COVID-19 (Coronavirus) update 7/24/20

Dear Maine Media Family,

The past several months have presented enormous challenges and uncertainty, but have also introduced extraordinary creative opportunities and energized our community. We are grateful to have sustained connections with you and our community through online programs and Alumni Network events. We are together in this. 

The health and well being of this community – both locally and globally – remain at the forefront of our planning at Maine Media Workshops + College. With continuing uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, we have decided to continue the suspension of all on campus activities through the remainder of 2020. All on campus courses, workshops, programs and activities will be suspended or reformatted for presentation online through the end of the year.  

Throughout the crisis, Maine Media has developed and maintained a thriving presence online, and will continue organizing innovative initiatives using tools that inspire our name. Since March we have run close to 100 courses online. These include unique workshops that can only be organized by Maine Media, such as Exploring Alternative Processes with Brenton Hamilton, the Four Week Film School with Alex Burnett, Art & Craft of Fine Digital Printing with Jim Nickelson, 1 – Day Intro to Photo Objects with Dawn Suratt, and the Cinematography Masters Week with Steven Fierberg, ASC, Matthew Libatique, ASC, Igor Martinivoc, ASC, Jonathan Freeman, ASC, and Rachel Morrison, ASC. The Writer’s Harbor™ Poetry Week with Richard Blanco, Ellen Bass and Kevin Pilkington, presented through virtual gatherings like no other, was also an outstanding success.

Our long term certificate and degree programs have been continuing remotely. Our first ever virtual MFA Retreat was held in May and featured thesis presentations from Judy O’ Dell and Patricia Christakos. Our Certificate in Collaborative Filmmaking program launched online for the Spring trimester and those students have been actively participating in the online filmmaking courses throughout the summer. The Spring term of our Professional Certificate in Visual Storytelling was held online and we are now preparing to offer the Fall Trimester online beginning in September.

And our community is growing exponentially. We have hosted students from 14 countries across 4 continents. We organized our first classes in Spanish which sold out quickly. And, we’ve welcomed several hundred attendees to weekly presentations by artists, filmmakers, writers, poets and photographers through our newly minted Alumni Network – a program that will continue through the fall and winter months.

We are adding lots of new online programming to the fall schedule, all the way through the remainder of 2020. Courses are added nearly every day, so be sure to check back frequently for new offerings. If you have questions about which course or program is right for you, we are here and happy to help you choose.

For those of you who have registered previously for on campus programming, we will outreach each of you individually and explore options for you, as we continue to build the fall schedule.

Deciding to keep the campus closed has been a difficult process, but we believe it is the most responsible one to keep everyone safe. The experience of the past months inspires confidence that as a creative community we can stay connected and together face the challenges of our changing world. We’ll look forward to seeing you online.

Sincerely,

Michael Mansfield

President