FARMINGTON – Middle school students in SAD 9 are getting a clue about becoming better artists and students, thanks to $450,000 in federal money that will support an organized after-school program.

CLUE, which stands for Creative Learning: Unlimited Excellence, is a partnership between Foothills Arts Center, the University of Maine at Farmington and SAD 9. It was awarded a three-year grant of $150,000 for each year from a 21st Century Community Learning Grant.

Money for the 21st Century grant, part of the No Child Left Behind initiative of the U.S. Department of Education, was doled out in late August by the state’s education department.

Just over a month later, it’s time for the artistic muscle flexing to begin.

Students in the free program, which is open to all SAD 9 seventh- and eighth-graders, will work after school with Maine artists, Mount Blue Middle School teachers and UMF students. They will be involved in active, individualized, arts-based projects related to classroom curriculum in reading, writing and math, a release from UMF stated.

There will be four sessions throughout the year, each comprised of 10 two-hour long workshops. The ratio of students to staff will be about 5-to-1, and each year it is expected that up to 140 students will have a chance to be involved in CLUE.

The first 10-class session, which focuses on song writing and theater improv, will start Oct. 7 and run through Nov. 6. Martin Swinger, an Augusta-based singer/songwriter, and Jeri Pitcher, a playwright and actor at the Theater at Monmouth, will head up the inaugural search for a clue.

The goal of the program is to integrate arts with academics in a way that is tightly tied to both the middle school curriculum and the Maine Learning Results, says Anne Geller, director of FAC and arts director for CLUE.

It was her dream as one of the original visionaries of the program that students, who perhaps hadn’t excelled or achieved their maximum potential in a traditional classroom setting, would find a love of learning through exploration of the arts and as a result, reach greater heights both on their report cards and in their communities.

“Not everyone learns sitting at a desk with pencil and paper. We want kids to feel good about learning and to get enthusiastic about it,” Geller explained. “We want to teach kids that you don’t have to stop learning when the school bell rings at the end of the day and we want to help create a climate at school that is more positive than it already is.”

The program if for students of all artistic backgrounds whether their specialty is coloring books or creating masterpieces.

“CLUE gives students a chance to dabble in areas they are interested about but don’t know much about. It’s a chance to have some fun and hang out with your friends after school,” said program director Wendy Oakley, a professor at UMF. “This is not about proficiency. It’s about experimenting and exposure. It’s really an opportunity.”

As students are learning about poetry and painting, teachers from MBMS will be alongside them, learning about ways to incorporate innovative art-related teaching techniques into the classroom.

For example, instead of a history teacher having students read about the Declaration of Independence in a text book and then taking a test, they could read the passage and then perform a skit with their classmates about what they learned.

The skit, said Geller, will stick with students longer.

“This is a painless way to incorporate academics into students’ lives,” says Oakley with a chuckle. “They are slipped in without students even realizing they are learning. We hope to make a real difference in some children’s lives with this program.”

Transportation and snacks are provided.

For more information or to sign up, call Wendy Oakley at 778-7197.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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