Maine Creates is a statewide initiative designed to train teaching artists, strengthen community connections, and enhance the well-being of Maine people through the power of the arts. As the Maine Arts Commission travels around the state, a clear message emerges: Maine’s under-resourced and rural communities experience isolation, disconnection, and limited access to meaningful creative opportunities.

In response, the Maine Arts Commission partnered with Side x Side, a Maine-based nonprofit with a proven track record of training teaching artists and educators, to build a robust training and support program that equips teaching artists to bring arts-based solutions directly into Maine’s towns and cities. Maine Creates’ goal is to ensure that every community has access to the transformative power of creativity.

In 2025, its inaugural year, the program trained more than 35 teaching artists across the state to boost connectedness and combat isolation through community artmaking experiences.

In addition, the Maine Creates Fund, available to Maine Creates trainees, has supported projects in libraries, a re-entry correctional center, community centers, rural towns, and schools—each project thoughtfully designed to address local needs through collaborative, intergenerational artmaking.

Side x Side mentors each artist throughout the process, and every project culminates in a community celebration that honors both the art created and the relationships formed. Maine Creates programming impacts hundreds of young people and adults statewide.