidy.

Of Donna Cassidy's book Marsden Hartley -- Race, Region and Nation, the New York Times Book Review said:

“Cassidy has written a courageous book . . . show[ing] how Hartley integrated his prejudices into his artistic program. Hartley's art and life hold important lessons about the value of studying art in cultural context...”

Tues, July 14, 7 pm
Art of the White Mountains
Gallery talk by Sam and Sheila Robbins

Tues, July 21, 7 pm
Spider, Whale & Polar Bear
Music and stories from Native American traditions of the MicMac and Wampanoag by David Sanipass and Ed Bullock. Both men help their Native American communities keep traditions alive as they strive to gain the recognition their history and culture deserve.

Ed Bullock is the son of a Wampanoag who learned the dances and drumming of his people at an early age. Click here to read more about Ed Bullock.

David Sanipass is birthright leader of the MicMac, a dazzling storyteller and flute player. Click here to read more about David Sanipass.

Ed Bullock David Sanipass

Tues, July 28, 7 pm
Sometimes Everything Sparkles
Readings by Betsy Sholl, Maine's Poet Laureate

Betsy Sholl will read selections from her poems, and talk about her creativity and how her Mennonite religion has influenced her writing.

Betsy Sholl was named Maine Poet Laureate in 2006. She has published seven books of poetry, most recently Rough Cradle (Alice James, 2009). Sholl’s other awards include an NEA fellowship, two Maine literary grants, the AWP prize in poetry and the Feliz Pollak Prize. She teaches at USM, and in the MFA in Writing program of Vermont College of Fine Arts. Click here to read more about Betsy Sholl.

Tues, August 4, 5:30pm
Herb and Dorothy: 50-plus Years of Collecting American Art
A documentary film by Megumi Sasake

Film, dialogue, and reception with Herb and Dorothy Vogel. He was a postal clerk. She was a librarian. With their modest means, the couple managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history.
Read more about Herb and Dorothy here.

Tues, August 11, 7 pm
Call of the Coast: Art Colonies of New England
A lecture by Tom Denenberg, Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the Portland Museum of Art

Co-sponsored by the Portsmouth Athenaeum.

Thurs, August 13, 9 am - 3 pm
The Portland Museum of Art
A guided tour visit, with lunch

Click here to read more about the Portland Museum of Art.

Tues, August 18, 7 pm
The Art of the Animal: Works by Bernard Langlais and others
Gallery talk by Carl Little

In his slide talk, author and art critic Carl Little will highlight the sculptural menagerie -- lions, rhinos, dogs, and bears, among other animals -- of Bernard Langlais (1921-1977). Little will tie Langlais’ work to a rich lineage of animal art, including that of a number of contemporary Maine artists.

Little has published a number of art books, including Edward Hopper’s New England, Paintings of Maine, and Beverly Hallam: An Odyssey in Art. He contributed an essay to the catalogue for the retrospective exhibition “Bernard Langlais: Independent Spirit” at the Portland Museum of Art in 2002. His reviews and articles appear in a range of regional and national publications, from Maine Home + Design and Art New England to Ornament and Art in America. He recently received the Maine Crafts Association’s first award for scholarly contributions to the field of craft in Maine.

Tues, August 25, 7 pm
Seraphine
Award-winning 2008 French film presented by Michele Hovde

Seraphine is a film about the line between art and mental illness. This multi-2009 Cesar (French Oscar) winner features Yolande Moreau in an extraordinary performance as an impoverished woman who cleans houses by day and paints by night. Seraphine is a deeply devout provincial cleaning woman who, with the help of a guardian angel, became a recognized outsider artist. She died in 1942, in a mental hospital, at age 78. Ms. Moreau uses her own ample body to make the viewer feel the relentless burden of Seraphine’s work, but also makes Seraphine fascinating in her sharp-eyed alertness to everything around her. Read more about Seraphine here.

Tues, September 1, 12:30 pm
Curating an Exhibition
Brown bag lunch and gallery talk by Ron Crusan, Director, OMAA

Tues, September 8, 7 pm
Art of the White Mountains
Gallery talk with Sam and Sheila Robbins

Tues, September 15, 7 pm
An Expressionist Looks at Maine: The Art of Maurice Freedman
Gallery Talk by Steven May

Stephen May is an independent historian, writer, and lecturer on art and culture, with a special interest in the art of Maine. He says he was naturally drawn to the art of Maurice Freedman -- an unfairly neglected star of American Modernism -- because he is a big fan of Marsden Hartley. This is May's eighth lecture at OMAA.

Tues, September 22, 7 pm
Pickin' and Fiddlin'
Traditional Appalachian Music with Matt Brown

Matt Brown is a talented performer of American roots music. He is an entertaining singer and multi-instrumentalist and has established himself as a highly respected fiddler, both authentic and innovative. He has studied with the best fiddlers in the genre and followed in the footsteps of his father to become a talented 5-string banjo player. Matt is a partner in The Lone Prairie Band performing at many events including the Philadelphia and New England Folk Festivals as well as The Appalachian String Band Music Festival. He will sing and play traditional music learned from Smithsonian Archival recordings as well as from musicians he has met along the the way. Click here to read more about him.

Sat, October 3
Hands On
Children's Workshop with Richard Haynes

Sat, October 3, 5 pm
Beverly Hallam, A Celebration of Excellence in the Arts
Cocktails, Dinner, and Keynote Speaker Carl Little
Call the Museum for more information: 207-646-4909

For over 60 years, Maine coast icon Beverly Hallam has been a prolific painter and innovative developer of new media and techniques.

Sat, October 10
Hands On
Children's Workshop with Richard Haynes

Sat, October 17
Hands On
Children's Workshop with Richard Haynes

Tues, October 20, 7 pm
Copenhagen:
A conversation between Nils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg
A staged play reading by York Readers Theater

This much-praised drama by Michael Frayn received many awards including both Broadway’s Tony and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. It tells the story of an encounter between physicists Nils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, who were both key players in the creation of the atomic bomb. One critic said, ”You will find it to be the best two hours you have ever spent in the theatre.”

York Readers Theater was founded in 2003 by director David Newman and actor Joe Dominguez. The company’s staged readings have been the highlight of fall and spring programming at York Public Library. Read more about York Readers Theater.