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• History on the Brink

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• Upcoming Events

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• Grant Funded Events

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• News from the MHC

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• Recent Grants

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• Staff Readings

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• Quote of the Month

“In reality, every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have experienced in himself. And the recognition by the reader in his own self of what the book says is the proof of its veracity.”

— Time Regained
Marcel Proust

Focusing on history and what one can learn from the past has always been a means of exploration used by humanities councils the country over, and the Maine Humanities Council is no different. We find so much that we can learn from looking back. This is almost cliché in the history world — that archetypal characters and events teach one how or how not to behave — but how often do people honestly practice this in their daily lives? It is easy and, indeed, fascinating to do so from an intellectual standpoint to lean on the brink of a rushing falls with one’s hands on the protective railing called Thing Past. It is a trifle more difficult to apply, say, what Joshua Chamberlain did on Little Round Top to a daily routine in an office here in 21st century Maine

Yet looking back on the past and trying to learn something from it is precisely what we are doing at the MHC these days. As some readers may know, 2006 marks the 30th anniversary of the Maine Humanities Council. After a decidedly shaky beginning, the MHC was founded in 1976 as the state affiliate of a federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities. During our younger years, we functioned largely as a pass-through grant making agency for NEH funds. Seventeen years later, the NEH came under heavy fire in Congress and, since just about all our financial support derived from that agency, we were threatened with the distinct possibility of our own demise. At that point, the MHC began its maturation to the financially diversified, fully operational not for profit organization we are today, providing grants and programs to rural and urban communities throughout Maine.

In this, our 30th anniversary year, we are taking a careful look at our history, learning from the past with the goal of using those lessons to move forward. We’ve learned that diversification of programs and funding sources is key; that rapid responses to needs expressed by the state’s residents matters tremendously; that we strengthen not just ourselves but collaborative groups throughout the state through partnerships; and that experiments, taken boldly yet with much thought beforehand, help us grow. We look back on controversial projects that we funded or presented — Cut and Run, a film about the logging industry; and the AIDS conference with Susan Sontag as the keynote speaker — and innovative programs that we created — Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care® — and see not a pattern of the past to simply follow, fitting our footsteps in those that have already trodden this earth, but as sparks of ideas for new staff members in a growing, evolving organization to use as inspiration and a means for courage. Using the high points of a past — anyone’s past — to simply strive for betterment can indeed be a great use of history today.

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One of the lessons we’ve learned from our past is the impact that we can have when sharing work with this state. In 2006, in celebration of its 30th anniversary, the MHC will offer a series of free programs for residents statewide. While our standard programs will continue, we’d like to invite you to the following (my apologies for the lack of detail; this is just a preview):

Humanities Festival: October 20 and 21, 2006, Bates Colleges, Lewiston, Maine
This two-day festival will feature many of the wonderful scholars who have participated in MHC’s programs. Teachers who have participated in Teachers for a New Century seminars will recognize the names (to be announced once they are confirmed), but the festival will also be an occasion for these scholars to share their expertise with the general public. Topics will range across the humanities, and will include something for every interest. Attendees, who will be asked to pre-register, are welcome to go to whichever talk and however many talks they wish. There will also be a keynote speaker, but it is too early, I am afraid, to know who we will get; we are currently in negotiations with several esteemed historians. As soon as details as confirmed, I will announce it here.

This program will be offered free to the public, and more information will be announced in this newsletter when it is confirmed. If you would also like to be on a mailing list for the Humanities Festival, please send your name and address to me at diane@mainehumanities.org.

Theater of Ideas
Over a decade ago, the MHC presented a series of performances in high schools across Maine with Theater at Monmouth director, actor, and playwright David Greenham. The theme was the exodus of young people from Maine, and the performance, set right after the Civil War, consisted of a conversation between a young Civil War veteran who wished to see more of the world, and his fiancée, who wished to stay in Maine. More recently, and again with MHC support, David created another piece to explore the uses of the Androscoggin River.

In 2006, David Greenham will be back, writing and performing a short theatrical piece around another theme relevant to Mainers: taxes. Using different characters throughout history, the performance will explore what taxes mean for Maine communities, the state government, the Maine landscape, and Mainers’ wallets. Performances will begin in May of 2006, with venues to be announced. If you are interesting in having a performance in your town, please contact Victoria Bonebakker at vbonebak@mainehumanities.org for more information. The MHC will be offering these performances to towns in Maine free of charge.

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And, of course, we have our ongoing series of grant-funded events across the state listed here.

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On January 14, Maine’s First Lady Karen Baldacci announced the launch of the MHC’s One Book: One Community website at the Lithgow Public Library in Augusta. One Book: One Community programs exist throughout the country, including Maine, as efforts to encourage community members to form connections with each other through the reading and discussing of a single book. Formal reading and discussion groups extend to casual conversation in neighborhood streets, providing an effective and pleasurable method for community bonding. MHC’s is the first statewide website devoted to this concept nationwide.

The One Book: One Community website was created to provide information about One Book: One Community programs in Maine, and to provide inspiration and support for developing new One Book programs. Glance at the website, read the stories and book lists, and read how to start a One Book program in your community.

The MHC thanks libraries across Maine including the Maine State Library for information they provided for this site, as well as MHC Let’s Talk About It Program Officer Elizabeth Sinclair, designer Lori Harley, and webmaster Donna Jones for the work they put into creating such a strong tool. MHC also thanks the Maine Community Foundation for providing seed money for this project.

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$1,000 to Schoodic Arts for All, Prospect Harbor, for Maine Masters Film Project and Discussion
Schoodic Arts for All will bring the Maine Masters Project film series — video profiles of Maine artists and their work — to Hammond Hall in Winter Harbor, Maine.

$1,000 to St. Joseph’s College, Standish, for Two Maine Author/Illustrator Days for Otisfield Community School
This project exposes K-6 Otisfield students and parents, college Education majors, and local librarians to the work of two recognized Maine authors and illustrators, Kevin Hawkes and Lea Wait, for the educational benefit of all.

$912.08 to the University of Maine at Presque Isle, Presque Isle, for Maine Women — Living on the Land
This documentary film and photography exhibit inspires us to examine the personal relationships that we have with our surroundings and how that bond — the spirit of place — affects the relationships we have within our communities.

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From Carolyn Sloan, who works with just about every program at the MHC and facilitates a New Books, New Readers group in Biddeford:

The Future of Ice is a book for lovers of winter and the environment and a cautionary tale for those who delight in the recent warm winters and hot summers in Maine. Gretel Ehrlich seeks out those times and places where the world is frozen in ice — Tierra del Fuego, her home in the mountains of Wyoming in winter, and an ice-breaker on a voyage to Spitsbergen — and chronicles her personal observations and responses along with the ecology of frozen spaces and the place of ice in the balance of life on earth. Read The Future of Ice in one sitting as I did the first time, or let it fall open to any small subsection at bedtime, and get a morsel of writing that will nourish your dreams.

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“The seminar has given me confidence in my ability to teach about East Asia. As a teacher I seldom find time for such a focused exploration of a topic. As a student I had time for reflection and enjoyed those "Aha!" moments, where loose strands of my thinking came together due to a comment of a speaker or a conversation with a colleague. The experience also focused for me the importance of teaching East Asia to counter balance the Amer-Eurocentric perspective offered at my school. This is essential if we are to prepare our students to become global citizens.”

— an elementary school teacher from Topsham who participated in the MHC’s National Consortium for Teaching About Asia

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