Brain Awareness Week
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Art and science will come together at the University of Maine at Presque Isle when two professors host an event in honor of internationally celebrated Brain Awareness Week. “North of Ordinary Neuro-Art Night” will take place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 16, in the Pullen Art Room.
Biology Professor Dr. Rachael Hannah and Art Professor Renee Felini are teaming up to offer a fun art project that also will teach participants about brain function and neuroscience. Felini will be creating brain molds out of silicon rubber. Plaster brains will be produced from the molds that participants will be able to paint under Felini’s guidance. Hannah will offer a 15-minute presentation about the human brain, showing how brains are mapped, and then participants will use that information and their imagination to create their brain art.
Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is the global campaign to increase public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research, according to the official BAW website. During BAW, campaign partners organize creative and innovative activities in their communities to educate and excite people of all ages about the brain and brain research. Founded and coordinated by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and European Dana Alliance for the Brain, BAW’s 16th annual celebration will take place from March 14-20, 2011.
North of Ordinary Neuro-Art Night is an official BAW event. Hannah, who earned her Ph.D. in anatomy and neurobiology from the University of Vermont in 2010, has visited schools in Vermont to talk about brain activity during past BAW celebrations. She said she wanted to do a BAW event in northern Maine and wanted to have the event include an art project. Hannah approached Felini with her desire to hold an event, and the two “brain”stormed their neuro-art night.
“Carving a brain out of plaster to create a mold from it has been a fun experience,” Felini said. “Rachael has taught me a lot about the construction of the brain, which I have tried to reflect in the model. I hope that participants will not only learn about the mapping of the brain, but also feel inspired during the event to creatively express the knowledge they have acquired.”
The completed art will be put on display in the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library in time for the First Friday Art Walk to be held on April 1.
Hannah believes that approaching neuroscience from an artistic point of view will help people to gain a greater appreciation for the subject and an increased willingness to learn more.
“Neuroscience is a complicated subject and there’s a lot of new vocabulary, so if you start demystifying the words, then that helps. Then it’s not as scary,” Hannah said.
North of Ordinary Neuro-Art Night will take place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 16, in the Pullen Art Room, which is located on the third floor of Pullen Hall. The event is open to campus and community members 16 and older; or younger if supervised by a parent. Pamphlets and other materials that provide fun information and activities about the brain and brain function will be available at the event. For more information, contact Hannah at rachael.hannah@maine.edu.
UMPI hosts“Almost, Maine”
PRESQUE ISLE — The University of Maine at Presque Isle has announced that hometown premiere of John Cariani’s “Almost, Maine,” scheduled for 7 p.m. March 18 and 19 in the University’s Wieden Auditorium.
“Almost, Maine” is Cariani’s first play. It debuted at the Portland Stage Company in 2004, becoming the most successful play in its history — breaking attendance and box-office records. The Wall Street Journal also named Portland Stage’s production of “Almost, Maine” one of the best regional theater productions of the 2004-2005 season. “Almost, Maine” was also No. 1 on the list of 2010’s most-produced plays in North American high schools, according to annual survey results released by Dramatics Magazine in late 2010. Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” was previously No. 1 on the list. Other plays in the top 10 include “You Can’t Take It With You” and “Our Town.”
Tickets for the Presque Isle performances of “Almost, Maine” will cost $15 for adults and $10 for students for the March 18 and 19 performances. They will be available at several locations in Presque Isle, including Goin’ Postal, Morning Star Art and Framing and the University’s Bookstore and Community and Media Relations Office. For more information about this event, call 768-9452.
Local student performs at UMF
FARMINGTON — University of Maine at Farmington presents George Brant’s award-winning drama, “Elephant’s Graveyard,” as the spring 2011 Theatre UMF production. Based on the true story of a traveling circus and its cultural collision with a small southern town, the play will be presented at 7:30 p.m., March 17-19; and 2 p.m., March 20, at the UMF Alumni Theater.
Among those involved in the production will be Zach Fowler, of Presque Isle, who will be performing as the Ringmaster.
Republicans to gather
The Aroostook County Republican Committee (ACRC) is “reaching out to small-government, big-government-is-the-problem citizen taxpayers who are interested in organizing and working at the grass-roots level to help reduce government spending and taxation,” according to Aroostook County Republican Chairman Hayes Gahagan.
The ACRC has been set up to organize citizen taxpayers in northern, central and southern Aroostook, explained Gahagan.
“We’ll be holding an ACRC Town Caucus Day event for northern Aroostook in Fort Kent on Saturday, March 19, for voting-age Maine citizens from towns north of Caribou. We’ll be meeting at Rock’s Family Diner, 378 W. Main Street (phone 834-2888) at 1:30 p.m. Any registered voter either enrolled or interested in enrolling in our small government Republican Party is eligible to attend, where we’ll be following formal procedures to establish local Republican town caucuses,” he said
“We’re learning again that all politics is local,” said Gahagan. “Across the nation, we’re seeing citizen taxpayers rise up against excessive government spending and taxation. The March 19 event will help to draw out like-minded citizen taxpayers in northern Aroostook who have had enough of ineffective, inefficient, excessively expensive, big government, regardless of their political affiliation.”
Gahagan said that events similar to the March 19 gathering in Fort Kent will be held in central and southern Aroostook and again in northern Aroostook over the coming weeks.
FMI, contact Theo Nykreim, ACRC secretary, at 903-413-5204, or Danny Deveau, northern Aroostook County chair, at 868-5469.
NARFE plans meeting
The National Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) will hold its monthly meeting on March 24, at 11:30 a.m., at the Caribou American Legion on Sweden St.
A dinner of honey-mustard chicken will be served, followed by Mr. James Mockler of the Mockler Funeral Home, who will speak on cremation.
Members welcomed were from all over northern Maine. For questions, please call 764-4468.
