Mission
The Continuing Studies Department at Maine College of Art (MECA) offers open enrollment programs to adults and youth. Our mission is to provide access to professional quality study in the visual arts for diverse members of the general public.
Students
Students are community members taking courses for personal enrichment and professional development.
Faculty
Faculty members are practicing artists active in the community, alumni of the college, or Professors in the BFA and MFA Programs. Our faculty members are committed to providing an enriching education in an intimate learning environment for students of all levels of experience.
Courses and Workshops
Continuing Studies develops programming based on the needs and interests of Portland’s community. Courses are designed for adults ages 18 and older and are offered in a variety of disciplines and formats. Extended courses are offered for 4, 6, 8, 10 or 12 weeks. One day and weekend workshops are offered to give students the opportunity to experience an art form with a shorter time commitment. In the adult program, credit for completion of a Continuing Studies course is offered in the form of Continuing Education Units (CEUs). The Continuing Education Unit (CEU) is a nationally accepted unit of measurement for individual participation in continuing education courses. One CEU is issued for ten hours of class participation.
Week Long Intensives
Week long intensives generally take place during breaks in the academic year. The classes typically run 9am-5pm, Monday through Friday for one week. Students experience the same high level of instruction as an extended course in a condensed amount of time.
Creative Professional Programs
Continuing Studies offers a variety of courses that support professional development to creative professionals at all stages of their careers. Faculty members bring real world experience into our studios.
Professional Development for Art Educators
Continuing Studies courses, workshops and week long intensives provide opportunities for art educators to further develop creative and artistic skills to bring back to the classroom.
Non-Degree Program
The Non-Degree program serves individuals who are not currently seeking a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree but want to further their education in the arts, liberal arts, or art history by taking courses in MECA’s BFA program.
Non-Degree students are able to enroll in 100- and 200-level undergraduate courses. Students may enroll in 300- or 400-level courses with permission of the faculty member. Other pre-requisites may apply. Students in the Non-Degree Program accumulate college credit for the courses in which they are enrolled. Please contact Admissions at admissions@MECA.edu or 800.699.1509.
Travel Program
Continuing Studies provides students with the opportunity to take a learning adventure of a lifetime through its Travel Program. Lead by experienced tour guides, students go well beyond the traditional classroom to explore art and culture in locales that are rich in history. Tour details are orchestrated to provide a seamless and rewarding travel experience.
Studio School
Studio School sessions take place twice during the academic year, once in the fall and again in the winter. Courses run for 10 weeks on Saturdays in both the morning and afternoon. Courses are designed for high school students grades 7-12 in a variety of disciplines from ceramics and photography to graphic design and filmmaking.
The Winter 2012 Studio School session begins Saturday, February 11, 2012. Tuition is $145 for all courses (includes studio fee). READ MORE»
Studio School Workshops
Saturday School Workshops give high school students the opportunity to experience specialty workshops. Current offerings include glass blowing and beadmaking with a professional artist at an offsite studio. READ MORE»
Pre-College
The Pre-College program at Maine College of Art is designed to give high school students the opportunity to discover their future as a student of art in a college environment. During this first step to finding creative freedom, students get immersed in art for an entire month living life as a college student.
Students who complete the Pre-College program earn 4 academic credits. Pre-College students who are rising seniors, who apply and are admitted into MECA’s BFA program automatically receive a $1500 a year grant. This grant is renewable for four years of study. In addition, all rising seniors will receive an undergraduate application fee waiver from the Office of Admissions upon completion of the Pre-College program. READ MORE»
Summer Art Camps
Art education helps develop a child’s creativity, imagination, cognitive skills, problem solving abilities and much more. Summer Art Camps at MECA are designed to provide a creative outlet for children that can play a major
role in their development. Week long sessions of both half and full day programs offer children the chance to experience a variety of mediums from drawing and painting to printmaking and sculpture. Camps are developed for specific age groups to provide a high quality learning environment for all ages and levels of experience in the arts.
Summer Art Academy, Ages 9-12
Taught by both students of the Art Ed program and professional artists, camps have been developed with inventive themes in mind that will enhance the creative experience.
View and register for Summer Art Academy courses
Studio School Summer Institute, Ages 13-17
An extension of the Studio School program that runs during the academic school year, the Studio School Summer Institute has been developed for young artists to work in professional studios with working artists in a variety of arts disciplines.
View and register Studio School Summer Institute courses
Scholarships for Youth Programs
Thanks to the generous support of the Stephanie Hope Mull Memorial Scholarship Fund of the Maine Community Foundation, MECA is able to provide a limited amount of scholarships for students to attend summer youth programs.
For more information please call 207.699.5062 or contact Nik Bsullak, Assistant Director of Continuing Studies, nbsullak@MECA.edu
Featured Faculty Member in Adult Programs
Kathleen Boldt
Kathleen Boldt, a graduate of Maine College of Art, has been teaching drawing classes for adults since 1985. While her primary focus has been the exploration of drawing, she has also developed work in collage, colored pencil and gouache paint. Her work has been shown in several Portland and mid-coast Maine galleries.
Janet Manyan
Janet Manyan has an MFA in Painting at Brooklyn College C.U.N.Y. B.A. in Art from the College of New Rochelle. She was awarded residencies at the Millay Colony in Austerlitz, NY and Carina House (now M.A.R.C.) on Monhegan Island. She is represented by Frost Gully Gallery in Freeport and Mast Cove Gallery in Kennebunkport. Her work was recently shown at First St. Gallery in N.Y.C. and the Portland Show at Greenhut Gallery and MARC @20 on Monhegan.
Bennett Morris
Bennett Morris is a multidisciplinary artist and teacher located in Portland. He has a BFA in Graphic Design, an MFA in studio art and has attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture's summer residency. In addition to his studies, Bennett has worked as a master printer, printing editions by a variety of contemporary artists. His own work is influenced by ideas related to the sublime, romanticism, ruins and surveillance technology.
Featured Faculty Members in Youth Programs
Allison Baird
Allison Baird holds a BFA in Printmaking from Maine College of Art. She is passionate about collaborative and community-based art as evidenced through her work with the Art Van, a mobile art therapy program. She is a former admissions counselor at MECA. She took a summer course on silkscreen printing in 2006 at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy.
Caleb Charland
Growing up in rural Maine, Caleb Charland spent much of his childhood helping his father remodel their family homes. These experiences instilled an awareness of the potential for the creative use of materials, and the ability to fabricate his visions. Charland earned a BFA in photography with departmental honors from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2004 and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as a Trustees Fellow in 2010. His work has been shown internationally and is in the Collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Progressive Collection, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Michel Droge
Michel Droge is a visual artist whose work addresses the sublime and unseen worlds. Through literature and poetry and physical immersion into environments of her research Michel creates paintings and prints that deal with these ghostly worlds. Michel was raised in Boston Massachusetts. She Is a graduate of Oberlin College and has an MFA from Maine College of Art. Currently Michel is employed at Colby College Museum of Art and has shows her paintings in Portland, Maine and New York City.
Maureen Patrick
Maureen Patrick studied hand-papermaking and typography extensively at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and holds an Associates in Graphic Design from Minneapolis Technical College. She is currently a full-time student majoring in Sculpture at MECA.