Biography

Maria Marewski, M.A. has been focused on youth and media, critical thinking and creativity, trauma, and community since 1994 when she founded the Children’s Media Project (CMP), in Poughkeepsie NY, an award winning not-for-profit arts, technology, and community education organization.

Marewski has developed and managed many projects that have youth and community development at its core. Media and art making are the vehicle, but youth development is the underlying mission. CMP’s TALKING WALLS, a transformative Hero’s Journey program, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, and developed in collaboration with Vassar College and Green Haven prison, is one such program. Using a multi-intelligence, holistic approach to learning, this program has had a long-term beneficial impact on the youth, some of whom are still connected to CMP through professional channels.

Through designing hands-on workshops in media production and media literacy, Marewski had collaborated with schools, community organizations, churches and libraries to bring learning opportunities for 21st century learning to youth of all ages. She has taught at Vassar College, Hunter College and the University of Maryland and has been a Co-Chair of the Poughkeepsie Institute, an innovative 5 college partnership which was recognized in 2005 by the National Society for Experiential Education as the Outstanding Community Partnership in America award. Since 1998 Marewski has co-directed the summer Community Fellows Program at Vassar College. She has been a panelist on the selection committee of the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and has presented at numerous annual conferences including the Grantmakers in the Arts, the National Media Education Association, the Coalition for Essential Schools, and the International Conference on Practice and Professionalism.

From1996 to 2008, Marewski programmed Youth Media Exhibition Programs of screenings, panels and workshops, for the Hudson Valley Film Festival and the Hampton’s International Film Festival (HIFF). Selected from national and international entries, the work created by youth was recognized by HIFF through a Golden Starfish award. In 2003 CMP began regional broadcasting of DROP TV, a magazine style half-hour, 13 part series made by youth for youth, which was broadcast from NYC to Albany, California to Michigan, South Africa to New Zealand.

Believing that “Entertainment is the most powerful educational force of any culture” (George Gerbner), Marewski has been focusing her attention on the production of high impact, youth engaging media. She has been the Executive Producer for numerous award winning educational media products: Smokescreens: From Tobacco Outrage to Media Activism, a Media Literacy Textbook and Teacher’s Guide for Middle School; Please Stand Up Against Violence, a video and interactive CD-ROM focused on character development; He Said, She Said, a DVD Sexual Assault and Violence Prevention Educational Packet developed in collaboration with Vassar College and funded by the U.S. Department of Justice; Shadowhood, a 45 minute live action narrative and Hero’s Journey curriculum for Emerging Workers web Toolkit for at-risk youth; and Healthy Media, Active Youth, a wellness textbook for middle school students.

During Marewski’s tenure, CMP’s work has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council for the Arts, the MacArthur Foundation, the Open Society Institute, U.S. and New York State Departments of Labor, and the U.S. Department of Justice among others.