Presque Isle, Maine—Wintergreen Arts Center has received a $25,000 grant from MMG Insurance Company to purchase technology tools including laptops, cameras, a scanner, software, and accessories to engage students in the digital artistic process.
This grant opens up opportunities for the Center to offer digital art classes such as photography, graphic design, animation, and more. Students also now have the capability of scanning and sharing artwork online, capturing performing arts presentations, and publishing creative writing and illustration projects, to name a few possibilities.
Larry Shaw, President & CEO of MMG Insurance, said the company made the gift because of the impact information technologies and dynamic instruction through technology will have on Wintergreen’s students and their future.
“At MMG Insurance we are deeply committed to our youth and ensuring opportunities for them to learn and grow,” said Shaw. “Investing in programs that combine digital technology with art provides creative ways for young people to gain knowledge and confidence in skills they will use throughout their lifetime.”
The goal of this collaboration between MMG and Wintergreen is to promote technological literacy in Aroostook County by offering fun, technology-based, creative programming that leads to positive self-expression and lifelong learning.
Digital technologies make it easier for students to collaborate, share, and publish their work providing greater possibilities and a bigger platform for them to engage with the arts and their peers.
“MMG has opened the door to amazing opportunities for our students,” said Kim Guerrette Michaud, Wintergreen’s Chairman of the Board. “Greater access to technology will not only help students find their own unique medium of expression, but also put them on a personal journey forward exploring the digital world and beyond.”
Wintergreen is offering its first digital art class this summer. Advanced Photography began July 30; students are learning how to edit photographs as well as produce and create music videos. The Photography students are also capturing a dance number performed by Wintergreen’s Choreographed Dance students as one of the subjects of their music videos. A Music Video Premier Bash for the public is scheduled on Tuesday, August 21, 2018, 6:00 pm, at Wintergreen.