Monson Arts’ Blog

HIGH SCHOOL BLOG POST #5: WELCOME BACK!
Welcome back students! It was good to have the Monson Arts High School students back in action after winter break on January 9th. To re-engage our creatives we hosted noted outdoor writer, guide, journalist, and tv presenter Aislinn Sarnaki. Both student visual...

RESIDENT SHOWCASE: ASH DAVIDSON
Ash Davidson is the author of the novel Damnation Spring. Her work has been supported by Monson Arts, MacDowell, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. What was the best part for you about being at Monson Arts? Being gifted the...

RESIDENT SHOWCASE: NEENA PATHAK
Neena Pathak is a writer, producer, and editor whose work has appeared in podcasts like Invisibilia (NPR), This American Life, Another Round (BuzzFeed), The Daily and Still Processing (The New York Times). Her work has been honored by the Pulitzer Prize Board,...

High School Blog Post #4: Making Books!
The last session before Christmas break saw both the Visual Arts and Writers come together to create hand-made books led by guest teacher Rebecca Goodale. Mixing it up, students took pre-made patterned paper as covers and layered in pages with both string and glue,...

RESIDENT SHOWCASE: DAMILOLA ONWAH
Damilola Onwah is a Nigerian writer and culture critic whose work explores identity and belonging, unconventional family structures, the struggles and triumphs of the underdog, and how faith is gained and lost. She moved from Nigeria to the United States in 2014, and...

HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAM BLOG POST #3: Delving Deeper
The latest rounds of the Monson Arts High School Program saw students take the first steps in editing creative pieces through peer feedback and layered exercises, taking these focused moments and going back to the canvas and page to build more complicated works. In...

Resident Showcase: Loretta Violante
Loretta Violante is an interdisciplinary artist living in New York City and recently earned an MFA from The City College of New York. Loretta did a Monson Arts Residency in October 2023. 1) What was the best part for you about being at Monson Arts? It's so difficult...

HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAM BLOG POST #2: Generating Work
Over the last few weeks students in the Monson Arts High school Program have been settling into the sessions led by Alan Bray and Dawn Potter. And they’ve been busy, generating drawings and lines of words, listening to instruction but also jumping into the creative...

Resident Showcase: Amber Zora
Amber Zora, is an interdisciplinary artist based in Rapid City, SD and did a Monson Arts Residency in October 2023. 1) What was the best part for you about being at Monson Arts? I don’t know how to name one thing. The support from the Monson Arts crew and the support...

High School Program Blog Post #1: Creative Space To Learn And Grow
The Monson Arts High School Program is underway for the 2023/24 school year! This year we have 7 participating schools , including Greenville, Piscataquis Community, Foxcroft Academy, Penquis Valley, Nokomis, Dexter, and, our newest addition, Corinth Central High. ...