The Maine Wild Blueberry Museum is one of the main projects that grew out of three years (2017-2020) of community engaged teaching and research in collaboration with Maine Wild Blueberry growers.
To address small farmer’s concerns, the Wild Difference Project linked community partners with students from 5 university classes with the following outcomes:
- Launch of this online Maine Wild Blueberry Museum,
- Designs for the inaugural issue of Spire: The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability, illustrations by student Colby Fogg
- Grant writing for NEH, NBRG, NextGen, with funding provided by NextGen
- A parallel social media/Facebook campaign, including creation of wild blueberry “emoji” in iTunes
- Funding for and development of a physical museum in Jonesboro, Maine
- Planning for a National Heritage Area in Downeast Maine
- Collaboration with local Washington County High schools in a mentor program to teach digital story skills and collect community blueberry raking stories for the museum
I presented this material at two national community engagement conferences and planned to present “The Wild Difference: Hearing voices of small farmers and endangered plants in Downeast Maine” at the Compact20 Conference in Seattle, Washington April 2020, until it was cancelled due to COVID19.
Democracy, Opportunity, and Voice (conference themes) in the blueberry barrens of Downeast Maine I claim, depends on whether small farmers can compete with multinational encroachments in the region.