Amanda Skinner still remembers the knitted animal pelts.

As an undergraduate art history student at the University of Maine, Skinner helped install an exhibition at the Zillman Art Museum (ZAM) featuring the work of artist Ruth Marshall, who used yarn to create lifelike representations of animal skins, including those of endangered species.

The artwork was striking. So was the artist’s background. Marshall had worked designing animal habitats for zoos, combining an understanding of science with an artist’s eye for detail.

For Skinner, the experience offered an early glimpse of the unexpected ways art, science and education can intersect — and the role museums play in bringing those connections to the public.

“It was a formative experience,” Skinner recalled.

More than a decade later, Skinner is assistant director for museum communications at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, where she helps connect audiences with art through exhibitions, publications and public outreach.

Her career began, in part, behind the scenes at ZAM.

Skinner is among a group of 91���� graduates who have built careers in museums after participating in ZAM’s curatorial internship program. Established about 15 years ago, the paid internship gives students hands-on experience with the work that happens long before visitors walk through an exhibition.

The program reflects 91����’s learner-centered approach to education, bringing students alongside experienced professionals to apply classroom knowledge in a working museum.

George Kinghorn, the museum’s executive director and curator, established the program in collaboration with 91����’s Department of Art. Each year, one student is selected to work alongside museum staff, gaining access to a permanent collection of more than 6,000 works of art. Interns learn to develop exhibition concepts, research and select artwork, write interpretive materials and help with art installations.

Originally a semesterlong experience, the internship expanded to a full academic year in 2019, allowing students to participate more fully in the curatorial process.

Kinghorn said one measure of the program’s success is seeing former interns pursue graduate studies and enter the museum profession.

For Skinner and fellow graduates Caroline Strolic and Delaney Burns-Fumagalli, those careers have taken distinctly different directions, from managing collections at one of the Southwest’s major art museums to helping oversee communications and operations at museums in Maine.

Their experiences illustrate the range of careers available in museums, and how an internship focused on curatorial work can help students translate different academic interests into professional opportunities.

Finding a place behind the scenes

Strolic, now an assistant registrar at the Phoenix Art Museum, was drawn to museums long before she understood the jobs available inside them.

Growing up in Arizona, she visited the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where she became fascinated not only by the objects on display but by the decisions that brought them before the public.

“There’s people out there who decide what I get to see and how I learn it,” she recalled thinking.

She wanted to become one of them.

Strolic enrolled at 91����, where she competed on the swimming team and studied art history. Her ZAM internship unfolded during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the museum operating under restrictions, she researched artwork, wrote interpretive materials and developed a proposal for an exhibition.

She also gained experience at 91����’s Hudson Museum.

Those opportunities helped her discover the range of work involved in running a museum and where her interests fit.

“It really helped me figure out which path I wanted to go in,” said Strolic, who graduated in 2021.

She went on to earn a master’s degree in the history of art and architecture and a certificate in museum studies from Boston University.

At Taliesin West, architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s former winter home in Arizona, she helped inventory a collection that had accumulated over decades.

Now, at the Phoenix Art Museum, she coordinates loans, shipping and other logistical aspects of exhibitions, helping ensure that artwork is properly documented, transported and cared for.

Much of the work happens out of public view. But for Strolic, its value becomes clear when visitors encounter something that sparks their curiosity.

She finds particular satisfaction in hearing people discuss the artwork and ask questions about what they are seeing.

“The arts do matter,” she said.

Art beyond the gallery walls

For Delaney Burns-Fumagalli, the ZAM internship was an opportunity worth pursuing more than once.

“I think I applied for it two or three years in a row,” she said. “I was like, I need to do this. This sounds amazing.”

A native of Gorham, Maine, Burns-Fumagalli was studying marketing and studio art at 91����. She had developed a passion for printmaking, but she also wanted to understand how museums operated and cared for the art entrusted to them.

Selected for the internship during her final year, she worked closely with ZAM’s registrar, documenting works on paper in the museum’s collection.

The assignment introduced her to the meticulous work of cataloging, organizing and preserving artwork. It also exposed her to artists and techniques that influenced her own creative practice.

“It was really exciting to see what a collection looks like, how it’s managed, how it’s cared for,” she said.

Burns-Fumagalli graduated in 2022 and earned a master of fine arts in print media and photography from Boston University, concentrating on printmaking.

Today, she is assistant to the executive director at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, where her work encompasses board relations, marketing, advertising, graphic design and other administrative responsibilities.

She has also designed the museum’s annual publication, bringing together her interests in art, design and communication.

The job has shown her how many different skills are needed to sustain an arts institution, something she first began to appreciate while working with ZAM’s collection.

Burns-Fumagalli has continued making art and teaching, including two semesters of introductory printmaking at 91���� and teaching at Maine College of Art & Design.

A career comes full circle

For Skinner, the path to the museum profession began with a career she quickly realized she did not want.

The daughter of two medical professionals, she initially enrolled at Saint Anselm College with plans to study nursing. But on the first day of a nursing-related biology class, she knew she had made the wrong choice.

“I was like, this is not me,” she recalled.

She transferred to 91���� to study art history and graduated in 2013 with minors in business administration, digital arts and anthropology.

At ZAM, she helped write interpretive labels explaining artwork to visitors, an experience that proved particularly valuable preparation for her career in communications.

After earning graduate degrees in museum studies and art history from Tufts University, Skinner joined the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, starting as an art handler before moving into administration and communications.

Today, her responsibilities include exhibition promotion, graphic design, media relations, website management and social media. She also teaches art history at Maine College of Art & Design.

Her work draws on a lesson she first learned at ZAM: Museums have an educational responsibility that extends beyond displaying objects.

“Not just spaces for enjoyment, but also spaces for learning and for education,” she said.

Now, working at another college museum, Skinner helps provide undergraduates with the kind of experience that shaped her own career.

The next generation

At ZAM, that opportunity has passed to Liz Cambron.

A fifth-year 91���� studio art major who specializes in oil painting, Cambron began her yearlong internship in August. She was immediately drawn into the work of dismantling an exhibition, learning how to handle, pack, move and store artwork.

She then helped install an exhibition celebrating the museum’s 80th anniversary, gaining experience with the decisions and physical work involved in transforming a gallery.

Cambron, who initially enrolled at 91���� to study biomedical engineering, had not always envisioned a future in the arts. Even after switching to studio art, she knew relatively little about the professional work involved in running a museum.

The internship has begun to change that.

She has learned how collections are cared for, how exhibitions come together and how museum staff work with contemporary artists. The experience has also given her a clearer sense of what she wants to do after graduating in May.

Kinghorn said that exposure to the profession was precisely what he hoped to provide when he, along with professor of art history Justin Wolff,  established the internship. As a college student, he had known little about the range of careers available in museums.

For Cambron, a museum career remains a possibility rather than a destination. But the work she is doing now — handling artwork, preparing exhibitions and learning from museum professionals — resembles the experiences that helped Skinner, Strolic and Burns-Fumagalli find their places in the field.

Cambron hopes to remain in Maine after graduation. The internship has also helped her see that a museum career is within reach, even without a museum studies degree.

Learning that, she said, made it feel much more accessible.

“I want to stay in the museum field,” she said. “I’m really enjoying it.”

Contact: David Nordman, david.nordman@maine.edu

The latest exhibits include:

• “Another Day, Another Way,” which features over 25 large and small-scale paintings by Philadelphia-based artist Tim McFarlane.
• An array of 1960s oil paintings, drawings and watercolors from American Abstract Expressionist painter John Schueler.
• The newly gifted King Family Collection of Japanese Prints, featuring twenty-one Japanese color woodblock prints that date from the mid-1700s to the 1950s.
• “Collection by the Decades,” a selection of 21 works from the museum’s collection acquired at each ten year interval from its inception in 1946 to the present. 
• “Pushing the Boundaries,” featuring 28 photographs from the collection. 

Visit the for more information about each exhibit and how long they will be on display. The museum always offers free admission courtesy of Birchbrook and is open from 10-5, Tuesday through Saturday.

That work eventually connected him with University of Maine professor of higher education Elizabeth Allan, whose research has helped shape the national conversation about hazing and its prevention.

Catullo’s latest film, “,” was inspired in part by Allan’s research. 91���� will host two screenings of the film at 6 p.m. Sept. 22 and 23 at the Donald P. Corbett Business Building.

The screenings will be held during National Hazing Awareness Week, Sept. 21-25.

“Dr. Allan and the University of Maine have set the standard for research into hazing and hazing culture,” Catullo said. “Her work has become an essential resource for so many of us working in this space, myself included.”

The feature-length documentary tells the stories of three families who lost sons to hazing as they turned their personal tragedies into a push for reform that ultimately led Congress to pass the 2024 Stop Campus Hazing Act. The bipartisan act requires colleges and universities to implement comprehensive hazing prevention programs and to increase transparency by publicly reporting hazing incidents in annual campus security reports, known as Clery Reports.

The film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival over the summer and has since been shown at other festivals.

Allan, who directs 91����’s Hazing Prevention Research Lab and is principal and founder of the research group, was consulted by members of Congress and their staff while the Stop Campus Hazing Act was being written.

She co-authored the landmark 2008 study still the most comprehensive examination of hazing in higher education. She’s currently working with a team of researchers at 91���� and across the country on an updated national study.

Catullo said having the support of an expert like Allan helps validate a project like “4000 Days.”

“We hope that this partnership between our film and Dr. Allan’s groundbreaking work will help bring the issue to a much larger stage, raise awareness of how widespread and serious the problem of hazing is, and ultimately help drive meaningful change,” he said.

Allan has seen “4000 Days” a few times, including when it premiered at Tribeca, and says it adds to the national conversation about hazing prevention.

“Research can help us understand the scope, causes and the strategies that can be effective in the prevention of hazing, but stories help us understand the issue in human terms,” Allan said. “‘4000 Days’ is about the lived experiences of families whose lives have been changed forever by hazing. It has the power to deepen public understanding, strengthen the movement for prevention, and inspire the kind of collective action needed to prevent more senseless deaths.”

Catullo attended West Virginia University, where he was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He later became a donor to the university and was inducted into WVU’s Greek Alumni Hall of Fame.

In 2014, WVU freshman Nolan Burch died from hazing as a fraternity pledge. Burch’s death led Catullo to begin directing documentaries and educational films about the harm caused by hazing. In 2019, he released his first hazing documentary, a 35-minute film about Burch’s death called

“Nolan’s death affected me deeply. It happened at my alma mater, and it was so senseless,” Catullo said. “My own fraternity experience in college had been such a positive and meaningful part of my life, so I struggled to comprehend how something that had meant so much to me could become so dangerous — and even deadly — for others. I couldn’t just stand by. I knew I had to do something.”

Joining Allan at the 91���� screenings will be Julie and Gary DeVercelly, who served as producers of the film and whose son, Gary Jr., died in a fraternity hazing incident at Rider University in New Jersey in 2007. The DeVercellys are longtime supporters of Allan’s work.

“After Gary Jr. was killed, the first National Study of Student Hazing, released in 2008, helped us understand that his death was part of a much larger national problem,” said Julie DeVercelly.

In 2014, they invited Allan to share her expertise in a short documentary — — produced in partnership with the, a national nonprofit dedicated to creating safer college campuses.

Julie DeVercelly serves on the Clery Center board of directors and says “We Don’t Haze” became an important part of their family’s journey from loss to education, advocacy and prevention.

“Research gave our loss a voice — and gave us a path forward,” she said. “Nearly 20 years later, a new national study is long overdue. The landscape has changed dramatically, and we need current data to understand hazing today so we can better protect students tomorrow.”

“The 2008 study helped inform We Don’t Haze, and our partnership with Dr. Allan and the Clery Center helped us take that message beyond education and onto Capitol Hill,” added Gary DeVercelly. “Together, we walked the halls of Congress, met with lawmakers, and advocated for the federal legislation that ultimately became the Stop Campus Hazing Act.”

Gary DeVercelly reiterates that there’s still much work to do to end hazing and that the federal legislation and the new national study of college student hazing provide an opportunity to build on the work that came before.

“Data drives everything. After nearly 20 years, we need to know what has changed, what hasn’t, and what we must do differently. This new study can help turn knowledge into meaningful prevention,” he said.

Audiences at both 91���� screenings will have opportunities to ask questions of Allan and the DeVercellys, who will be in person, and Catullo, who plans to join the Q&A’s virtually.

Contact: Casey Kelly, casey.kelly@maine.edu.

“Kindred Occult,” on display through Nov. 4, features work in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, ceramics and metal. The exhibition explores how animals, plants and everyday scenes have, through centuries of superstition and cultural traditions, become associated with ideas of evil and malevolence.

Ross describes the collection as an exploration of those enduring associations and of humanity’s changing relationship with the natural world.

An opening reception will be held from 4-7 p.m. on Sept. 10. The Powers Hall Gallery is open 1-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Originally from Charleston, South Carolina, Ross is a self-taught artist who lives in East Machias with her husband and fellow artist Dave Ross. Her work spans ceramic, metal, painting and fiber and frequently draws inspiration from nature. She is president of Eastport Gallery and has worked with arts, local government and community organizations across the country to teach and support the arts.

“A Sense of Wonder: The Maine Landscapes of Vincent Hartgen, Michael Lewis, and James Linehan,” which will be on display through Oct. 23, will showcase paintings that span the entire careers of the three titular artists. It will include prominent and lesser-known pieces. 

During the exhibit, a gallery talk featuring art critic, poet and writer Carl Little and Linehan, professor emeritus of art, will be held 2-3 p.m. on Oct. 2 during Senior Alumni Weekend. A closing reception will be held at 5-7 p.m. on Oct. 23 during Homecoming. 

The exhibit was co-curated by Diana Baumbach, associate professor of art and director of galleries at 91����, and Linehan. A publication including essays and reproductions will be available in the gallery.

It should be a gathering place where students, families and community members can come together to laugh, reflect, learn and connect.

That philosophy will guide Monagan as she steps into her new role as executive director of the Collins Center for the Arts at the University of Maine on July 21.

Monagan brings more than two decades of experience in arts leadership, higher education and community engagement to the Collins Center. She currently serves as executive director of the Smith Center for the Arts in Geneva, New York, where she has expanded programming, increased fundraising and built partnerships with schools, civic organizations and local businesses since 2017.

“The Collins Center is so deeply woven into the region, and that really appeals to me,” Monagan said. “The arts have a very broad role to play in mirroring to a community what it’s thinking about, what it’s arguing about, what brings it joy and how it learns.”

Located on the 91���� campus, the Collins Center serves audiences across eastern and northern Maine through performances, lectures, educational programming and community events. More than 100,000 people visit the venue annually for Broadway tours, concerts, lectures, student performances, film screenings and public gatherings.

“Susie brings a tremendous combination of artistic vision, community engagement and leadership experience to the Collins Center,” said George Kinghorn, senior executive director of cultural engagement and arts at 91����. “She understands how a performing arts center can serve both a university and the broader community, and she has a clear passion for building connections through the arts.”

At the Smith Center for the Arts, Monagan has overseen expanded programming, increased fundraising and strengthened partnerships with community organizations and regional leaders. Before joining the Smith Center, she spent 12 years at Ithaca College, where she taught arts management courses and worked with students in the Department of Theatre Arts.

Monagan holds a master’s degree in communications from Ithaca College and a master of professional studies degree in community and rural development from Cornell University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Dartmouth College.

Monagan said returning to a university setting was one of the biggest draws of the 91���� position.

“There are so many opportunities to connect what’s happening on stage with what students are learning in classrooms across the university,” she said. “Whether a student is studying engineering, public health, business or the arts, there are ways to engage creativity, critical thinking and community through live performance and shared experiences.”

Monagan also hopes to strengthen the Collins Center’s connections with schools, families and local organizations throughout the region.

Monagan pointed to youth and family programming as a priority, citing the success of school day performances in her current role that bring students from rural districts into the theater for live arts experiences.

“You need people coming through the doors who will become future audience members, future donors and future community advocates,” she said. “Part of that is making the arts accessible and welcoming for everyone and finding out what barriers might be preventing people from participating.”

Monagan said she also hopes to expand opportunities for 91���� students to engage with the Collins Center beyond traditional performances, including more informal community events and collaborations across campus.

“Not every student is going to connect with every performance, and that’s OK,” she said. “But the goal is to create opportunities for as many students as possible to feel like the Collins Center is a place for them.”

Monagan said she plans to spend much of her first year listening and building relationships across both the university and the broader community.

“I’m all ears,” she said. “I want to hear what the Collins Center means to people, what they hope it can become and where opportunities for collaboration exist.”

Monagan said she was especially struck by the Collins Center’s open gathering spaces and the symbolic flame at the center of the building.

“It sends the message that this is your space,” she said. “People gather there for performances, lectures, orientations and community events, and each experience creates a different kind of community. I love that idea.”

Contact: David Nordman, david.nordman@maine.edu

Tim’s unlikely journey from rural Readfield, Maine, to 91���� to Los Angeles provides a backdrop for his latest gig: speaker for the 2026 undergraduate commencement ceremonies at his alma mater.

In this episode of “The Maine Question” podcast, host Ron Lisnet and Allen Adams, communications specialist and marketing coordinator for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, speak with Tim about his journey, the business of show business, memories of his days in Orono and much more.

Listen to the podcast on , , , , or “The Maine Question” website. 

What topics would you like to learn more about? What questions do you have for 91���� experts? Email them to mainequestion@maine.edu.

These questions serve as the inspiration behind the latest book from Caroline Bicks, professor of English at the University of Maine, which delves into the creative methodology of 91����’s most famous literary alumnus, Stephen King, by leveraging unprecedented access to his archives.

“Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King” is an exploration of King’s process through an examination of five of his earliest works: “Carrie,” “Salem’s Lot,” “The Shining,” “Pet Sematary” and “Night Shift.” The public launch party for “Monsters in the Archives” will take place at 6:30 p.m. today  at Orono Brewing Company and will feature a conversation between Bicks and Justin Soderberg.

Through close readings of early drafts and comparisons to the final products, Bicks shows us how editorial choices and changes, whether large or small, can impact the flashlight-illuminated pages under the bedcovers that we ultimately experience.

But the book is also a story about Bicks’s own relationship with King’s work, from her discovery of the author’s work at a local library as a teenager through her 2017 appointment as the inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at 91���� and the writing of this book. The result is a blend of the personal and professional that is simultaneously scholarly and eminently readable.

Four years into her time at 91����, she received an unexpected phone call from King.

“I was pretty flabbergasted; it turned out he just thought it was time we meet,” said Bicks. “I invited him to come talk to the students on campus about ‘Lisey’s Story’ and ‘On Writing,’ and he said yes, and it was just this magical first meeting I had with him. Seeing how passionate he was about talking to the students, how much he wanted to come back, and how much pleasure he took from it. It was really just a lovely way to meet him.”

Bicks was a longtime fan of King’s work, having read it since discovering and falling in love with it in the Castine Public Library when she was 12 years old (coming to the author’s work perhaps a touch early, as so many of us do). And while the old adage might say “never meet your heroes,” Bicks had the opposite experience. In fact, his generosity and kindness were a big reason why, when her year-long sabbatical approached, she reached out about this project.

“I felt comfortable enough to ask him and Tabitha,” she said. “I knew that they had just collected his manuscripts, a lot of them for the first time, and put them in a climate-controlled space attached to their home in Bangor, but that they hadn’t opened it up yet to people. I thought, ‘Well, this is opportunity knocking.’ An amazing opportunity if they say yes.”

It’s worth noting that Bicks wasn’t certain what this book was going to be when she made the ask. In essence, she had an idea to write about the books that scared her the most as a teenager and to try and understand how he crafted them.

“How did he craft these moments that are so iconic, that have stuck in the heads of so many people?,” Bicks said. “Fifty years after the fact, I can still talk to people my age who vividly remember Danny Glick at the window in ‘Salem’s Lot.’ And not just because of the movie. They actually remember the phrases that he wrote.

The question surrounding how he wrote these memorable moments was the seed that would eventually grow into “Monsters in the Archives.” Bicks narrowed her focus to the five aforementioned King works, the ones that hit her hardest and scared her the most when she first read them as a teenager.

“As a scholar, you’re taught not to bring your personal feelings into your work,” she said. “And I see the value in that to a point. But at the same time, I study gender and Shakespeare because I care about issues of gender. I really felt liberated to go in and say, ‘I’m just going to look at these because they’re the ones that scared me the most.’ I’m going to go revisit these stories. I’m going to reread them. I’m going to look at them with the eyes of a literature scholar.

“I’m bringing that view that I have that I didn’t have when I was a teenager,” she continued. “But I’m not going to lose my childhood reactions to it. I don’t want to lose what makes these such compelling stories, which is that they connect to our deepest fears. And everyone reacts differently. Everyone has a different story that scared them the most. At the same time, certain ones have staying power because they connect to issues we all face and fears we all have.

When Bicks finally ventured into the archives, the materials, particularly those that had yet to be examined, were “beyond my wildest dreams,” she said. 

What followed was months of research, with Bicks making the trip to visit the archives for at least a couple of eight-hour days per week, focusing on one of the five works at a time. 

Among the many joys Bicks derived from the process was the discovery of just how many different versions of these stories existed. Just as one example, there were three complete versions of “Pet Sematary,” all of which she worked her way through. Bicks — a self-professed slow reader — took something like three weeks to work her way through those three versions of “Pet Sematary.” After that? Right back into it.

“My days were filled with close reading, just going through these different versions,” she said. “First off, I just have to read and take notes and see what’s what. You can’t take photographs, so a lot of notes.”

One such change in “Pet Sematary” really captured Bicks’s imagination, as a slight alteration turned a good line into an iconic one, among the most memorable in the book.

“‘Dead is better,’ which is almost the hallmark of that book,” said Bicks. “It started as ‘Death is better.’ ‘Death is better’ is so different from ‘Dead is better.’  It still gives me chills. It is so much better and it’s one little change, right?

“And you can see why it became ‘Dead is better.’ It echoes, right? I was so pleased to find out that he still considers that the line that is the one that sticks with him the most from that novel,” she said.

Not every deep dive played out in the same way, however. For some, like “Night Shift,” the process involved following the collection’s various short stories through their publication histories. King was a working writer, selling stories to whatever outlets would take them, including a number of men’s magazines, which were once quite prolific publishers of short fiction. For others, like “Carrie,” Bicks would see a first draft that was significantly different from the book as it would ultimately be published.

But while some aspects of the editorial process varied somewhat from book to book, Bicks would discover that the writing process itself stayed largely the same. That included some surprising discoveries about the physical act of writing and the logistical and financial realities of such, including learning that King made a conscious effort to use as much of each sheet of paper as possible.

“He’s fitting it in as few pieces of paper as he can, because he had to,” she said. “I don’t think people today fully understand that. Paper costs money; he had to consider the materials needed in the creation of a book. The act itself had financial issues tied to it. You couldn’t just store it on a computer or in the cloud.”

That physical necessity also meant that there would occasionally be issues. Pages could get misplaced or ruined. There are a couple of incidents recounted in the book that feel genuinely harrowing, particularly to a fan of King’s work, tales of one book’s ending or another entire draft lost due to circumstance. The analog nature of it all is easy to forget until we’re confronted with the idea that a beloved horror classic might have simply disappeared because a briefcase got left in a cab or on a plane.

This book couldn’t have happened without the approval of the Kings. Bicks considers herself fortunate to have been given the opportunity — she’s the first scholar to be granted this kind of long-term ongoing access to the archive, something that simply would not have been possible without trust and transparency.

“I think he and Tabitha understood what I was trying to do,” she said. “I said to them, ‘I’m not interested in exposing your family secrets or psychoanalyzing deep, dark things.’ I’m coming at this as a literary scholar and as a fan. I really just wanted to look at these five works. I was very clear about my parameters. I wasn’t going in there to just paw through boxes.”

The end result of this lengthy literary odyssey is a very special book. It’s a work of thoughtful and compelling scholarship that is also reflective of one person’s personal journey with a beloved author. It is bibliographic and biographical all in one. “I’d like to think I did him proud,” said Bicks. “I know he likes the book. He read it and he said it’s ‘like a breath of fresh air,’ so that makes me feel really good. Like I got it right.”

Contact: Allen Adams, allen.adams@maine.edu

Ron Lisnet and Julie Arnold Lisnet’s now 43-year love affair with each other, and the University of Maine, did not begin with a thunderbolt from heaven back in 1982, when they met inside the Cyrus Pavilion Theatre. In fact, it started with a snide comment. 

“I was sitting there with a friend, being a snotty senior,” Julie said, remembering the day she first laid eyes on her future husband, “and Ron walks in, and I said, ‘Who is that geek?’” 

They were both there auditioning for a play. Ron was also in the middle of a fraternity beard-growing contest. It wasn’t going well. 

“Yeah, I was not winning,” Ron ’83 said. 

“There was a little patch here and a little patch there,” Julie ’82, ’85G, said. 

But Julie’s original assessment changed after Ron shaved and applied his stage makeup for the show, in which he played a fishnet shirt-wearing brothel owner. 

“I thought he had beautiful eyes,” Julie said, “I thought, ‘he’s actually a very handsome guy.’” 

A few months and dates later, they were inseparable. The two married July 14, 1984. 

“I think we’re the only Bear Pair to have met inside the Cyrus Pavilion Theatre,” Julie said. Bear Pairs are what 91���� calls alumni couples, many of whom met as students on campus. 

And Ron and Julie are more than just a Bear Pair. Ron started working at the university 33 years ago, in 1993. Julie began teaching in the School for Performing Arts in 2002. Their daughter, Natalie Lisnet ’21, also works at 91���� at the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. 

“Between us and our daughter, we have four [91����] degrees and a teaching certificate,” Julie said. “I don’t think we could get much more involved.” 

The whole family reunited inside the Cyrus Pavilion Theatre in January when Natalie directed both her parents in a production of “Pride and Prejudice” produced by the Ten Bucks Theatre Company, which Julie co-founded 25 years ago. 

Originally constructed in 1908, the Pavilion Theatre used to be a livestock judging arena. Julie said she remembers it housing sheep when she first lived on campus. At the end of the 1970s, it was converted into a theater. 

“When the theater department acquired it, I spent some time ripping out sheep mangers and shoveling lots of sheep poop,” Julie said. Now, both she and Ron are getting involved in the fundraising effort for another refurbishment. 

Growing up in Milbridge, Maine, Julie always knew she wanted to study theater. She applied to both the University of Maine and the University of Southern Maine and chose the one closest to home. After earning her bachelor’s degree in Orono in 1982, she continued on and earned a Master of Arts in Theatre in 1985. She now teaches in the same department. 

“I teach fundamentals of acting,” Julie said. “Occasionally, I teach a survey of dramatic literature, which means we read a lot of plays and talk about them. This year, for the first time, I’m also teaching in the Honors College. I’ve basically taken my acting class and turned it into a class focused on acting for Shakespeare.” 

Over the years, in addition to working at 91����, Julie has put her acting and directing talents to work at the Penobscot Theatre, Maine Theatre, Theatre of the Enchanted Forest, The Assembled Players, Marsh Island Stage, Maine Shakespeare Festival, Northern Lights Theatre, The Grand in Ellsworth and True North Theatre. 

In fall 2023 Julie directed “Crimes of the Heart” for Penobscot Theatre’s 50th season opener. In 2025, she directed “Matinicus: A Lighthouse Play” for the same company. The play told the story of real-life Mainer Abigail Burgess’ heroic exploits keeping her father’s lighthouse burning on a desolate rock, miles out to sea. 

In 1995, Julie appeared in a two-part network television miniseries based on a Stephen King short story called “The Langoliers.” She played the part of Aunt Vicki, who gets erased by a mysterious force. 

“Only her fillings and her glasses were found on the airplane when everybody that fell asleep disappeared, I think.” Julie said, struggling to remember the details. “My mother was very excited about it. I had 17 speaking lines, though that was cut down to just two in the final edit. My mother was very upset.” 

Ron was also in the film, sort of. “They had me put on this airline captain’s hat and drive around in the background,” he said. “We get a residual check for it every once in a while, for DVD rentals in Thailand, or something.” 

After growing up in Connecticut, Ron arrived at 91���� to study forestry. He only auditioned for the play where he met Julie because a professor invited him. After graduating in 1983, Ron went to work for Bangor’s ABC television affiliate, WVII, where he eventually became sports director. After nine years, Ron brought his media production skills to the university. He’s now manager of visual media, overseeing all aspects of visual media for 91����, including photography and video production, as well as the university’s photo and video database and archives.

Ron has also been the play-by-play voice of 91���� Men’s Basketball broadcasts for more than 30 years. He hosts the university’s “The Maine Question” podcasts, which he created in 2019, as well. The podcast explores how 91���� students and researchers make sense of, and learn about, the world around them. Recent topics include “Can Zebrafish improve human health?” and “What is the future for manufacturing in Maine?” 

In 2025, the podcast won the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s Circle of Excellence bronze level award, with judges saying, “With its punchy, distinctive title, this zero-budget podcast has impressive engagement metrics and demonstrates how thoughtful, location-based audio storytelling can translate complex academic work into accessible content that connects with local and national audiences alike.” 

In addition to all their work at 91����, Ron and Julie have always found time to perform in plays together. 

“We’ve probably played husband and wife 15 or 20 times,” Ron said. “I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve been in shows together.” 

Though they can’t remember the exact number, each agrees it’s in the dozens. For the past quarter century, the pair has appeared in an outdoor Shakespeare show put on by the Ten Bucks Theatre Company at Indian Trail Park in Brewer every summer. In 2010 Ten Bucks added Fort Knox in Prospect as a second regular Shakespeare venue. 

“Just about every anniversary we’ve had has usually been standing out in the field, getting bitten by bugs, rehearsing a show,” Ron said. 

One of their favorite shows they’ve performed together was the bickering couple in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” They said it was fun because they’d never speak that way to each other in real life. 

“I got to say, ‘You make me puke,’” Julie said. 

“That was a good one,” Ron said. 

Now, more than 40 years have passed since the couple first met at the Cyrus Pavilion Theatre. Julie no longer thinks Ron is a geek and his now-gray beard has come in nicely — and they have no plans to leave the theater life behind. 

“It’s enervating,” she said. “Theater is energizing. It goes through a cycle. You get to the week before opening — we call it hell week — and you don’t think you’re going to get through it. Then you get to the play, and it’s just magic. It’s like getting high without drugs.” 

Ron sometimes thinks about it in sports terms. 

“The similarities are quite striking. There’s a team chemistry kind of thing in both endeavors,” he said. “There’s nothing quite as cool as when you’re telling a good story, and it’s being told well, and either the place bursts into laughter or you can hear a pin drop. It’s a very inviting, alluring, intoxicating kind of feeling.” 

Julie said she can’t even imagine her life without Ron or theater, both at 91���� and off campus. 

“I’ve never made a ton of money but it’s made me outrageously happy,” she said. 

Story by Troy R. Bennett 

Contact: Marcus Wolf, 207.581.3721; marcus.wolf@maine.edu

The exhibition will display a wide variety of artwork made by 91���� students including paintings, sculptures, ceramics, printmaking, digital art, photography, graphic design and more. 

Students who were enrolled in an art class in the fall 2025 semester or spring 2026 semester had the opportunity to submit up to six pieces for consideration in this juried exhibition. This year’s juror is artist Rochelle Lawrence, who also serves as the assistant curator and museum educator at 91����’s Zillman Art Museum.

Lord Hall is free, accessible and open to the public Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Please direct all questions to Diana Baumbach, director of galleries, at

diana.baumbach@maine.edu. 

University of Maine student Maeve Littlefield has always been creative, and developed a passion for the scientific process late in high school. A sophomore majoring in biology, she found a class at 91���� that combined her passion for science with her sense of creativity.

During the fall 2025 semester, she enrolled in a Research Learning Experience (RLE) that immersed her in the creative side of science communication and encouraged her to take risks by experimenting with new ways to understand and communicate research and science.

RLEs allow students to participate in real-world research, problem-solving and other hands-on learning early in their college careers, reflecting 91����’s commitment as a learner-centered R1 university and laying a stronger educational foundation and pathway to a meaningful career. 91���� is a leader among the nation’s flagship institutions in offering these high-impact opportunities to all incoming students. 

They are funded as part of the University of Maine System’s Student Success and Retention initiative, which is made possible by a $320 million investment from the Harold Alfond Foundation and matching contributions known as UMS TRANSFORMS. 

Students in the fall course, “Creative Expression of Science” showcased prints, paintings, drawings, creative writing, digital storytelling and other pieces designed to improve how people engage with scientific concepts. Their projects encouraged each of them to use experimentation as a method of creativity and communication. 

Littlefield’s final portfolio included several artworks that used a block printing technique to represent the positive impressions humans leave on the environment.

“Sometimes we get caught up in seeing statistics about the environment and human impact,” Littlefield said. “But we also forget that adaptation and evolution make really resilient communities and populations, and that it’s not hopeless. It makes you want to fight more for these things that are important — that if we do lose them, they aren’t coming back.” 

Learning from local artists

The course featured guest lectures from local artists who showcased their creative processes and demonstrated how forms of communication can connect science and research with audiences on a personal level. Having built successful careers at the intersection of art and science, the speakers offered insight into their professional journeys and provided guidance to help students envision and pursue their own pathways to careers.

The first guest speaker, , did a block printing workshop during her visit and spoke about how to create environmentally conscious art. One of the co-instructors of the course, Holly White, said most students ended up doing at least one block print for their own projects.

“Her approach to making art that is place-based through an environmental lens really resonated with students,” said White, who is also a Ph.D. student at 91����. She co-instructed the course with Bridie McGreavy, associate professor of environmental communication. 

Other guest speakers included a children’s book author who narrates scientific themes digestible for youth; an ecologist and writer who encouraged students to reimagine scientific representations and consider the context beyond the data; and an interdisciplinary Ph.D. student at 91���� who creates digital media to honor Wabanaki knowledge and cultures.

“I hope students left with the idea that science communication can be fun, creative and accessible and that you don’t need to be a professional artist to turn scientific ideas into art,” White said. “A goal of the class was to help students take risks, try new modes of expression and treat experimentation as a valuable part of the process.”

Littlefield said all the guest speakers spoke toward the power of perspective, which in turn informed her own work. “I was able to connect that with science and how we talk about how important diversity is,” Littlefield said. “Each species, each part of this ecosystem, is important and has its own role.”

Her piece titled “Underneath and All Around” shows a scuba diver engulfed in darkness except for an illuminated line of sight filled with different aquatic animals. The idea started from an experience one of the guest speakers shared. 

Drawing on success stories

’25G, a photographer and videographer who works with underwater drones, talked to the class about how to use visual communication in research and storytelling. As a former graduate research assistant for the Maine-eDNA project, she shaped, traced and explored communication and collaborative opportunities for the initiative’s coastal ecosystem monitoring research using underwater drones and virtual reality. 

She collaborated with other 91���� graduate students to study how these technologies benefited the outreach for Maine-eDNA by engaging with researchers and K-12 students. Their work suggested that providing a new perspective can help people connect with and understand the environment in a new way.

By working directly with professionals like Smith-Mayo, students in “Creative Expression of Science” saw firsthand how exploring new forms of expression and applying creative thinking can address challenges facing Maine’s communities and beyond, such as the need to better understand and communicate changes in the Gulf of Maine.

Guest speaker ’15, ’18G combines data, landscapes and ecosystems to communicate the ways in which the Earth is changing. Her work integrates data into artistic backdrops, such as a line chart overlain on a mountain, and was even featured on the cover of Time Magazine’s July 2020 special issue “One Last Chance.”

Pelto, an Honors College graduate, studied studio art and Earth and climate sciences at 91���� as an undergraduate, then stayed for the master’s program in Earth and climate sciences.

Her journey from an interdisciplinary student to a full time artist and small business owner followed a niche path and stands as a testament to the vastness of science communication. While the students’ own journeys would likely look different from hers, Pelto talked to them about the tangible aspects, like income and networking.

“What makes me love what I do is that it gets to be a little bit more broad,” Pelto said. “I love painting and creating the art, but I also love that I get to share it with people, like through class visits.”

Pelto accompanied a group of 91���� students to Iceland in the summer of 2025 as part of the Sea-to-Sky Experience, which she’ll be joining again in 2026. She led them in art classes and created her own work inspired by the journey as students participated in research and learning across the Nordic country. 

Her personal connections to her work bonds her to it, and she strives to represent a variety of places in a way that will emotionally resonate with others like they have with her. 

Contact: Ashley Yates; ashley.depew@maine.edu

“The Midnight Work,” Jennifer Moxley’s eighth book of poetry, contemplates these changes as she enters and experiences midlife. Woven with nostalgia and tension, the professor of English at the University of Maine connects her immediate present and recent past through conversations with the more distant past or even the ancient world through lyrics and epistles, or letter poems.

“This book deals a lot with a contemplation of life at midlife, a little past midlife and thinking about a sort of metaphysical disquiet when looking back,” said Moxley. “There is a lot of nostalgia in this book and trying to figure out what it means to be in this world right at this moment.”

In the lyric poem “1900,” readers join Moxley and her husband on a summer expedition to a Hannaford grocery store amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. We feel the frustration, fear and tired novelty of the situation. The poem grows tendrils as Moxley reflects on her “mother’s mother,” Leola Isabel Warnock Freeman, a portrait painter based in the American southwest. 

“1900” demonstrates how Moxley’s research feeds her emotive lines. A Campbell’s soup can emblazoned with a gold medallion, awarded the same year as her grandmother’s birth, leads her to lament that the internet, where she discovered that fact, knows more about her grandmother than she does. The poem continues as she considers the life of Helen Gahagan Douglas, an American actor and politician, also born in 1900; as well as Nathalie Sarraute, a Russian-born French writer born that same year. From that node of connection through time, Moxley weaves together elements of their lives and themes in their respective works. 

Moxley’s navigation through midlife, both in her life and in the book, is guided in part by Horace, a Roman poet from the first century, and Tao Qian, a Chinese poet from the fourth and fifth centuries. 

“When I started reading these poets around 2016-15, they just really spoke to where I was in my own life,” said Moxley. “They helped me negotiate the move into late middle age, which is a form of hell, I suppose.” 

The poets interrogate what it means to live a meaningful life in their work. “Both of them land on similar answers to that question, which is not the accumulation of material goods,” said Moxley. “It’s moderation, our relationship to good friends and wine and poetry and cultivating the land. Not ambition — worldly ambition — but quiet contemplation.”

Horace’s “Epistles” also inspired Moxley to write her own, ushering in a stylistic change from the lyrical voice of her previous works. Moxley’s epistles address the living and dead, close friends and complete strangers. The writing of the epistles was not a planned process, but a reflective one. Each epistle wound through her memories of the person it was written for, and of her own life. Moxley explained that she hoped the reader would find, “Some space that opens up in their own lives for reflection and contemplation,” in the same way she did.

While there is immense value in this contemplation, Moxley also acknowledges how taxing it can be. 

“Whenever you think about lost time, whenever you think about lost worlds, whenever you think about all the people you have loved who are no longer here, it’s sad,” said Moxley. “The emotional spaces that the poems put me in were sometimes very hard to recover from.”

As “The Midnight Work” debuts, Moxley is already looking forward, researching and composing her next work. She acknowledges, though, that for her readers, everything is just starting. 

“I would want them to have the experience that I had when I read Horace or Tao Qian, which is to feel some space that opens up in their own lives for reflection and contemplation and existential depth,” Moxley said. 

At the same time, she said there should be joy in the experience, adding that “I hope that I would bring delight in the reading of some of those moments.”

Contact: Daniel Timmermann, daniel.timmermann@maine.edu

For this year’s free concert, the 91���� band is soliciting donations for Penquis, which provides resources for housing, transportation, heating, childcare, home repair, disability services and more to those in need. 

“Penquis does amazing work in the community and they are under-funded,” said Philip Edelman, the director of the concert band and School of Performing Arts. “We are giving back by helping them reach their goals a bit easier.” 

While practicing her trumpet, Kathleen Nee said fundraising for a good cause motivates her to perform her best. 

“I think Penquis is a really great organization that gives back to the community. It’s great that by having us play music it raises money for a good cause,” she said. 

The concert band will be accompanied by performers from Hampden Academy and the Leonard Middle School Band in Old Town. The joint performance allows middle and high school musicians to improve their craft by working alongside collegiate performers. 

“The 91���� students also gain experience in mentorship with the younger students on stage with them,” Edelman said. 

91���� student and bass trombone player Connor Maurice said he’s looking forward to raising money for charity through his music.

“Music is something I really enjoy. If everybody gets to listen to great music and it’s helping the community, that’s really good,” he said. 

The Concert Band welcomes students from all majors who are interested in performing a variety of concert music; no audition is required. Each spring, the group performs both on and off campus. Edelman said the cohort has been preparing advanced pieces for the Concert for a Cause 

“Expect very profound music and a whole lot of laughter,” Edelman said. 

Story by Rowan MacDonald, news intern

Contact: Marcus Wolf, 207.581.3721; marcus.wolf@maine.edu 

In the years since the Netflix series “Bridgerton” burst onto the scene, it has become a cultural phenomenon, a runaway success featuring Regency-era romance and palace intrigue wrapped in moments of bodice-ripping enthusiasm and unapologetic anachronism.

However, thanks to the new book,” a collection of essays edited by University of Maine professor of philosophy Jessica Miller and published by Wiley-Blackwell, we see that the series also provides an interesting lens through which to look at larger ideas.

The book is the latest entry in Blackwell’s ongoing Philosophy and Pop Culture series, which features essay collections that use a vast array of films, television shows and video games to highlight philosophical questions. The essays are conversational in tone and intended to be accessible to both general readers and devoted fans, allowing everyone to engage with the show in a whole new way.

“Bridgerton and Philosophy” features 22 essays exploring how the Netflix show and its prequel “Queen Charlotte” bring timeless philosophical questions to life — sometimes in a ballroom, sometimes in a bedroom and always with style.

Jessica Miller isn’t quite Lady Whistledown — or is she? — but the book she has assembled certainly uncovers some of the hidden truths regarding the people and places of “Bridgerton.”

91���� News sat down with Miller for the following Q&A:

How did you come to participate in this project? What made ‘Bridgerton’ an apt framework for it?

“Bridgerton and Philosophy” is part of a series that introduces philosophy to lay audiences through popular culture. I have enjoyed writing essays for previous volumes. I thought “Bridgerton,” which is both a bestselling book series and a very popular Netflix show, would be a great addition. We can enjoy “Bridgerton” on one level as a swoony, opulent fantasy, but beneath the surface it touches on many important issues. 

What are some of the benefits of viewing philosophical concepts through this sort of pop cultural lens?

Philosophy can seem impractical, outdated, or intimidating. But it’s none of those things, really. Philosophers have always been interested in the same questions everyone is curious about: What is happiness? What is love? What is friendship? Learning about philosophy through pop culture helps people see that philosophy is for now and philosophy is for everyone. 

How long does it take for a book like this to come together? What does the process look like?

I pitched the idea to the publisher in spring 2024, so about two years. We put out a call for proposals, and had an amazing response from scholars all over the world. I worked closely with the authors to make sure the writing was insightful and witty. Their enthusiasm as fans really comes through. I love the idea that “Bridgerton” fans who get into online debates about …

[Spoiler alert: If you haven’t watched the first season, you may want to stop reading here.]

… whether Penelope should be forgiven for lying to Eloise about her secret identity as Lady Whistledown now have a thoughtful essay to read that brings philosophers’ work on deceit and moral repair into the discussion. 

I imagine there are a lot of surprises that can spring from a collection such as this, but was there an essay that particularly surprised you and/or subverted your expectations?

Because “Bridgerton” is a romantic drama, I knew that topics like sex, marriage, and love would be ripe for analysis. But we also have essays on surprising topics like the sport of boxing and the significance of the Duke of Hastings’ stutter. And a few of the essays tackle public reaction to the show, especially in the way it addresses race, weight bias, and queer identity. One essay explores how nature is used in the show to help story arcs, reflect emotions, and feed innermost desires. Characters get up to all sorts of mischief in those Regency gardens!

Were you a fan of the show before working on the book? Any favorite character(s)?

I was a fan of Julia Quinn’s “Bridgerton” novels, and then, of course, of the show. Romance is often dismissed as unrealistic, bad, or just “women’s stuff.” But romance has a vast audience and the potential to do important cultural work. In very different ways, philosophy and romance are asking some of the same questions, about how to live a meaningful life.

One of my favorite characters is Lady Danbury. Her traumatic backstory is told in “Queen Charlotte,” the “Bridgerton” prequel series, and she remains an important character throughout “Bridgerton.” I admire her resilience, her kindness, and her wit.

Contact: Allen Adams, allen.adams@maine.edu

The discussion will be held in the Davis Center for Human Ecology, Room 202, and will be followed by a reception at 6 p.m. at the Dorr Museum of Natural History.

The Island Soundscape Project is led by co-founders N.B. Aldrich, a University of Maine adjunct associate professor of art, and Steve Norton, a sound artist with a master of fine arts degree from 91����. 

The core team also includes Karen Beeftink, a University of Maine at Machias associate professor of recreation and tourism management, and Adriana Cavalcanti, an artist and plant biologist with a master of fine arts degree from 91����, along with student researchers and collaborators.

The event highlights “Soundmarks,” an immersive installation created by the Island Soundscape Project, an arts research collaborative working at the intersection of art, ecology and education.

Drawing on recordings gathered over two years at Maine Coast Heritage Trust preserves from southern Maine to Washington County, the installation compresses the sonic experiences of those landscapes into a dynamic, ever-shifting soundscape. 

The project captures and curates Maine’s coastal soundmarks — the distinct sounds that define a place — to better understand and preserve the identity of the state’s coastal communities.

“Soundmarks” will remain on exhibit through August at the Dorr Museum. The museum is open from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday through March 19. Spring and summer hours will be announced. Admission is by donation.

The show times are 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. with doors opening one hour early. Both shows are free and open to the public.

“There is no more universal language than dance, and there is no better day than Valentine’s Day to celebrate its ties to love and unity,” said Sarah Joughin, senior associate director of the Office of International Programs.

This dance festival showcases traditional music, costumes and dances from different cultures. Twelve groups will represent 11 different countries and Puerto Rico, including a group performing a French Canadian Gigue and one representing Uzbekistan. A 91���� alum who helped establish the Celtic Club is also returning to the stage with a group of Fife Irish Dancers.  

To request a reasonable accommodation, contact the Office of International Programs, 207.581.3437; international@maine.edu.

The exhibition includes current and emeritus faculty from 91����’s Department of Art and the Intermedia Master of Fine Arts program. A diverse range of work from Diana Baumbach, Louise Bourne, Tim Conte, Samantha Jones, James Linehan, Andy Mauery and Susan Smith features digital photography, paintings and mixed media, among other works of art. 

Accompanying the exhibition will be free weekly programming titled, “The Mindful Eye.” Each Friday through March 13 from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., the gallery offers exercises, yoga, meditation and pranayama (breathwork) using the artwork on display as a tool for mindfulness. This programming is supported by the Alton ’38 and Adelaide Hamm Campus Activities Fund.

Faculty exhibitions are presented on alternating years and showcase approximately half of the studio art faculty.

For more information on class visits, outreach activities or other related questions, contact Baumbach, who also serves as director of galleries, at diana.baumbach@maine.edu. 

Lord Hall Gallery is located on the first floor of Lord Hall and is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Events are free, accessible and open to the public.

Raised in Bristol, Rhode Island, Ramos was familiar with New England’s history but had never spent time in Maine’s wild blueberry barrens. That first season in the field introduced her not only to the ecology of the crop but to the people, labor and traditions tied to one of the state’s iconic foods.

Now preparing to graduate as an Honors College student with a double major in ecology and environmental sciences and studio art, Ramos shaped her education around that experience. As a rising sophomore, she joined the University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s Wild Blueberry Research Team and spent three summers exploring barrens in the midcoast and Downeast regions. 

Working alongside growers and researchers, she learned to observe the landscape closely, recording what she saw through notes, photos and sketches that would later inform her art. 

Her time in the fields quickly influenced her academic direction. What began as environmental research grew into a deeper artistic interest, prompting her to pursue additional studio courses and eventually focus her art on Maine’s wild blueberry heritage. 

“Meeting such passionate professors who believed in me and my work, it really helped me feel confident that I could pursue a degree in art,” Ramos said. “I have a connection to ecosystems, and I think that’s the part that I really see myself continuing to develop as a growing artist.”

Perspective of places, sciences she studies

Through her work, Ramos shares her perspective of the places and sciences she studies. She has focused part of her Honors thesis on the cultural heritage and history of Maine’s lowbush blueberries. 

Her series of watercolor paintings show the vastness of the fields and the people who handrake them each summer. Her colors are earthy and soft, created from natural soil based pigments.

In the future, Ramos may even explore using blueberries and other plants or fruits with natural pigments to create her own watercolors. After earning her degree this winter, she plans to stay in Maine making environmental art that speaks to the importance of conserving natural resources and places that, like people, are entangled in Earth’s larger ecosystems.

“I definitely feel so much love for Maine that I’ve come to really feel like it’s my second home while studying here in college,” said Ramos, who is also an ambassador for the Honors College. “There’s so many different, intersecting factors of the natural landscape and community.”

Connecting fieldwork with cultural heritage

In high school, Ramos said she never connected to science classes like chemistry and physics. She never saw herself as being a lab scientist and had always been drawn to “the humanity side of learning and topics.”

It wasn’t until she came to 91���� and gained research experiences outdoors that she started using art to communicate what she was learning about in the environment. One of her first pieces that combined science and art was a large watercolor painting depicting workers in long rows of vegetable fields, held up by two large hands. 

She aimed to raise awareness of how these agricultural workers harvest much of America’s food. Ramos continued to thread that theme into her work with Extension’s Wild Blueberry Research Team, led by Extension specialist Lily Calderwood.

“It is incredibly important to share the grit and humanity behind agricultural commodities in a time when people are very disconnected from their food, especially who harvests their food,” Calderwood said. “This industry is culturally and economically important for the state of Maine. Its preservation touches a lot of people who live here year round and those who visit.”

Talked to growers about management and more

With Calderwood’s team, Ramos talked to growers about management practices, economics and ecological obstacles, such as from pests, disease and drought. She said they echoed similar challenges regarding low-profit seasons and labor shortages, as well as unpredictable temperatures and precipitation making field management and yield predictability difficult. 

Despite the challenges they face, Ramos said the growers uphold a strong commitment to and pride for the wild blueberry industry and its cultural significance in Maine.

Along with talking to the growers, Ramos harvested blueberries with local, seasonal and Passamaquoddy and Mi’kmaq tribal hand-rakers in the fields to learn about their perspectives and traditions when it comes to wild blueberries.

Calderwood said Ramos’ paintings reflect aspects of Maine’s wild blueberry industry that research does not — the social aspects of the people who grow them, the fields where they’re grown and the state economy in which blueberries contribute $360 million annually.

“Artwork has always been a special way to convey the natural world, and it is grounding to see that art is still such a powerful communication tool,” Calderwood said.

Contact: Ashley Yates; ashley.depew@maine.edu

Timothy Simons, a 2001 graduate of the University of Maine, is hoping to hear his name called Sunday, Jan. 4, when the Critics Choice Awards are handed out.

Simons earned a nomination for best supporting actor in a comedy series for his role as Sasha in the

The , which will be held at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, will air live at 7 p.m. on E! and USA Network.

A native of Readfield, Maine, Simons studied theater at 91���� and was active in campus productions. He is best known for his breakout role as Jonah Ryan on

Simons has credited his hands-on experience at 91���� with helping him build a foothold in the industry. In fact, he told that a campus work study job gave him practical skills that helped him find steady work in theater while establishing his acting career.

“One of the great things about 91���� was that I had a work-study job in the scene shop, and those skills really served me well through a decade of Chicago and L.A.,” Simons said. “I knew carpentry. I could do set load-in. When I first got to L.A., I jumped in on a set load-in at a fellow 91���� alum’s play. That led to jobs. I could pay the bills by doing things in the theater world, on or off stage.”

Simons continues to give back to 91����, helping establish the . He has also worked with the University of Maine Foundation on .

Contact: David Nordman, david.nordman@maine.edu