Maine Senior College Network news & updates
November | 2020

Welcome to Your November 2020 Issue!
November's newsletter has a slightly new look; I hope that you like it!
All the articles featured this month provide information about upcoming classes and events.

Steve Rutter (Sunrise SC) is looking for "Side-Hustlers!" Do you know anyone with an entrepreneurial streak who has a small business? Steve is looking for these talented folks to help with a class he is developing. See, "Sunrise SC is looking for Side-Hustlers!"

Please visit the Maine Senior College Network website! This has become a hub of information reflecting activities across the network. Many classes, lectures and events are now open to all members of the network. Keep an eye on things by visiting the "What's Happening?" and "MSCN Online Classes" web pages to learn more.

Program Director

Zoom-a-Loomers Needlecraft Group
Do you Knit? Crochet? Felt? Enjoy other Fiber Arts?
Submitted by Sunrise Senior College
Would you like to join a fun online group of folks that get together to do their
craft and chat? Then join the “Zoom-a-Loomers & Needlecraft” group! We
meet weekly to share projects, ideas and just enjoy our time together. Go to
the Sunrise Senior College Contact Us web page and send us an email saying you’d like to check it out and we’ll send you the Zoom meeting link.

It is a special interest group (SIG) that all started with a Spring Semester 2020
class. We all anticipated that classes would be held in person as we had planned.Knitting on a Round Loom was offered as a hands-on course. But the ten participants were quickly stymied by Covid-19. However, the Instructor wanted to hold the class via Zoom because she felt the students should have the opportunity to enjoy the class – even if it wasn't physically in person. Even though everyone's skill and learning levels were different, they were all enthusiastic. The class was fun and gave everyone a chance to socialize while learning something new.

One of the things that the Instructor had in the back of her mind when she initially decided to do this class was the hope that, if she could form this group, we could possibly take on projects like making hats for the babies born at Down East Community Hospital or make hats/scarves for the Christmas Giving Tree or for the Machias Food Pantry to give away at Christmas. There is such a need that she thought/hoped we could help give back to our community even if it was a little bit. Necessity became the mother of invention and the Zoom-a-Loomers were created.


Submitted by Sunrise Senior College

Sunrise Senior College is looking for "Side-Hustlers!"
Submitted by Sunrise Senior College
Image: A street market with traders selling their wares - Coloured engraving by Guidice

Sunrise Senior College is devoting a Winter (and some Spring dates) to the theme of “Entrepreneurship in Downeast Maine.” Our goal is to stimulate entrepreneurial activity in our Washington County, both from the existing population, but also to encourage hardworking and able people to come to our part of the world and begin making families and a living, here. 

Side-Hustles 
Do you know anyone who has a Side-Hustle? 

From roughly January 16 to mid-February, we would like to spotlight individuals who already have full-time jobs, or who are retired, but who also have what we are calling “side hustles.” One example is Tootsie Poosle Card Company — hand illustrated, full color greeting cards unique to Maine and to the owners’ creative gifts. We have others scheduled. 

But we would like to find at least 2 more…they are hard to recruit because their professional and personal lives are already so overloaded. The individuals we seek can be living anywhere, what’s more important is the creativity and skill of their “side hustle.” 

These would be single session 90-minute Zooms only, free and open to the public, and available to registrants of all ages. 

Downeast Entrepreneurs 
From mid February to the end of April, we will show case full-time entrepreneurs, ready to tell their stories about the new opportunities they see in Maine and how they are managing to be successful. 

Examples:
 • Allison and Ben Edwards will tell their story of returning to Maine to begin Hemp Farming in Washington County, supplying CBD, tested products, to a global market. 
Jillian Taylor will explain her business as an accomplished “digital marketer” on behalf of important employers in Washington County, including Machias Savings Bank, and Whitney Wreath. 
Dana Morse and Jaclyn Robidoux at Univ. of Maine Extension will bring shellfish and seaweed farmers to tell their stories of new crops, originating in Maine and being purchased, throughout the world. 

We would love to have your suggestions of other rural Maine entrepreneurs at work. We are planning each presentation to have 2 Sessions of flexible length.

Submitted by Steve Rutter, Sunrise Senior College


Senior College at Belfast to offer major course on our Changing Climate
News Release October 30, 2020
Senior College at Belfast, in collaboration with the Camden Conference, will offer a course this winter entitled What is Happening to Northern Climates?  This year the topic of the Camden Conference is the Arctic and its focus will be on the geopolitical implications for a changing Arctic region.  The Senior College course will highlight the science forcing those changes and projections for the future.  The Camden Conference will take place February 20-21, 2021.  The College course will run for 6 one hour online sessions, beginning January 11th and ending February 15th, 2021.  The course will be an excellent tutorial about how and why our climate is changing. As such, it will be a very strong preparatory experience for those planning to attend the February Camden Conference on "The Geopolitics of the Arctic: A Region in Peril".

Severe wildfires, southern hurricanes, extreme weather, the warming Arctic, melting glaciers are all part of our daily news cycle.  It is impossible not to recognize that no matter where we live, our world is being impacted by a global transformation.  Senior College at Belfast is pleased to offer a course that will help us understand our changing climate. Perhaps more importantly, it will bring home how climate change in northern latitudes affects us locally AND what we can do!

Lectures and discussions will put in perspective - fire, drought, tropical storms, changes in weather patterns, melting permafrost, land ice vs sea ice and so forth. The course will explore effects of changing greenhouse gases, including vegetation change and, of course, sea level rise in terms that we will all understand. The role and attribution of humans in the process will be examined and explored.  Senior College at Belfast is proud to present this timely and relevant course.

  Nancy Perkins, president of Senior College, is also pleased to announce that the online course will be open and free to local Maine high schools.  The Environmental Science class at Belfast High School is already planning to attend.  According to Nancy, “Belfast Senior College will be celebrating its 20th year in 2021 and it is so right that we will be marking the occasion working with our local high school to foster intergenerational learning.”  Throughout the pandemic Senior College at Belfast is offering online year round courses through Zoom Conferencing.  These online courses have been tremendously well received.  The College normally offers four semesters per year plus a host of one day courses at the University of Maine’s Hutchinson Center in Belfast.  Taught by qualified and entertaining instructors, the title “college” is almost a misnomer.  There are no grades, no tests, no attendance requirements  During normal sessions there is however a fun social break with complementary cookies and beverages.  The courses are a place to meet new friends and catch up with old ones. The city of Belfast actually benefits from two major learning institutions - the Senior College and the University of Maine’s Hutchinson Center - a first class meeting and learning facility.

 The course will be taught by Dr. Susan Conard.  Susan has a PHD in Ecology from the University of California, Davis and worked with the US Forest Service for more than 25 years including time at the White House reviewing climate change reports.  She is now retired, but still serves as Co Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Wildland Fire.
The course will run for 6 weeks, one day a week for 1 to 1 ½ hours beginning January, 11th, 2021

Registration
Please Note: To Register there is a $20 course fee,  All course fees are waived for High School students and teachers. See the Senior College at Belfast website for additional information or call Nancy Perkins at 207 218-1369.


Submitted by Nancy Perkins, Senior College Belfast




Mythmakers: Remington and Homer
Portland Museum of Art
September 24 through November 29,2020
Book Review by Pat Davidson Reef

Catalogue:”Mythmakers: Homer and Remington”
Yale University Press
Pages 223, Price $45.

Traditionally scholars have felt that Frederic Remington’s works were decorative compared to Winslow Homer’s works, which were considered monumental. However, this exhibit examines Remington and Homer with new insights by comparing both artists’ works together in the same galleries. 
The exhibit reveals that Remington’s large works dealing with the wild West of America in the middle 1860s, early 1900s, and Homer’s large works of the sea are breathtaking. Both artists have strengths and weaknesses and painted during the same period.

Each artist has a unique style that commands attention on the canvas in the use of color, composition, and movement. It is in the traditional Winslow Homer works, that we see the use of power in the depiction of nature and the sea. However, Remington’s works, not the quality of Homer’s works, are very interesting in places historically and come up with many surprises. Remington’s large paintings record the history of the West and its violence between settlers and Native Americans, bringing out visually a form of genocide to Native Americans.

The Homer works, in real life in the PMA galleries, are better than some selections reproduced in the catalogue like “Weatherbeaten” and “Wild Geese in Flight,” (these came out too dark in the catalogue). However, the scholarship in the catalogue designed with photos in the back comparing both artists is outstanding. In fact, the catalogue is very important because it is a lasting record of the exhibit and provides a way for people to see the exhibit after it has gone. It is a traveling exhibit in conjunction with The Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Denver Art Museum, and the Portland Museum of Art. We are fortunate to have participated in this important scholarly study and contribution to the art world and can see it now in Maine through November 29,2020. It is a perfect exhibit for families and children and all those interested in the traditional art of the 19th century. . It celebrates the beauty of nature and the mystery of wildlife.
 
Large Winslow Homer paintings in the exhibit take your breath away like “Weatherbeaten” and “Watching the Breakers; A High Sea.” They vibrate with life. There are a few major Remington works that do vibrate with color, movement, and power. One Remington work titled “A Dash for the Timber” includes horses coming off the canvas directly towards the viewer with a unique use of perspective. Some large Remington works of horses and Native Americans are comparable in power to Winslow Homer’s large works of the sea. Some small works of Remington are flat and dull. However, all the Winslow Homer works, large and small, have a special quality of life and beauty.

Both artists were impressed by Theodore Roosevelt and interested in “man going back to nature.” Nature is the basic topic of most of the major works in this exhibit. There are some illustrations by both artists in Harper’s Weekly and some watercolors of subtle and pensive fishing scenes.  

Homer did a fascinating oil painting titled ”Snap the Whip,” depicting children playing a game in a meadow. He also did the same work in a sketch for Harper’s Weekly. They are hung together in the exhibit and are very interesting to see and compare. Both artists sketched subject matter dealing with the Civil War in Harper’s Weekly.

Homer’s large works depict the power of the sea. Remington’s large works depict the power and actual genocide of Native Americans historically. They show visually what we did to a minority culture in the early 1900s. Remington died in 1909 unexpectedly at 48 from an appendix attack. Homer died in 1910 at 74. Both artists had different styles but reflected a love and awe of nature and recorded it visually. Their works are timeless. Both artists' philosophies of life reflected their times and were narrow concerning minorities, but their works of nature remain universal and are their legacy. It is a wonderful exhibit with major works of each artist and appeals to all generations. 

Location: 7 Congress Square, Portland, Maine.

Submitted by Pat Davidson Reef, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute


The Art of Quilting with Sheryl Whitmore
A Food for Thought Presentation

Tuesday, November 10, 2:00 - 3:00 pm
Online with Lewiston-Auburn Senior College
The USM, LAC Senior College, is pleased to present fiber artist Sheryl Whitmore, on November 10 at 2 PM as part of our Food for Thought program, now exclusively on Zoom.

Sheryl describes quilts as “beautiful expressions of color and warmth”. Memories of quilts at her grandmother's home continue to bring her joy and inspiration. Her interest in landscape quilting as a new artistic outlet began with a class with Jo Digg; her first piece was a 4 inch quilt. Sheryl’s current designs are of “varying subjects, designs and sizes, and include flowers, birds, trees, mountains and boats.” She’s “excited by the use of color and harmony “which will be seen in the examples she will share with us during the Zoom presentation . Her quilts are constructed with the traditional batting and backing material used in full-size bed quilts.
I think we will all be inspired by her work and maybe reminded of the beauty that many of us discovered in our own grandmother’s homes!

To attend, email LAC Senior College by 12 noon on November 9. Please include your name and the name of the program for which you are registering. We will send you an email with the link on the morning of the event. Just click it and you are there!

Happiness, Health and Humor
A Food for Thought Presentation

Wednesday, November 18, at 1:00 PM.
Online with Lewiston-Auburn Senior College
You don't Have to be a Scientist to Know that Humor and Laughter Make You Feel Good. USM/LA Senior College is excited to offer another on-line Food For Thought - one that will help you to get laughing! We all need to find some fun and wisdom in this uncertain time. So get ready to enjoy this presentation on November 18, at 1:00 PM.

Everyone who knows Elcha Buckman knows that she can be funny, but since graduate school in 1975 she has taken her humor to a serious level. She holds a BS, MS, and PhD from Boston University and is Board Certified in child, adolescent, and family psychiatry. While her degrees are impressive, she admits these aren't required to be humorous and laugh. For over 50 years as a parent, friend, and therapist, Elcha has observed, listened, studied, researched, lectured, published, and practiced humor to help people find their happiness, gain the ability to laugh out loud and improve health. 

In addition to loving humor, Elcha’s hobbies are her friends, children,
grandchildren, mini-Schnauzer, needlework, music, swimming, and exploring.  

Her presentation about Health and Humor is free and open to the public.

To attend, email LAC Senior College by noon Nov. 17. 
Please include your name and the name of the program for which you are registering. We will send you an email with the link on the morning of the event. Just click it and you are there!

The Maine Senior College Network is a program of the