Monique Boutin

Monique Boutin is an artist and educator exploring artistic practices that engage communities with land use, history, and social and environmental justice. Monique received her MFA in Visual Arts and MA in Art History from Purchase College, State University of New York, where she has taught courses in drawing and arts and civic engagement. She has taught courses for K-12 students in digital photography, drawing, geography, Maine Studies and U.S. History in New York and Maine, and developed and facilitated programming engaging communities with art, science and the environment in place-based museum education departments at sculpture parks, art and natural history museums, and university museums in Boston. She received her BA in Studio Art and BA in Art History from The University of Maine, where she ran cross country, indoor and outdoor track, and has worked with high school runners at Acadian Running Camp on Mount Desert Island, ME, since 2011. 

Monique enjoys finding connections between art, the environment, community-building and change-making, especially through running and making art. She remembers being captivated by school visits from Chewonki’s Traveling Natural History Program when growing up in York, ME, from which she grew up exploring Maine’s woods and waters. She has experience working with children in hands-on learning and maker spaces in museums, public family programming, courses and workshops, classrooms in public schools, summer track programs and running camp for cross country athletes, and most recently at Camp Chewonki as a visual arts activity head. Her background in art includes drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, community-engaged art and collaborative archives, and her research interests include participatory artistic practices, institutions and movements engaging with environmental justice.