Courtesy/Engine
Jessica Muise was named the next executive director of Biddeford-based arts nonprofit Engine.
Updated: December 15, 2020
Nonprofit Notebook: MCF awards $95K in grants; Biddeford arts group names new leader
Photo / Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center
The Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center will use a $10,000 Maine Community Foundation grant to study the feasibility of farming sea scallops in lobster pounds in Washington and Hancock counties. Shown here is sugar kelp harvested from a Damariscotta River farm.
The Maine Community Foundation has awarded $95,000 in grants to 11 recipients in Hancock and Washington counties through its Downeast Innovation Fund, the foundation said.
Launched in 2018, the fund supports nonprofits that provide programs to improve or increase entrepreneurship and innovation in business and the local economies in Hancock and Washington counties.
Recipients in the latest funding round include the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center Inc. in Walpole, which will receive $10,000 to study the feasibility of farming sea scallops in the two Downeast counties.
New Ventures Maine in Bangor will also receive $10,000, to boost partnerships within the Downeast entrepreneurial ecosystem and expand access to micro-enterprise training advising and resources.
Full list of recipients and amounts
Citizens Organization for Rural Education, Danforth: $10,000
City of Ellsworth: $10,000
Downeast Salmon Federation, Columbia Falls: $10,000
Four Directions Development Corp., Orono: $5,000
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle: $5,000
Heart of Ellsworth: $10,000
Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center Inc., Walpole: $10,000
Native Gardens of Blue Hill: $8,890
New Ventures Maine, Bangor: $10,000
Sunrise County Economic Council, Machias: $10,000
University of Maine System, Orono: $6,110
The deadline for the next round of grant applications is Oct. 15, 2021. More information about all Maine Community Foundation grant programs and applications are available online.
The Maine Community Foundation, headquartered in Ellsworth with additional staff in Portland, Dover-Foxcroft and Mars Hill, operates charitable giving programs aimed at improving the quality of life for all Maine people.
Engine revs up for 2021
Biddeford arts nonprofit Engine on Monday named a new executive director to succeed Tammy Ackerman, the organization’s co-founder who has served as executive director since 2009.
Jessica Muise was named as the new leader and is set to start full-time on Feb. 1.
The Waltham, Mass., native has been leading data and partnership efforts for the creative economy team at the New England Foundation for the Arts in Boston. She also brings more than a decade of experience with outreach, fundraising, marketing, program and facility management and strategic planning for arts-based community organizations.
She has also held leadership roles at Artisan’s Asylum, a 40,000 square-foot community workshop in Somerville, Mass., and The Umbrella Arts Center in Concord, Mass.
Muise was selected from more than 120 applicants in a national search. Engine said its board was impressed by her passion, charisma, innovative thinking and collaborative spirit.
“Jessica is an experienced arts and community advocate who will bring energy and exceptional collaborative skills to the job of the executive director” said Stephen Burt, the Engine board member who chaired the search committee. “We’re truly thrilled to have Jessica as a new and engaged member of the Biddeford and surrounding community.”
Muise holds a bachelor's degree from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in Dance in Education as Transformative Pedagogy, and recently completed the Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy through University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. As an artist, her creative work has focused on bringing dance making into public spaces.
“I’m thrilled to be leading Engine, a catalyst for community building and a keystone of Maine’s thriving creative economy,” she said.
Engine, partially funded by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, aims to connect and inspire the community through art, design and education.
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