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PORTLAND, Maine

UNE’s Maine Geriatric Education Center to sponsor ‘Living Art—Living Well†seminar series in Aroostook County

The Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s Maine Geriatric Education Center (UNE-MGEC), headed by Director Judith A. Metcalf, ANP-BC, MS, FMGS, is sponsoring a series of seminars titled “Living Art—Living Well Studio.† The series will be hosted by Cary Medical Center and the Aroostook Area Agency on Aging as a way to provide health professionals and Aroostook County community members with an understanding of the important link between art and creativity in healthy aging.

The program is funded by UNE-MGEC through a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The series consists of four seminars, each of which will explore ideas of how creativity affects the health of the body, mind, and spirit of older adults.  Maine master traditional artists who have taught in the Maine Arts Commission’s Traditional Arts Apprentice Program will demonstrate their crafts, such as Wabanaki basket making and Acadian woodcarving, and will discuss the role of those activities in their lives.

According to Metcalf, the program, which is being offered for the fourth-year by UNE-MGEC, “provides an exciting and unique opportunity for health professionals to explore the connection between traditional art, cultural legacy and life review and to gain insight into the role these play in health, older age, positive decision making and the practice of healthcare.â€

The series will begin in March and will be held once per month through June, 7:00-8:30 p.m., at the Caribou Inn and Convention Center in Caribou, Maine.

The seminars are free and open to the public.

A full schedule and program details will be announced soon.  For more information on the program, please contact Bill Flagg at Cary Medical Center at 207-498-1376.

About the Â鶹´«Ã½

The Â鶹´«Ã½ is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.