Governor Baldacci (left) with Charles Altschul and Joan Welsh
photo by Peter KoonsMaine’s John Baldacci signed bill LD 1506, An Act to Authorize Maine Media College  to Confer the Degree of Master of Fine Arts, into law on Monday at the State House in Augusta.

Established as Rockport College in 1996, the academic arm of Maine Media Workshops (then The Maine Photographic Workshops) was required by the Maine Department of Education to renew its degree-granting certification after the school’s name change to Maine Media College in 2008. The school transitioned to non-profit status in 2007, and subsequent fundraising efforts have helped to establish the organization’s financial stability for the past three years.

Maine Media College offers one-year Professional Certificate programs and a low-residency Master of Fine Arts Degree program in the fields of photography, filmmaking, and multimedia.

Maine Media College MFA candidates, faculty, applicants, and auditors gather on the school’s Rockport campus April 21 - 25 for the four-day spring MFA retreat.
photo by Allen Meier

Resident faculty are joined by MFA guest faculty: photographers Arno Minkkinen and Christopher James, and filmmaker Ziad Hamzeh for student portfolio and film critiques, one-on-one meetings, and applicant presentations.

Maine Media College’s low-residency MFA Program makes it possible for working professionals to pursue an advanced degree while working from home with an area mentor, and with guidance from a program advisor at the college. There are two retreats each year, in fall and spring. Applications are accepted on a rolling admissions basis.

This four-day session is open to potential students interested in learning more about the program. To register to audit the retreat (the $285 fee includes meals) and to reserve a room on campus, or for information about the MFA admissions process, email registrar@mainemedia.edu.

Deadlines are approaching for a variety of film festivals, including The Wallabout Film Festival, the Aesthetica International Short Film Competition and the Woodstock Film Festival.

First up is The Wallabout Film Festival in Brooklyn, New York on April 11, 2010, with a submission deadline of March 19. Students and young emerging filmmakers are encouraged to submit their latest film, including work in any genre, theme, or category; however nothing over fifteen minutes can be showcased in the festival. There is no fee to enter. Selected films will be screened and critiqued by students, artists, and industry professionals at the annual award ceremony in April.

Aesthetica Magazine, a UK-based arts and culture publication that engages with critical debate and contemporary artistic trends, has launched the Aesthetica International Short Film Competition. Organizers are keen to see filmmakers from the U.S. represented, and all genres of film are being accepted. Winners and runners-up receive a prize package including film screenings at The National Media Museum (Bradford), Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival (London), Glasgow Film Festival, Kerry Film Festival (Ireland), and Project Space Leeds. Films can be up to 25 minutes long. For detailed guidelines and entry, visit Aesthetica Magazine. The entry deadline is April 30.

The 11th annual Woodstock Film Festival is a uniquely intimate, casual and friendly event, where highly-respected industry "movers and shakers" mingle freely with emerging filmmakers, providing excellent networking opportunities in a fun and stimulating environment. Honoring quality, the Maverick Awards are presented for Best Feature, Best Documentary, Best Short Documentary, Best Short Film, Best Student Film, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Animation. Cash, prizes and/or services valued at $50,000 are given out. Audience Awards are presented for Best Feature and Best Documentary. Entries may be submitted through June 21.

Please share news about additional calls for entry via our Facebook Fan page.   

Maine Media Workshops has launched a new scholarship fund for Maine high school students attending MMW’s Young Artists Program. Partnering with Camden National Bank, MMW has committed $10,000 for Maine Youth Scholarships in 2010.

The Young Artists Program, which takes place in June, July, and August, provides opportunities for students ages 14-17 to study photography, filmmaking, multimedia, and acting. Teens from across the country travel to Maine every summer to study with world-class faculty and to work with peers from a wide range of backgrounds. The new scholarship fund will make it possible for more Maine teens to participate in the Young Artists Program.

The deadline for submissions is April 23, 2010 at 5pm.  Awards will be announced the week of May 16, 2010. If not all funds are distributed at that time, additional applications will be accepted. For complete application information, visit www.mainemedia.edu/scholarships.

Infrared photography is the focus of a group exhibition at the new Maine Media Gallery in July. Four Visions in Different Light: Susan Bloom, Jill Enfield, Elizabeth Opalenik, and Theresa Airey is now on view through July 25, with a closing reception on Tuesday, July 20 from 6:30-8pm.

These four talented photographers have united to put together a show that strives to demonstrate how many different perspectives and interpretations there can be for one medium. Infrared photography allows artists to create images that make infrared light-waves discernible, even though they are beyond the visible spectrum.

By using infrared film or adapted digital cameras, these photographers allow us to see what was once invisible. Theresa Airey says, "I like to show the world as we know it in a 'different light', one that is more symbolic of the mood or the feeling in the landscape, rather than the realism of the scene.”

Each of the four artists provides a unique insight into the many facets of infrared, and has decades of experience working with infrared photography.  The work they present in the exhibition includes figure studies, landscapes, and photographic collages. Three of the women – Susan Bloom, Jill Enfield, and Elizbeth Opalenik – are instructors at Maine Media Workshops.

Maine Media Gallery is on the first floor of the Shepherd Building, 18 Central Street, Rockport Village. The gallery’s 2010 exhibition season is generously sponsored by Bangor Savings Bank. 

Francie Bishop Good, photographer and Master of Fine Arts student at MMC, received the maximum award of $15,000 from the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship program. After submission to the competition, the collective body of work Francie submitted was judged by a national jury of artists, curators and educators, then by a regional jury, and then by artists in Palm Beach County. As described by the consortium, the only criterion for choosing the winners is “simply” artistic excellence. 

Francie’s work is anything but simple.  A graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art and the International Center of Photography, Francie earned the Lifetime Achievement Award from Arts for the Future, the Silver Medallion Award from the National Conference for Community and Justice, and the Crystal Vision Award from the Hollywood Art and Culture Center. 

Francie explains, “The thread that holds my work together is the unorthodox compositions and the interest in people together, but yet apart. People lost in their own world, their thoughts. My particular interest concentrates on relationships, both culturally and interpersonally.”

David Castillo of the David Castillo Gallery in Miami describes Francie's work as that which "employs the compositional structure of painting through photography to examine the psychological and cultural realms of the human condition." Francie's first solo exhibitiion with the David Castillo Gallery opens in February, 2011.

Maine Media College proudly extends their congratulations to this MFA candidate!

This week at Photoshop World in Las Vegas, Bessmarie "Beamie" Young was named winner for the coveted Vincent Versace Award for Excellence in Digital Photography.

Nicknamed “The Vinny,” this competition is open to all attendees of the conference and the prize is awarded during the opening keynote presentation.

The winner receives an extensive list of sought-after industry goodies from Epson, Dynalite, Xrite, Hoodman, Wacom, Lowepro, and Adobe, and includes a one-week tuition scholarship to Maine Media Workshops. "I'm thrilled that this prize includes a Maine Media Workshop experience for the winner," says Versace " Maine is all about intensive imaging education and moving forward as an artist."

MMW looks forward to welcoming Beamie, a Maine native, to Rockport in 2011. Vincent is back on campus October 17 - 23 teaching his workshop Return to Oz - The Environmental Landscape. 

Jumpstart 2011 with a winter or spring workshop in Maine! Come to where industry leaders share their photography and filmmaking secrets amid picturesque harbors, majestic mountains, and timeless coastal villages! 

The complete Maine Media Workshops 2011 Winter & Spring course schedule is now available online. (Note: When you click on this hyperlink, choose Photography or Filmmaking and then scroll past the 2010 list to view the 2011 winter/spring workshops.)

Take advantage of discounted accommodations and meals packages during winter and spring. With classes at every experience level, from screenwriting to digital photography to bookbinding, Maine Media has a workshop for you!

Join master fine art photographer, Sue Ruddick Bloom, Thursday, October 28 from 11:00 am – 12:30pm at the B&H Event Space for a presentation co-sponsored by Maine Media and Focal Press. Sue will share tips and inspire participants with her experience and expertise in digital painting using Photoshop.

MMW has enjoyed a long relationship with Sue. As a sought-after instructor, she teaches classes from the foundation level of Photoshop on into alternative-printing methods using layered images to create imaginative collages. In July she was in Rockport for the Maine Media Gallery opening of an exhibition titled, “Four Visions in Different Light: Sue Bloom, Jill Enfield, Elizabeth Opalenik, and Theresa Airey,” which celebrates the 100^th anniversary of infrared photography.

Bloom holds an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and is Professor and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. Sue leads photo tours and workshops throughout the world. Translated into both Russian and Chinese, the second edition of her first book, Digital Collage and Painting, will be released in October. A book signing of copies hot of the press will follow Sue's talk.

Register for this Maine Media sponsored event by going to the B&H Events Space website.