When a national spotlight shines on Maine it’s an event, and an artist with local roots has helped that light gleam for arts and education in the form of a federal grant awarded in the state for the very first time.
Beth Van Mierlo, the daughter of Patty Condon of Mapleton and a 1988 graduate of Presque Isle High School, is the executive director of Side x Side, a nonprofit dedicated to integrating the arts with education to broaden students’ self-worth and achievement. She found out last month that Side x Side’s program Project IMAGINE was awarded a $1.9 million, four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Side x Side, co-founded by Van Mierlo and fellow artist and educator Annette Kraus, worked with the University of Southern Maine to create Project IMAGINE for grades K-5. The idea is to fuse art with core subjects like science, math and language arts, creating hands-on projects to enhance how students learn. The federal Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) grant was announced Oct. 22 and will enable arts education efforts at four Portland area schools.
“We are ecstatic to receive this support,” Van Mierlo said. “Funding is essential to supporting teaching and learning that is relevant and comprehensive for today’s schools. We look forward to bringing artists and teachers together to engage and excite students.”
The news drew congratulations from Maine’s legislators, including Sen. Angus King. “The world is changing around us, and it is important to think about how we can restructure our fundamental approach to education. …It is imperative that we equip our students with the skills necessary to compete in the 21st century, and Project IMAGINE recognizes that critical thinking, creativity and collaboration are at the top of the list,” he noted.
When Van Mierlo first heard the news, she was at home helping her daughter with homework and the phone rang. “On the other end was a representative from Congresswoman Chellie Pingree’s office. I was trying to focus on my daughter’s math questions and listen at the same time to Andrew, who was announcing that someone had won a large grant award,” she said. She at first thought he had the wrong number, then did a double-take when she realized he had said “Side x Side.”
“I yelled, ‘What?! Can you say that again? Who won the award? Are you sure? Can you say it one more time?’ I think at one point I even asked him to spell out the name of the grant recipient so that I could be sure it was our organization,” she recalled. Then she called her Side x Side co-founder and her husband to share the happy news.
Van Mierlo and Kraus had been crafting arts integration efforts for grades 2-5 at Reiche Community School in Portland, and garnered enough small grants to offer a very basic program. During a weekly meeting with Dr. Kelly Herenko, USM arts educator, they were discussing fundraising; Van Mierlo asked, “Can we just find one enormous grant and be done with the fundraising for a while?” The following week Herenko proposed writing the AEMDD grant.
“Over the next six weeks, Kelly, Annette and I put together an amazing grant team, wrote a strong proposal for Project IMAGINE, and the rest is history,” she noted.
“Side x Side grew out of the belief that a world-class education is critical, and the best education has creativity and collaboration at its heart,” she explained. “We believe there are multiple approaches for students to engage in education and demonstrate learning. Those avenues are more easily discovered and highlighted through the creative process. Side x Side exists to broaden student achievement and aspiration.”
Van Mierlo hopes the enthusiasm from the grant will gather steam and eventually reap statewide rewards. “We have been motivated and inspired by the excitement this opportunity has generated from all corners of Maine,” she said. “My aspirations for this program are that it grows to become part of a larger state plan to address the growing needs and inequity across Maine’s educational landscape.
“We come from a state that is steeped in the arts, that takes pride in our heritage and strong work ethic,” she added — qualities that lay a strong foundation to forge educational, professional and artistic partnerships to create engaging educational experiences for all students.
Now that the funding has been secured, Side x Side’s next steps will be, in the first year, to identify classroom teachers and partnerships with teaching artists, then devise arts-based programs to augment existing classwork at Reiche. They will also reinforce an internship program for USM students. Van Mierlo said years two to four will see Project IMAGINE rolled out to three other Portland schools.
Van Mierlo lives in Portland with her husband, Jos Van Mierlo, and children. Her maternal grandparents were Presque Isle natives, and her grandmother Alice Condon was a longtime Zippel Elementary School teacher. She reflected that her love of art first began during childhood.
“I grew up in a very creative household. My mother and grandmother were always knitting, sewing, baking, painting or building something. One of the earliest memories I have of “making art” was in my grandfather’s wood shop. I must have been around 4 or 5; he gave me his handsaw, scraps of wood, a hammer and some nails.” She wound up building a couch for her Barbie doll — one of her first projects.
“As far back as I can remember, I have loved the freedom of expression that art has provided me,” she commented, recalling a school project on seagulls for which she created a life-size papier-mâché model to demonstrate what she had learned. Thus the arts became for her a way to reinforce education. Later on at UM-Farmington, studying special education, she joined a painting class, which ultimately changed her career direction. She transferred to USM to major in fine arts.
“The sculpture department was where I found my sense of belonging, and where I began to truly understand the significance of the arts in one’s life,” Van Mierlo remarked. She received her bachelor of fine arts in 1994, and then went back to USM in 1999 to complete her arts education coursework.
Things seem to have come full circle; the craft which ignited the artist in her has sparked her desire to help others learn through art, a process which now has the backing of federal funds.
“Our ultimate goal is to expand this type of programming throughout the state of Maine,” she said. “We strive to be an organization that pulls community together to help solve today’s complicated educational issues, and Project IMAGINE will serve as a roadmap to get us there.”
