A COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION
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OUR MISSION AND GOALS
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WELCOME TO SNOW POND AN EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION AN ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION
OUR PROGRAMS SNOW POND ARTS ACADEMY EXPANDED LEARNING SUMMER SEASON COMMUNITY CENTER
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Imagine a community thriving with creativity. Imagine a place where everyone can play in harmony. Welcome to Snow Pond Center for the Arts. 3
THE ART OF
COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION. Snow Pond Center for the Arts. Created for the performing arts. Designed for education. Built for growth. Snow Pond Center for the Arts leverages the power of music and the performing arts to transform the lives of our children and the future of our state. Our beautiful campus environment inspires the creation of sound and synergy. Through the performing arts, we model how we can bring communities together, improve our education systems, and create jobs, transforming underserved, rural regions into engaged, cultural centers. Here in Kennebec County, Snow Pond Center for the Arts is synonymous with growth — in our children, in our economies, and in our communities. From learning to play the bassoon to experiencing a world-class concert, all while wrapped in a historical, scenic natural environment and framed by a glistening lake — anything seems possible. And it is.
WELCOME TO SNOW POND
Imagine a lakeside where music fills the air year-round. Imagine a classroom enriched with sound and movement.
We invite you to listen. To the sound of a thriving Maine. 4
THE KEY TO A BETTER FUTURE IS EDUCATION. THE KEY TO A BETTER EDUCATION IS THE ARTS. Snow Pond Center for the Arts is poised to transform Maine’s students through music/performing arts education. Study after study has shown how music education produces not only better, more diligent students, but also more well-rounded citizens. Music education in schools is linked directly to improvement in:
Yet Maine students are falling behind, with less than 50% at all grade levels meeting proficiency standards as Educate Maine reports. And students are faced with diminishing returns: 87% of them graduate high school. 54% go to college. And only 33% of Maine students actually gain an advanced degree (for lower income students, the number plummets to 20%). At Snow Pond Center for the Arts, we aim to change this.
ACHIEVEMENT in areas ranging from reading comprehension to spatialtemporal reasoning to mathematics.
Improving education takes creativity. Literally. Learning in and through the arts, levels the playing field for youth from lower income groups and bolsters academic learning while developing the leadership, critical thinking, and collaboration skills children need to succeed in a 21st century economy. Young people in rural communities are often least likely to experience the benefits of the arts. At Snow Pond, we use the performing arts to prepare students to succeed in the classroom, the workplace, and beyond.
Fewer than 1 in 3 of Maine students (and fewer than 1 in 5 in lower income groups) earn any type of advanced degree
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ENGAGEMENT including improved attendance, persistence, focused attention, heightened educational aspirations, and intellectual risk taking. HABITS OF MIND building students’ problem solving, critical and creative thinking, approach to ambiguity, and more — all in demand for tomorrow’s workforce.
AN EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION
Young Mainers are entering a world of rapid change: economically, socially, technologically and environmentally. All this instability requires an adaptable, talented and educated workforce. By 2020, 60% of Maine jobs are projected to require post-secondary training. Maine can’t afford to fall behind.
SOCIAL SKILLS collaboration is a fact of life, and a firm foundation in the arts gives students the social tolerance and self-confidence to excel.
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THE TRUE DEFINITION OF CREATIVE CAPITAL. Maine is losing business. Luckily, attracting business is an art. THE NEED IS REAL
In the last 15 years, Maine’s median age has risen at an alarming rate from 38.6 to 43.5. School student population has fallen from its peak of 253,000 to 186,000. The average family size is smaller and more people are living alone. This has a profound effect on the way Maine people interact, live, and solve problems together.
With our growing infrastructure and programs, Snow Pond Center for the Arts is the community lifeblood, drawing people to the area throughout the year to support local businesses, cultivating an environment attractive to entrepreneurs, creating new job opportunities for artists and educators, and enabling Maine youth to secure employment close to home —
all of which leads to growth in our economy and our population. That’s music to any community’s ears.
AN ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION
Maine has lost more than 8,500 (net) jobs in the last 10 years. Kennebec and Aroostook counties have the lowest percentage of self-employed and the bleakest prospects for entrepreneurship.
With the highest median age in the nation, Maine is the “oldest” state. Our workers are retiring and our young people are leaving the state. Attracting youth to come or stay here is a crucial step in improving our economic standing. Snow Pond has continuing discussions with civic and business leaders to assure we are doing our part in creating the economic and cultural development needed to attract young families and to provide more options for our seniors.
Kennebec County had a net population decrease of 2,300 (2%) in the last 5 years. Additionally those who left had higher incomes than those who moved in. This caused the median income in Kennebec County to decrease.
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THE HARMONIOUS PAIRING OF MUSIC AND COMMUNITY. Snow Pond Center for the Arts is an innovative model — a community incubator where people of every age, income bracket, background and ethnicity can be enriched by and connect through education and the performing arts. Continually building real and figurative orchestras, we are transcending barriers and building bridges. Located in Sidney on 175 acres along Messalonskee Lake, also known as Snow Pond, our campus offers endless possibilities for recreation and enrichment— from cross country skiing to educational seminars, to group piano lessons. Snow Pond Center for the Arts aims to be both a destination and an unparalleled community resource with top-notch performance and teaching facilities, celebrating the splendor of Maine and providing year-round access to quality education and entertainment. Between our summer programs, Community Music School, and Arts Academy we will be serving several thousand children annually within the next 3-5 years. Our events bring thousands of visitors to the Snow Pond Campus each year, and this number continues to grow. We model how the arts can cultivate a common sense of pride and place by adding a collective spark to rural communities. You can see it in children’s faces as they admire the beauty of an instrument in their hands for the first time. In rehearsals, where notes become melodies. In beaming smiles at recitals. In diverse audiences bonding over Beethoven and Beyoncé. In everything we do.
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A COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION
Harmony is what happens when two parts come together and make each other better. Like Snow Pond Center for the Arts and Maine.
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ONE CENTER. MULTIPLE FACETS.
Having championed the value of music education balanced with recreation and social activities since 1937, we are upgrading our lakeside campus and expanding our programming to: TRANSFORM EDUCATION in Maine by making music and performing arts education accessible to all, year-round. IGNITE THE ECONOMIC & CULTURAL ENGINE that will fuel job creation, population growth, and visitor appeal. BUILD COMMUNITY that leverages our environmental wonderland and lakefront location to serve organizations and businesses across the community and to attract audiences from throughout Maine, the Northeast, and beyond.
OUR MISSION Creating a more vibrant community through arts education
Snow Pond Center for the Arts is a community resource — a symphony of parts. See how these parts play together on the pages that follow and you will see the future of Maine. 11
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LEARN
SNOW POND ARTS ACADEMY. Education is more than core subjects and tests. It is the accumulation of knowledge and the cultivation of creativity, leadership, collaboration, and active citizenship. Tuition-free and available to all children in Maine, Snow Pond Arts Academy is Maine’s first and only performing arts public, charter high school. Offering a comprehensive, college preparatory academic and arts education in a culturally rich environment, we develop both the analytic and creative sides of the brain—creating balanced thinkers and engaged learners in a supportive and nurturing environment. Through a blended learning model that combines classroom and online learning, we provide an innovative approach that enable students to progress at their own pace and develop a wide breadth of interests. By providing transportation, flexible scheduling, and residential options, we nurture a vibrant and diverse student body. We use music to build character and values. The goal is not to create budding Mozarts but to use the performing arts — music, dance, and theatre — to inspire the next generation of citizen-leaders. Furthermore, the Arts Academy is a critical catalyst for job creation. By collaborating with superintendents and local colleges, we are creating full-time jobs and an engaged cultural community, attracting the very best educators, artists, entrepreneurs and professionals to live and work here in Central Maine.
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PLAY
EXPANDED LEARNING. Without the resources to support it, music is largely absent from the school curriculum. The decline in arts education affects poor children disproportionately, denying them an indispensable part of a complete education and neglecting the very skills – like creative thinking, collaboration, and problem solving that boost academic learning and are critical to life success. By both bringing youth to campus and bringing the performing arts into underserved neighborhoods, Snow Pond’s Expanded Learning programs ensure that ALL Maine children have the chance to discover the magic of music and the performing arts. Through our Community Music School, we encourage and enable creative exploration with lessons and performance opportunities, balanced with recreation and academic support.
ENRICHMENT PROGRAMMING: Through music, we can give children in challenging circumstances vital outlets and positive experiences that can lift their futures along with their voices. Based on the transformational El Sistema model, our structured enrichment brings students with the fewest resources and the greatest need to the Snow Pond’s campus for a vivacious program that combines academic support, recreation and music education. OUTREACH PROGRAMMING: Taking music education beyond the campus, our outbound programs partner with schools and community organizations—such as the Alfond Youth Center in Waterville, the Augusta After-School Program, and Atwood Elementary in Oakland—make quality music education accessible across Central Maine, every day. All outreach programs are offered at reduced rate or no cost to ensure every child can participate. Snow Pond Center for the Arts also offers: Community Lessons: Traditional private, semi-private instrument
lessons, group lessons, and training in theory, classical music, reading, and rhythms. Adult Education: Through music programs designed to emphasize continued learning and social engagement, our adult education
serves all ages and abilities on campus, at Adult Ed Centers and at other partner sites. Performance Groups (Youth Orchestra, Jazz, Theatre and Drumline): Through performance, we enable young people to demonstrate
mastery, building their confidence alongside their skill development.
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PERFORM
SUMMER SEASON.
With more than 80 years of summer programming, Snow Pond Center for the Arts fosters learning and leadership among students both on and off the stage. In just the short window that summer provides, we have a transformative impact, helping students to grow not just as musicians but as people. We are also widening our offerings to include Adult Music Camps, the Boston Youth Orchestra, and more, filling the lake with the music from novices and professionals alike.
NEW ENGLAND MUSIC CAMP (NEMC): Offering a vital and unforgettable experience since 1937, this internationally renowned camp provides intensive music education balanced with traditional social and recreation summer camp activities. The camp brings together 350 youth, ages 11-18, from across Maine, the U.S., and beyond. Over forty percent of all students (and 90% of Maine students) that attend receive financial assistance, ensuring a diverse mix of backgrounds, talents, and perspectives. The camp’s impact lasts long past the summer solstice as the youth discover strengths in themselves as well as their instruments. SNOW POND MUSIC FESTIVAL: Modeled after summer music festivals like Aspen, Snow Pond Music Festival attracts advanced college, graduate and postgraduate musicians from around the world to perform in our historic Bowl-in-the Pines outdoor performance venue. Kicking off the summer season, the Snow Pond Music Festival nurtures the next generation of performers and teaching artists with various, intensive week long programs. CONCERTS: Akin to the summer experience at Tanglewood or Chautauqua, we are building an unforgettable summer experience with public performances — many of which are free — that draw thousands of visitors to the campus, maximizing both economic development and visibility, and making summer synonymous with sound.
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DEVELOP
SNOW POND AS COMMUNITY CENTER. Building on our rich musical legacy as the New England Music Camp, we are entering a new chapter as we become a year-round, dynamic Center for the Arts that includes a performing arts school, performance hall, and conference center accessible to all visitors and residents. We provide a setting in which people—who may not otherwise connect—come together and share meaningful and transformative experiences. Here, among remarkable natural beauty, music is a common language that transcends all boundaries.
Snow Pond Campus is now home for:
Town of Sidney Recreation and Community Center Friends of Messalonskee Lake Association Boy Scouts
The Maine Pond Hockey Classic and more
As the cultural and recreational epicenter for the region, we use the performing arts to galvanize community, attracting residents and visitors to our grounds to enjoy the outdoors and experience the vitality of the arts. Here you will find wetland habitats for hikers and crosscountry skiers, lakefront for sailing and swimming, recital halls and practice rooms for groups from around the state, classrooms filled with young and old alike. Our historic Bowl-in-the Pines outdoor performance venue offers an extraordinary example of how art and the land complement each other. As a major outdoor venue, we attract top talent to perform, bringing thousands of people to the area each year. And our indoor facilities offer versatile grounds for meetings, conferences, and retreats for businesses and organizations both inside and outside the arts. Amid music you will hear the bustle of activity as the core of music education gives rise to a growing region, accessible, enjoyable, enriching and inspiring to all.
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PLAY YOUR PART IN THE FUTURE OF MAINE. Snow Pond Center for the Arts is truly becoming the heartbeat of Central Maine. We are creating an innovative model for community development. Here we are able to provide much-needed spaces for local students and artists to train and perform. We are able to draw nationally-recognized and talented performers and educators, making the region a destination for visitors and enriching the lives of residents with yearround access to high quality education and entertainment. All this on a remarkable campus that is dotted with running paths, hiking trails and sports fields for public use.
Snow Pond Center for the Arts is an investment – in the educational, economic, and cultural transformation of Kennebec County, which will have ripple effects through Maine and offer a model for other rural communities nationally. The opportunity is here and the time is now. Your support will make a significant difference today and for generations to come. 21
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Snow Pond Center for the Arts 8 Goldenrod Lane Sidney, Maine 04330 (844) 476-6976 snowpond.org