Encouraging the pursuit of creative expression is the goal behind the newly launched Cape Elizabeth Middle School Publication Studio, said John Holdridge, the extended learning opportunities coordinator for the school department.

The studio “engages young writers, artists, bookbinders and all others interested” in the art of publication, he added. The studio, an after-school endeavor, was funded with grants from the Cape Elizabeth Education Foundation and the Middle School Parent’s Association.

With the grant money, Holdridge said, he and Elizabeth Johnston, a sixth-grade language arts and literacy teacher, were able to create a physical space for the kids to meet, as well as hire an artist-in-residence, Shawn Brewer, who has been leading weekly workshops introducing students to various book forms and binding methods. 

There is a core of about 20 students who regularly attend the weekly publication studio sessions, Holdridge said, along with “a constantly revolving cast of characters who come by to work with us.”

He said the idea behind the studio was “simply to start and to let the word spread on its own.”

Holdridge added, “One of my favorite things is to stop by and find evidence that students have been working and creating in the time between our official sessions. This is proof that the students are taking ownership of the studio and of their work.”

Holdridge and Johnston are using the Telling Room in Portland “as an ideal model of what can happen when you provide a space for students, teachers and community professionals to gather and create work together.”

What the two ultimately hope, Holdridge said, is that “we will have Cape Elizabeth-based professional writers, illustrators, photographers, printers, etc., offer to spend some time with us.”

Johnston agreed.

“Any time that we can blend our school community with the community around us, we all benefit. The publication studio depends on that community connection, and while the goal of the studio is to think and grow and share talent, it’s also to grow relationships and recognize that there is much to learn from the people around us,” she said,

But, she also said, the publication studio came out of the school district’s commitment to providing extended and alternative learning opportunities for students.

“Some students naturally gravitate toward creating, writing and art, so part of our goal was to promote those interests,” she said. “Another goal is to create for the purpose of inspiration.”

And Holdridge said that while “there is already a tremendous amount of (creativity) going on at CEMS, Elizabeth and I simply wanted to (create) a space and place to bridge the border from in-school to after-school and between the school community and out-of-school community.”

He added, “We are able to do this work because of the culture of creative teaching and learning that (already) exists at the middle school.”

What delights Holdridge is that this culture of creativity is also “supported by the administration and obviously by parents and the community through the two grants we received,” he said.

In the two months since the publication studio got started, Holdridge said that Brewer has taught the students how to create eight-page magazines “made of one sheet of paper folded in a particular way.”

He said, “This form and topic has been quite popular (and we’ve) also explored Japanese 4-hole Stab Binding, Dos a Dos, which are two books with only one cover, and a traditional 3-hole waxed binding.”

Another benefit of having Brewer on board, Holdridge said, is that, “we (have become) familiar with vocabulary used in the bookmaking trade and considered the role of covers, page size and various ways to create books that encourage the reader to interact in ways other than turning the pages in sequential order.”

This week, on Thursday, Feb. 11, the publication studio will hold a special event at the Thomas Memorial Library, which Holdridge hopes will be the first of many such collaborations between the studio and the library.

At the event, Brewer “will be screen printing book covers, we’ll have student-made books on display and tables for people of all ages to make (their own books), among other things,” Holdridge said.

Through the initial grant of about $1,800, Holdridge said, the publication studio was able to purchase supplies, such as a professional grade paper cutter, card stock, papers, pens and markers, binding thread, binding needles and hand tools for folding.

The remaining funds were used to pay Brewer to make six after-school visits to the publication studio and to be at the library event.

The grant from the parent’s association will be used to support the next phase of the project, according to Holdridge, which includes sending Brewer into middle-school classrooms during the regular school day.

In addition, Gibson Fay-Leblanc, Portland’s poet laureate,  and Jamie Hogan, a book illustrator and professor at the Maine College of Art, will also be making visits to work with students and teachers. 

Also, as part of the publication studio, professional artists with the Art Department in Portland will work with the middle-school students from Cape Elizabeth to publish a newspaper. According to its website, The Art Department was established in 2011 as an outsider art studio, contemporary gallery, retail store, screening space and film production studio, to provide opportunities to Maine artists with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

“This is an amazing opportunity for everyone and it is a direct result of our two initial grantors supporting an idea that has room to grow and that provides a space and a place for collaborations to flourish,” Holdridge said.

Another outgrowth of the new publication studio, Johnston said, is that a group of seventh- and eighth-graders interested in creative writing have started meeting on their own, with the goal of publishing an anthology of their stories by the end of the school year.

A closer look

 

On Thursday, Feb. 11, at 3 p.m., the new Cape Elizabeth Middle School Publication Studio will hold a screen printing demonstration and bookmaking session at the Thomas Memorial Library.

The event is free and open to the public. Contact John Holdridge at 799-3309, ext. 4438, or email [email protected], for more information.

Cape Elizabeth Middle School students take part in a new after-school initiative called the Publication Studio.