Haystack will be open again this year for in person attendance. Yay! Our 2020 recipient will be attending this year, since her opportunity was cancelled. The Quimby Fellowship application will be open again for 2023.
The Quimby Family Foundation Fellowship, a great opportunity for summer professional development. This fellowship is for an active MAEA Maine art educator to spend two weeks participating in a Haystack summer workshop.
The Quimby Family Foundation has awarded Haystack a grant of $35,000 to endow a fellowship for an active MAEA Maine art teacher. Haystack has had a long relationship with Maine art teachers -- the Maine Art Education Association held one of its first annual fall conferences at Haystack in 1968 -- and many art teachers have studied at the school during summer sessions. Haystack has received grant support in the past from both the Surdna Foundation and the Maine Arts Commission to award fellowships.
The time spent here is important to art educators both for their teaching and art-making. Bronwyn Sale, a former art teacher from Portland, wrote this when she received a similar fellowship a few year’s ago, “As an art teacher, I believe that the best ‘staff development’ is to be among fellow working artists and to practice my own art. Attending Haystack gave me the space and environment to do so. In addition to the personal artistic growth that occurred during my workshop, as a teacher the experience was invaluable. I was able to assume the role of student again in a workshop taught by an artist who is also a master teacher.... I gained a whole new perspective on teaching and was exposed to ideas and assignments that I can now share with my students...” This new fellowship will create a permanent fellowship for an active MAEA Maine teacher to attend a two-week session.
To apply for the Fellowship: Please send your application and response to the questions listed below to Heidi O’Donnell (heidiaemaine@gamil.com) no later than January 1st annually. Do not send the $50 application fee as requested on the Haystack website.
Go to the Haystack website for information about sessions and workshops. Note: This scholarship is for a dorm room. If you would like more expensive accommodations, you would be required to pay the difference.
Download and print the application form and fill it out completely. (Click on the General Applicants form and ignore the April 1st deadline, MAEA needs this by March 1st.) Email your completed application (no money) directly to Heidi O'Donnell along with with your answers to the following two questions:
Why would attending a summer session at Haystack be important to your teaching and how would you benefit from the opportunity?
How have you advocated for Art Education locally in your district and/or how have you volunteered to assist Maine Art Education Association?
If selected as the scholarship recipient, you would be responsible for writing a reflection, including photographs, of your fellowship experience for our newsletter and website.