The Art of Engaging Community

Maine Creates is a statewide initiative designed to train teaching artists, strengthen community connections, and enhance the well-being of Maine people through the power of the arts. Developed in partnership with the Maine Arts Commission, the program invests in local creativity by uncovering hidden assets within each community.

Since its launch in the spring of 2025, the program has trained more than 35 teaching artists, with five receiving funding to bring community-centered arts projects to life across Maine. Their work is now happening in libraries, a re-entry correctional center, community centers, rural towns, and schools—each project thoughtfully designed to address local needs through collaborative, intergenerational artmaking.

Side x Side mentors each artist throughout the process, and every project will culminate in a community celebration that honors both the art created and the relationships formed. By June 2026, Maine Creates programming will have impacted hundreds of youth and adults statewide.

The Arts Connect Us to One Another

Maine Creates strengthens local, intergenerational connections by fostering creativity, belonging, and well-being for people of all ages and abilities.

As the Maine Arts Commission traveled around the state, a clear message emerges: Maine’s under-resourced communities are experiencing isolation, disconnection, and limited access to meaningful creative opportunities.

In response, the Maine Arts Commission partnered with Side x Side to build a robust training and support program that equips teaching artists to bring arts-based solutions directly into Maine’s towns and cities. Maine Creates exists to ensure that every community has access to the transformative power of creativity.

The Arts Can Play a Vital Role in Strengthening Community

Art-making is a proven antidote to loneliness, isolation, and social fragmentation. Teaching artists—an underutilized resource in Maine—bring joy, connection, and creative expression to places where they are needed most.

By training new and experienced teaching artists, Maine Creates harnesses our state’s creative strengths to support health, resilience, and community transformation. The initiative ensures that creative engagement is not just available, but intentionally delivered where it can have the greatest impact.

Research Shows the Arts Improve Quality of Life

A growing body of research from social science, public health, and neuroscience shows that arts participation:

• Supports mental and physical health
• Strengthens social ties, belonging, and civic engagement
• Builds intergenerational connection and cultural continuity
• Stimulates neuroplasticity, cognitive resilience, and emotional regulation

Teaching artists transform these findings into action. By embedding artmaking into community spaces, they make creativity accessible across ages, backgrounds, and abilities—helping build the social infrastructure that supports health, equity, and thriving communities.

Take a Look at Teaching Artists & Projects

Catie Joyce Bulay — Art Play Dates (Winslow, Kennebec County)

Catie’s project addresses the isolation often experienced by caregivers of young children. She offers bi-monthly art sessions at the Winslow Public Library where young children and caregivers explore sensory, visual, and motor-based art materials together. Visiting artists join throughout the series, and Catie models engagement strategies that caregivers can continue at home. These sessions create essential opportunities for families to de-stress, and connect, share, and support one another.

Leah Cook — With Love, From Van Buren: A Mural Stamp Project (Van Buren, Aroostook County)

Through collaborative design sessions and community feedback loops, residents of Van Buren will co-create mural panels celebrating the town’s favorite places and local identity. The process invites multigenerational participation and fosters pride, unity, and shared connection. Once installed, the murals will visually transform shared spaces while honoring the town’s history and community spirit. The project builds on the substantial revitalization efforts already underway and helps tell the positive, reclaimed narrative of how much Van Buren has to offer.

Wendy Lorigan — The Collective Canvas: Where Every Voice Adds Color (Guilford, Piscataquis County)

Wendy hosts multigenerational art workshops at the Guilford Memorial Library where participants contribute individual artwork to a growing collective wall. She has also created Art Kits—complete with supplies, instructions, and video tutorials—that residents can check out like library books. These kits allow people from surrounding towns to make art at home and contribute their creations to the community installation. The project brings neighbors together and highlights the shared stories that connect them.

Addy Smith Reiman — Spatial Design Academy for Kids (Lewiston, Androscoggin County)

Addy’s project offers middle school students an immersive week-long exploration of urban design and planning. Working with architects, artists, and landscape designers, students learn about Lewiston’s codes, utility systems, and neighborhood design principles. Using design thinking, they collaborate to imagine and prototype improvements for their city using basic materials and cardboard. This hands-on program empowers youth to see themselves as designers and problem-solvers within their community.

Daisy Hutt — Family Pottery Classes (Southern Maine Re-entry Center, Windham, Cumberland County)

Daisy leads weekly ceramics workshops with incarcerated women, building both artistic skills and interpersonal connection. Once a month, family members join for guided clay workshops that support relationship-building prior to release. These classes offer moments of reconnection, creativity, and healing—strengthening family bonds that are crucial for reentry success.

What’s Next?

Building on the momentum of the 2025 inaugural year, we are seeking funding to launch a second Maine Creates training cohort in the spring of 2026. With additional support, we will train a new group of teaching artists, expand access to high-quality arts programming, and award five new community project grants to artists across the state. Continued investment will allow Maine Creates to deepen its statewide impact—bringing creativity, connection, and well-being to even more Maine communities and ensuring that the arts remain a powerful force for resilience and belonging. To follow the work of our current Maine Creates artists, be sure to check our social media channels (instagram and Facebook) and subscribe to our newsletter.

Read more about the Maine Creates program in Winslow: Where Clay, Community, and Pure Joy Collide

 

Maine Creates is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.