Over the weekend of Oct. 18-20, five students from North Haven and two students from neighboring Vinalhaven participated in a workshop with students and professors from Portland-based Maine College of Art (MECA) on original film projects.
Anne Bertus, MECA professor of Graphic Design, had visited the school before and was eager to return and work with the students. Accompanying her were Stephen Bowden, MECA instructor of New Media, Michelle Trudo, assistant professor of New Media, and Ling-Wen Tsai, assistant professor of Sculpture and Performance, as well as ten students of various areas of the arts and Bertus’s amicable dog, Una.
Narrowly avoiding a torrential downpour, the MECA contingent was picked up at the ferry in the EV (the electric vehicle built by North Haven students) and transported to their lodging, generously provided by Nancy Hopkins-Davisson of North Haven and supported by North Haven Arts and Enrichment.
North Haven students Mina Bartovics, Jacob Greenlaw, Chris Emerson, Alex Curtis and Madisen Grumbach, as well as Emily Brownsword and Johnny Davis from across the thoroughfare, served as informative hosts to their weekend guests.
The weekend began with a chilly, bumpy tour of the island in a couple of pickup trucks. (Coordinator of the event, and new to the island myself as the new Island Institute fellow on North Haven, I joined the wind-blown MECA students in their first views of well selected vistas.) Hand held digital cameras followed our progress as we went from Mullens Head park to Pulpit Harbor and Izzy’s Beach.
The students were eager to work with North Haven’s drama director John Wulp, who trekked over to the island for a Friday afternoon discussion. In this session and several others, both formal and spontaneous, students explored the differences between theater and performance as forms of art, debated the meaning of beauty and shared their own personal experiences with their art.
On Saturday, Ling-Wen Tsai led a workshop on performance, showing several examples of her own work. Following her very personal and intriguing presentation, the group headed out to find haunted houses, “the castle” and a setting that proved ideal for Ninja-style footage.
Each evening one group cooked for another, and guitars and drums were brought out. At these moments, Anne Bertus brought out her new toy for high tech audio recording. Some wanderers equipped with night vision on their cameras went out in search of the North Haven night life (and returned with clips of cats and dogs and the amusing antics of one another).
Alas, time ran short before the group was ready or had accomplished all of its goals for the weekend. After considering trying to squeeze the editing process into the tail end of the weekend, the MECA professors and students extended a generous invitation for a trip to MECA and its large computer labs. This weekend is tentatively scheduled for February, after basketball season ends.
Keeley Grumbach is an Island Institute Fellow on North Haven.