Haystack/OUT Maine Art Weekend

Parents / Teachers / Adults

Can a parent chaperone their child? No. We have limited beds available. Allowing parents to also attend would reduce how many students could attend.

Can a teacher chaperone their student(s)? No. We have limited beds available. Allowing teachers to also attend would reduce how many students could attend.

If I volunteer, can I take an art class? No. Class space and resources are limited to the students and the art classes are supervised by the instructors, their assistants, and either an OUT Maine staff member or a Junior Counselor.

Can you accommodate special-needs students? Please call or email us to discuss the youth’s needs. Due to limited housing, we cannot accommodate a youth who requires a private cabin. Email program@outmaine.org  or call  800-530-6997.

Is there a bus leaving from my child’s school or picking them up? Buses will be available in key locations. Be prepared to arrange transportation to and from a pick-up location or to the event itself. Also, you must indicate on your child’s registration that they need transportation to guarantee a seat on the bus.

Can I stay in the same cabin as my best friend? Please indicate your friend request on your registration form. Both friends must request. We will do the best we can to accommodate, but can’t promise.

Are cabins assigned by gender: You may choose to stay in a male, female, or gender-neutral cabin. If you do not indicate a preference, we will assign you to a gender-neutral cabin.

Can I drive myself to the event? Yes, but you have to leave your keys with the office staff at Haystack during the weekend.

I’m 18, does that mean I can leave the campus during the weekend? No. We have a full schedule for the weekend, which would not allow enough time to leave campus. If you are not interested in participating in the workshops, you should not attend the weekend.

Will I have a quiet place to go if things get to be too much? Yes! We have quiet spaces available during the weekend as well as helpful adults you can speak to if you are feeling stressed.

BLACKSMITHING | Swoons for spoons and other table adornment

Rachel David 

In this class we will start by introducing spoon making as a concept and vehicle for sculptural expression.  In this project we will cover many of the basic Blacksmithing operations.  By the beginning of the second day students will be asked to design a spoon, candlestick, platter or some conglomeration of any table adorning object.  The teachers will work with students to refine the project and make sure it will be achievable with the tools and materials at hand. 

Rachel David is a blacksmith, sculptor, and designer.  Her metalwork practice encompasses art, furniture, architectural elements, activism, and gardening. Through community activism and metalwork that references relationships between bodies and landscapes, David investigates issues related to colonization, social, and environmental justice. She has exhibited work nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions. Her work has been included in several publications, including Ironwork Today 4 and is included in the collections of  the City of New Orleans, the Simone Benetton Foundation, and in numerous private collections.  

CERAMICS | What we move forward, what we leave behind…

George Bowes 

As life unfolds, we become more of who we should be. For many LGBTQ+ people this can be an arduous journey. Some move forward with their biological families while others must expand their families to fully explore their potential in more supportive environments.  In this workshop we will explore the permanent qualities of fired clay as well as the impermanent nature of unfired clay. Through this process we will examine what is important to us and what we can leave behind or fight to change.  

George Bowes graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art (BFA, 1984) and the University of California, Davis, (MFA 2001). He has received multiple Individual Artist Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council and an Arts Midwest / NEA Regional Visual Arts Fellowship Award. His works reside in many public and private collections, including the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, and the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum at Alfred University. 

FIBER | Sewing Pride: Designing and Sewing a Personal Pride Flag

Steven E Frost 

Participants will celebrate their LGBTQ+ identities by designing and creating a fabric flag. In addition to designing a flag participants will learn basic sewing, embroidery, embellishment, and quilting techniques to create their unique pride flags. They also will work as a community to create a full-sized flag to celebrate Haystack’s Out Maine Weekend.  

Steven Frost (they/them) Using weaving and sewing, Frost combines traditional fabrics like yarn and cotton with non-traditional materials from a range of sources, exploring the ways history and time are embedded in materials. They often use upcycled textiles in their work because of the material’s association with the body and the way garments evoke tactile memories. Frost is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado, BO where they serve as co-founder of the Experimental Weaving Residency and Faculty Director of the B2 Center for Media Arts and Performance. 

GRAPHICS | Wear your thoughts

Hope Rovelto 

Working with the prompt: “What positive message do you want to tell your community?” We will examine the relationship between words and image to design and screen print one and two color posters and t-shirts using a direct method of image making through the process of exposing screens. 

Shortly before the pandemic, Hope Rovelto opened a commercial space in Portland. Little Chair Printing is a queer-owned custom screenprinting shop.  LCP focuses on giving back to the community. Hope balances her extensive offerings of free screen printing (including free Black Lives Matter t-shirts) with printing for a variety of organizations all over the U.S. She is passionate about printing for organizations such as Maine Gun Safety, Sonos, Maine Inside Out, Equality Maine.  In 2016, Hope built a bicycle screen-printing shop and with support from the Kindling Fund, and the Awesome Foundation, she has traveled extensively and set up live printing of t-shirts and posters at protests to community engagement events. Most recently, Hope brought her mobile screen printing shop to a two-week residency at Sweet Briar College in Virginia working with students and creating an exhibition during her time there. She is also working on becoming a professional bowler.  

METALS | Dangly Bits

Rebekah Frank 

In this workshop, we’ll create dangly bits for a key chain or backpack, perhaps even a pendant. Starting with a flat piece of metal–steel, copper, or brass–each student will select a design to cut from the material. Your piece will be annealed and textured, then layered and riveted to create a unique piece with the ability to hang. Come with graphic ideas focused on simple negative space, think clip art or comic illustration style. 

Rebekah Frank received a MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2012 and a BFA from Texas State University in 2010. Her chosen material is steel, a fascination discovered through a challenge received when she was 18. Her creative practice focused on that material ever since, working as a blacksmith, a welder, a machinist, and, currently, a jeweler. She explores themes of protection, vulnerability, and boundaries in her work. Rebekah is based in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA.  

WOOD | Biophilia + Radical Possibility 

Sylvia Rosenthal 

In this workshop, students will learn the basics of cutting, gluing, shaping and carving wood while making a one of a kind object of their design. An Alien Fruit is a fruit or vegetable never before known by humans. Discoveries will be published in Little Known & Unknown Plants of the World Volume 6. Through this additive and subtractive project, students will learn about wood as a material and how to work safely while not being confined to straight lines and 90 degree angles.  

Sylvie Rosenthal started building at age six at an experimental design museum where she made circuses, catapults, rockets, and robots. She received a BFA from RIT’s School for American Crafts  in Woodworking, built two houses from the ground up with her mentor, Doug Sigler, in western North Carolina, and received a MFA in sculpture from the UW-Madison. She owns and operates Lower Astronomy Studios, a design, sculpture, and woodworking studio in Madison, WI.