Maine Inside Out

Lewiston Festival Project MIO and partners worked on the Lewiston Festival Project for part of 2023 and between January - June 2024, culminating in the festival on Juneteenth. MIO worked with local community artists, businesses, nonprofits, community coalitions, colleges, art agencies, and more in planning and hosting events. To kick off the series of events, MIO held an open mic night, made recordings of incarcerated artists to include in the performance on Juneteenth, had regular festival coalition meetings with partners to prepare, and then held the festival for the community on Juneteenth. The Juneteenth events began with a performance of "Broken Clock" at The Public Theatre in Lewiston, and featured a parade through Lewiston's tree streets to a block party at Kennedy Park with artistic performances, free food, and activities for all ages hosted by partnering organizations.

Lewiston Landing Pad Project Artists participated in peer-based groups and received support through MIO's advocacy and support programs which are held by the Lewiston Landing Pad Project. Advocacy and Support involves helping navigate system involvement and personal and family crises by offering support with fines, fees, and restitution, as well as emergency funds for food and basic resources (diapers, formula), shelter, and transportation. MIO Connected 24 young people to resources for emergency food and basic resources in 2024. The Landing Pad project also holds community program projects including community lunches where artists are invited to prepare for hosting and performing original art at upcoming MIO events (open mic nights, Juneteenth, theater performances) and MIO also invites community resources to connect artists to (recovery support, financial resources, etc). In 2024 there were 6 community lunches. There were 3 open mic nights: "Streets and Heartbeats" Open Mic Night on May 22, 2024; "Homecoming" Open Mic Night on October 22, 2024; "Everything Must Change" Open Mic Night on December 17, 2024. There was one Juneteenth Celebration which was also the Lewiston Festival Project: "The City That Carries Us: Pain, Streets, and Heartbeats" A Juneteenth Festival on June 19, 2024.

Lewiston Youth ProjectMIO started working with Lewiston Youth outside of the Lewiston Middle School in collaboration with Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services and Sustainable Livelihoods Relief Organization. The theater program with Lewiston Youth had MIO staff engaging with students in our arts-based model for youth leadership, community support, and crisis intervention. Students were placed in groups to create and perform original theater in an 8-12 week process with three distinct phases. In the first phase, groups create agreements for values and conduct and engage in ice-breakers, collaborative problem solving, personal story sharing, and basic theater skill-building exercises. In the second phase, the groups synthesize personal stories and artistic content into a cohesive original play. In the third phase, the groups rehearse and perform in front of an invited audience including peers and mentors, families, community leaders, and others. Performances are followed by a facilitated dialogue about the content of the performance. The performances offer students a productive strategy for sharing their experiences and engaging the community in improving policies that directly impact their wellbeing. The performances offer community members the opportunity to witness "at risk" students as leaders and artists. Overall, the process strengthens community culture and relationships through artistic expression and connected dialogue. The youth successfully completed one phase of the theater making process and the two groups performed plays in front of their families, school administration and peers. Live performances for Lewiston Youth Project took place on December 5.Mountain View Project In April MIO continued theater programming with incarcerated artists at Mountain View Correctional Facility. In 2024, MIO held one session at the facility over an 11 week period. At the beginning of the program, groups created agreements for values and conduct and engaged in ice-breakers, brainstorming, collaborative problem solving, writing exercises and basic theater skill-building exercises. The group created and rehearsed an original theater piece that was scheduled to be performed for a live audience; however, the prison canceled the show two days prior due to an unrelated situation that took place within the facility. The group members were able to participate in recorded interviews which were later used in MIO's annual film and also incorporated into the new MIO play "Broken Clock." Although the group was unable to perform their play, they did receive letters and a certificate of completion for taking part in the play-making process. Participants in the program are invited to join MIO's community programming upon release. MIO supported 20 incarcerated artists with regular phone calls for support and art sharing, re-entry support and planning, along with stipends for art creation.Portland Youth Project MIO started a pilot program in King Middle School (Portland) in February 2023. In 2024, the work with King Middle School students continued. The theater program at KMS had MIO staff engaging with students in our arts-based model for youth leadership, community support, and crisis intervention. Students were placed in groups to create and perform original theater in an 8-12 week process with three distinct phases. In the first phase, groups create agreements for values and conduct and engage in ice-breakers, collaborative problem solving, personal story sharing, and basic theater skill-building exercises. In the second phase, the groups synthesize personal stories and artistic content into a cohesive original play. In the third phase, the groups rehearse and perform in front of an invited audience including staff and administrators, peers, families, and other community members. Performances are followed by a facilitated dialogue about the content of the performance. The performances offer students a productive strategy for sharing their experiences and engaging the community in improving policies that directly impact their wellbeing. The performances offer staff, teachers, and school leadership the opportunity to witness "at risk" students as leaders and artists. Overall, the process strengthens community culture and relationships through artistic expression and connected dialogue. The students successfully completed two phases of the theater making process and the two groups performed plays in front of their families, school administration and peers. Live performances for King Middle School Students took place on May 13 & December 10, 2024.Theater Lab ProjectThe MIO Theater Lab is the overall container that holds all MIO theater related work / activities. This includes: Creative Ensemble Project, Lewiston Youth Projects, Portland Youth Projects, Mountain View Projects, and training / developing theater facilitators. The theater lab includes part-time employees and is designed to grow the skills of MIO staff in theater facilitation so that they can become future facilitative leads of MIO.Fiscal SponsorshipMaine Inside Out supports mission-aligned independent artists, organizations, and groups without 501(c)(3) tax status to apply for grant funding through formal fiscal sponsorship. Through fiscal sponsorship, MIO supports visionary artists and community organizers in the practical process of resourcing their ideas, reducing the administrative burden on emerging artists and projects and amplifying the collective community impact on social change. We meet with fiscal sponsor participants regularly to ensure alignment with the project and review expense reports.