How can art help us to connect with the land, seas, skies, and people around us in new ways?
Artists in American Perspectives offer different ways to view and experience the world. We invite visitors of all ages to celebrate National Poetry Month and Earth Day by exploring the exhibition and engaging in family-friendly activities throughout the day.
Everyone age 21 and under is always free to visit the PMA through the generosity of Susie Konkel. Sign up for the Susie Konkel Pass here!
Family Day schedule of Activities:
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Unwind and re-center with a fun quilt design that you can color and collage.
10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Reflect on what home means to you during this writing activity with Mihku Paul.
12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.: Join Flor Cron for an art activity, Seeds of the Future. Use your imagination to design a seed and imagine what it will grow!
1 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.: Family tour of American Perspectives with Rachel Abimerhi and Shira Stonehill.
3 p.m. to 4:35 p.m.: Free film: Mia and the Magoo is a fable-like journey of a young girl who must overcome her fears on a quest to find her father and save the world from destruction.
MEET OUR ARTISTS AND EDUCATORS
Mihku Paul is a Wolastoqeyik artist and writer born and raised on the Penobscot river. She is an enrolled member of Kingsclear First Nations, N.B. Canada and received both an Indigenous education from her traditional grandfather and a formal education in white schools. Mihku holds a BA and MFA, with study in human development, communication creative writing. She has worked more than two decades in Portland Public schools, presenting Waponahki culture and history for curriculum enrichment. Mihku also participated in the creation of the new Wab Studies Redux for Portland schools.
Flor Cron (she/they) is a queer farmer, performer & transdisciplinary artist, and person of Quechua and European descent who works with intuitive movement, dirt, installation, printmaking, fiber, social practice and food. From a young age Flor traveled to Peru to visit her maternal family. There, her passion for movement, food and textiles was ignited. Flor lives in Portland, Maine, which is settled on stolen and occupied territory of the Wabanaki Confederacy. Through performance and making with the readymade, available materials, Flor locates the present moment and the relationship between her two cultures. She explores the defeat and transformation of trauma through the twin powers of vulnerability and forgiveness, and how exposing pain can transcend trauma. They want to celebrate life and plant seeds for futures where Black and Indigenous people are centered.
Rachel Abimerhi (she/they) is an artist and educator from the greater Boston area currently based in Portland, ME. Growing up in a multicultural home, Rachel spent much of her childhood between the Middle East and in the States where her family now resides in Massachusetts. As an Artist, much of her work explores themes of home and belonging, and the impact on the places we leave behind. After receiving her BFA in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2017, Rachel began working as an after-school visual arts teacher for Middle School in Rhode Island. She is currently pursuing her Master of Art in Teaching at Maine College of Art and Design. She approaches art-making as meditative and expressive, and through lots of trial and error. Her hope is that children find the visual arts as a safe haven to be as expressive and free as they'd like.
Shira Stonehill is an abstract painter and teaching artist from greater Boston. Shira earned her Fine Art degree at Columbia College Chicago and is currently a Masters of Arts in Teaching Candidate at MECA&D. She has experience building arts integrated curricula and leading artmaking workshops in a variety of settings and loves learning and teaching about contemporary art and artists.
