Forgive Matinicus schoolteacher Heather Wells for wanting to keep her students working with digital cameras. She finds them adorable when they snap photos. “The cutest thing in the world is watching a bunch of little kids with cameras because they look like paparazzi,” Wells said.
Cuteness aside, Wells has spent much of her time in the school on Matinicus creating chances for hands-on learning, “Any time they can get outside, put their hands on something, get dirty or make a mess,” she said.
Her students did all of the above as they combined photography, art and science in a seven-month examination of songbird migration and climate change on Matinicus and nearby Metinic in the fall of 2009.
They were assisted in this endeavor by a gaggle of midcoast high school students and Unity College students. The results of their work will be displayed at Julia’s Gallery at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland. The exhibit, “A Bird’s Eye View: Journeying through 21st Century Climate Change,” opens May 2.
The exhibit attempts to explain the intricacies of bird migration and climate change through art, said Cindy Thomashow, executive director for the Center for Environmental Education at Unity College. The object is to make the theories of climate change accessible to those who are intimidated by science, she said.
“If you make something beautiful or you make something fun…[people] aren’t afraid of the science, they’re more open,” she said.
The exhibit is part of an island school outreach effort undertaken by Julia’s Gallery that began when the museum launched its Building Bridges program with the Archipelago, the Island Institute’s fine art gallery in 2007. The program connected students from Matinicus, Vinalhaven, North Haven, Isle au Haut and Islesboro with local artists. Using a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, island students created a travelling exhibit of artwork that visited all five of the islands involved in the summer of 2008.
With leftover money from the grant, Matinicus was picked for a photography project documenting life on the island. Digital cameras were purchased and photographer Charlotte Dixon and artist Maury Colton worked with the kids in 2009.
The resulting exhibit, “Matinicus: The Place Beyond,” showed on the island and Julia’s Gallery in the fall 2009.
But no one wanted to stop the kids from working with the cameras, so Nixon, Dixon, Thomashow and Wells worked to integrate photography into other aspects of school curriculum. Thomashow was teaching college classes in artist stewardship, which is a way to deliver scientific knowledge through art. The cameras seemed like a great tool to use in science, they decided.
Around the same time, the United States Fish & Wildlife Service was studying bird migration on nearby Metinic. Wildlife officials long have known that the island served as a stopover on the migratory bird highway, but they never knew the habits of the birds that stopped there. The wildlife service began to create a baseline study, using fine nets to capture and band birds.
Word travelled to Matinicus about the project. Nixon found donors, including Barbara and Peter McSpadden, the Overbrook Foundation and Joyce Tenneson, willing to fund a project that would combine art and science. The students headed out with their cameras to Metinic with their cameras in October 2009.
“There’s nothing neater than holding a little bird in your hand,” said Beth Goettel, manager for Maine Coastal Islands National Island Refuges for the wildlife service.
Watching the scientists work sparked more than a few learning moments, and the school undertook a seven-month long study focusing on climate change and its effects on local and migratory bird populations. Every lesson sparked more questions and wide-ranging study
Some 29 students from Julia’s Gallery and Unity College collaborated to help the Matinicus students distil what they learned into artwork. Together, the 35 students created exhibits about nest construction, the intricacies of bird flight and climate change.
Thomashow said it was a great experience loading her Unity students onto a plane and throwing them into the thick of the project. “They didn’t know what they were getting into,” Thomashow said. “They spent hours arguing with me about how they’re scientists, not artists.” But the enthusiasm of the Matinicus kids was infectious, and Thomashow said her students did a great job.
High school students that work at Julia’s Gallery also found the project fascinating. Meara Cafferata, a senior at Camden Hills, loved the opportunity to return to Matinicus. Her family has property on the island, and she liked meeting the next generation of kids. She worked with seven-year old Max Van Dyne, because they both love puffins. Her experience with the project and at Julia’s Gallery has been a boon to her college admission process. She was admitted to the Pratt Institute in New York.
“It was definitely a draw that when I applied to art school, I had this experience,” Cafferata said.
Wells said her students were able to understand complex scientific theories through their hands-on work. They learned how to look at their island through a deeper lens of stewardship. More importantly, they learned how to learn, she said. That sense of wonder and stewardship will serve the island well in the coming generation, she said. These children will grow up to be the island’s next keepers.
“These kids have a very precious place on Matinicus Island, which is wild and beautiful, and they love it and they want to take care of it,” Wells said.
The exhibit will be on display at the Farnsworth from May 2 through August 29. For more information, go to www.farnsworthmuseum.org or call the Farnsworth at 596-6457.
Craig Idlebrook is a freelance writer in Ellsworth.