Arts Education Rock Stars!

2022

MAEA Maine Art Educator of the Year: Reagan Russell

Raegan Russell has taught art at Berwick Academy, South Berwick ME for 23 years. She is currently the Visual Art Chair and the Director of Visual and Performing Arts in addition to teaching Upper School pinnacle art classes and studio electives. Raegan is deeply engaged in curricular development and promoting studio thinking and student-driven inquiry. At Berwick she has helped to create and implement classes in pinnacle arts and the Arts Pathways program, where students take a deeper dive into study in the visual or performing arts.
Raegan received a sabbatical in 2018 which allowed her to travel in SE Asia and volunteer at the Wildflower Home, a center for women and children in crisis in Thailand. The sabbatical acted as a catalyst for connections in teaching. Through this experience, Raegan was able to bring students to Thailand for service work the following year, and has focused on building programs through artist residencies and community collaborations which help connect student artists with the larger world around them.
Most recently, Raegan has helped lead the Hashi Student Print Exchange between Maine and Aomori Japan’s student printmakers and organized the Hashi 2019 and Hashi 2020 student art exchange, co-organized with Lynda Mccann Olson between Maine students and those in Aomori Japan.
Raegan is currently involved in the Haystack Maine Mentor program where she is teaching relief printmaking to students in the Blue Hill and Deer Isle regions.

2022 MAEA Middle Level Art Educator of the Year: Hope Lord

Hope Lord is a Visual Arts Educator at Maranacook Community Middle School in Readfield, Maine. Hope has taught both Art and Special Education classes for RSU #38. She began her teaching career at Wayne Elementary in 1999 and transferred to Maranacook Middle School in 2001.

Hope has always had a love for the arts and had her first formal art lesson at the age of five, attending private art classes at an artist’s home. Sitting alongside high school students, Hope observed, listened, and enthusiastically learned to draw and paint still-life and landscape paintings. Each week she would wait with great anticipation for the next week’s lesson. She dreamed at that young age that she too would someday become an art teacher.

Hope believes each and every student who enters her classroom is an artist. She designs engaging and innovative lessons, where all students can successfully create and communicate through art. She seeks opportunities for teacher and artist collaborations, in order to enrich her art instruction. She enjoys sharing her love for the arts and fostering her students’ creative spirit. Hope Lord, a middle school art educator, achieved her childhood dream.

2022 MAEA Secondary Art Educator of the Year: Lori Spruce

After receiving her BA in Art Education in 2008 at the University of Maine, Lori Spruce began her teaching career at Brewer High School and has been teaching Studio Foundations, Painting, Graphic Design, Photography/Advanced Photography, Advanced Art, and AP Studio and Design classes. Wanting to pursue an interest in art, Ms. Spruce returned to school to seek a career in studio art and education after spending much or her time devoted to raising her twin boys, one of which has cerebral palsy. As a strong advocate for her son's equal access and participation in the world, Ms. Spruce has taken that experience to her classroom to empower her students through the study of art by assisting their own discovery of meaning in the visual world that surrounds them. Former student and student teacher Emily Michaud states “Lori is an innovative and ambitious art teacher. She connects with teachers outside of the classroom, designs professional, socially active art curriculum, and mentors young teachers.” Ms. Spruce considers art education a powerful tool for expression that helps students make connections between intellect and emotion by the perception, communication, and reflection of those ideas generated by their own experience.

Lori Spruce has been an active member of MAEA since 2010, presenting at conferences and engaging in interest groups and subcommittees. Ms. Spruce also co-chairs the Maine AP Art and Design Network and is a current Teacher Leader and Vision Team member of the Maine Arts Education Partnership in Leadership (formally known as MALI) through the Maine Arts Commission. Ms. Spruce has spent this entire year teaching and actively engaging her students remotely while they are in the classroom.

2022 MAEA Supervision Art Educator of the Year: Serena Sanborn

Serena Sanborn has created programming in arts and natural sciences for over 15 years. Her goal is to inspire playfulness and wonder, and to make art a resource for everyone. She works at Waterville Creates as the Education and Outreach Coordinator, creating and guiding programs for thousands of participants each year. This year she led the Arts Kits for All program, distributing over 3,500 kits of different art projects to the community and working with over 20 different community partners to plan, pack, and distribute the kits.

2022 MAEA Outstanding Service to the Profession Award: Susan Bryand

It is clear that Susan understands the meaning of lifelong learning, as she continues to take classes in the Intermedia Program at the university of Maine in order to stay connected to an arts community.
Susan's commitment to education and to art does not end there. She is a member of several art communities in the area, and has shown herself to be a leader in local projects, such as her community-wide socially engaged initiative with hundreds of participants from across the area in 2020. The projects brought a sense of unity and gratitude to participants, and is emblematic of the community-driven practice Susan has established.