Maine Arts Commission News

Intern News

	Members of Lewiston's Somali community gathered last summer for the opening of the Red Sea Restaurant. Photo by Keith Ludden.

Intern to Explore the Somali Community in Lewiston

Meredith Johnson will be joining the Maine Arts Commission staff as a summer intern, from June to August of this year. Meredith is a doctoral student in cultural anthropology at Indiana University. She will work in Lewiston over a 10-week period, gathering information about arts and culture in the city's Somali community.

Meredith has completed course work at both the University of Oklahoma and the University of Chicago. While in Chicago, Johnson worked with the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum Performing Arts Festival. She has also conducted research among American Indian communities. Meredith says her interest in cultures in diaspora is one of the things that drew her to the Lewiston internship project.

Meredith's internship is being supported in part by the Cultural Resources Diversity Internship Program which is funded by the National Center for Cultural Resources, the National Park Service and the Everett Internship Program.

Emily Laverty is also joining the agency's staff as an intern this summer. Emily is a graduate student seeking a master's degree in public administration-community arts management at the University of Illinois. Among other projects, she will be working with agency director Alden C. Wilson to develop Creative Economy tool kits for Maine's rural communities.

Kelly Colpitt, an art history student at the University of Maine, Orono will intern with Donna McNeil, contemporary art/public art associate, this summer. Meredith will be preparing for the first review of the Individual Artist Fellowship program under its new guidelines.

If you find yourself at the Maine Arts Commission offices this summer, please extend a warm welcome and thank you to the interns. Their energy helps the agency work toward its many goals.