Press Releases

A University of Maine at Presque Isle program that serves local residents over 50 and believes in “learning for life” will host its spring kick-off with a luncheon event at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 8 in the Campus Center.

Seniors Achieving Greater Education [SAGE] has worked for more than a decade to bring short courses in arts, sciences, and specialty areas to the region’s senior community. SAGE is one of 17 senior colleges in the Maine Senior College Network.

When Rex Fowler visits Aroostook County in early March to take the stage at the Caribou Performing Arts Center, he’ll be returning to the region where he first became serious about singing and songwriting. The former student at Aroostook State College (one of the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s former names) is now a nationally touring, critically acclaimed musician. Fowler is part of the award-winning band Aztec Two-Step, and he recently embarked on another project with Tom Dean of the band Devonsquare – a 7-piece ensemble called the Nu-Utopians. The group performs the songs of John Lennon as a tribute concert and their CD Imagined was just nominated for the 2010 Independent Music Awards Tribute Album of the Year. Fowler will return to northern Maine for the Nu-Utopians’ John Lennon tribute concert at CPAC on Friday, March 4 at 7 p.m. Leading up to the concert, though, Fowler shared lots of memories about his college days and how they helped to shape the artist he would become. “It was an amazing place for me to be,” Fowler remembered of his time at Aroostook State College, “a small campus environment where I was encouraged to develop my identity as an artist, a musician.”

Whether it’s high heels or Mary Jane’s, men and women alike are invited to slip on some female footwear and take part in a Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event to be held at the University of Maine at Presque Isle at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 9. The event, part of the international men’s march to stop rape, sexual assault, and gender violence, will begin at the Campus Center.

Established in 2001, Walk a Mile in Her Shoes has become a world-wide movement with tens of thousands of men raising millions of dollars for local rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters and other sexualized violence education, prevention and remediation programs. During the event at UMPI, walkers will begin at the Campus Center and walk a designated path equivalent to one mile, in women’s shoes. Upon return, survivors and volunteers will share their story of rape, domestic violence, and hope.

Quick: what do the NASA New Horizons spacecraft mission and Aroostook County people who are in treatment for cancer have in common? Answer: passionate advocates for both science education and exploration and compassionate philanthropists who serve the needs of those in treatment for cancer. These two seemingly separate interest groups merge each February to celebrate the discovery of Pluto by hosting PLANET HEAD DAY.

Held at the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Gentile Hall, the fifth annual Planet Head Day raised over $15,000 for C-A-N-C-E-R, Caring Areas Neighbors for Cancer Education and Recovery. The event, designed to improve awareness of space exploration and cancer, paints people’s heads as planets, dwarf planets and moons. The painting occurs after the heads are either shaved or covered with an elastic swim cap.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Fine Art Gallery will feature the works of several Aroostook County artists as part of JUST LINE, a juried exhibition connected with a statewide drawing initiative. The JUST LINE exhibition will be on display from Feb. 27 to April 2. JUST LINE is one of many exhibitions that will take place throughout Maine in 2011 as part of Maine’s statewide initiative Where to Draw the Line: The Maine Drawing Project. The Maine Drawing Project was developed through the unique collaboration of Maine arts organizations called the Maine Curators Group. Twenty venues will offer exhibitions that celebrate the medium of drawing throughout the 2011 calendar year and range from drawing directly on gallery walls, to computer algorithms, to sketches of the northern Maine winters. This is the first time a statewide initiative concerned solely with drawing in its many forms and mediums has been undertaken.

University of Maine at Presque Isle Art professor Renee Felini recently took part in a slideshow event that has taken the world by storm. Felini served as one of 10 presenters at the city of Waterville’s first PechaKucha Night held last fall at the Hathaway Creative Center. More than 200 people turned out for the event. PechaKucha, Japanese for chit-chat, was created in 2003 by Tokyo architects Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein. Presenters are allotted 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide, meaning that once 6 minutes and 40 seconds are up, so is their talk. People have embraced this “short slideshow” concept and PechaKucha nights have been held in cities around the world, from Beijing and Paris to San Francisco and Boston.