Get to know the head of the Art Department!

This is the seventh installment of The Spartan Times’ series, The Teacher Feature, which shares with our readers more insight into the teachers who lead us each day.

The Visual Performing Arts (VPA) and Family Consumer Sciences (FCS) programs at Sanford High School are booming with opportunity and talent (staff and students!), and are led by department chair Maggie Warner. Known to her students as Ms. Warner, she teaches a wide variety of classes including AP Art, Digital Photography, Studio Art 2, Drawing, Art Fundamentals, and Drawing/Illustrating Enrichments. You can follow her classes’ accomplishments on Instagram at @ms_warners_artroom.

Ms. Warner has spent her 18-year teaching career at SHS, joining us in 2005 after graduating from Colby-Sawyer College in New London, N.H., where she double majored in studio art with a concentration in photography (traditional/black and white) and education, and received a minor in sociology.

Here’s some information and fun facts you may not have known about her:

Tell us a little bit about yourself:

I grew up in North Yarmouth, ME. I played field hockey and lacrosse in junior high and high school. I also worked with the high school’s literary and arts publication, Inkwell. I spent two summers sailing on a 131-foot schooner called the Harvey Gamage.

I went to Colby-Sawyer College in New London, NH where I double majored in studio art with a concentration in photography (traditional/black and white) and education. I also have a minor in sociology. I worked in the admissions office for four years giving tours and working at open houses, alumni events, and new student events. I was involved with dance club, yearbook, the art student society, the environmental/recycling club, intramural floor hockey, and the outing club.

If you could describe yourself in 3 words what would they be?

Independent, organized, imaginative.

What do you like to do in your free time?

This year I learned how to graft apple trees and have started a small orchard. I love to read, cook, and bake. I have a very energetic dog named Freya. I am trying to improve my knitting and sewing skills.

What is your favorite and least favorite part about living and teaching in Maine? 

My favorite parts about living in Maine are all of the land trusts and public places for hiking and walking. My least favorite part are the mosquitos and how cold February is.

What made you want to become a teacher? 

I wanted to do something with the arts and I wasn’t confident I could support myself as an artist without having a lot of other jobs. So I decided to become a teacher because I love helping people describe the world around them through art and it gives me the time to work on my own art over the summer. And my elementary and jr. high art teacher was super cool, we still keep in touch!

How long have you been teaching at Sanford? What do you like about teaching here? (Is there anything you dislike about it?) 

18 years!

Where else have you taught? And, if you could teach one other subject or class, what would it be? 

I haven’t taught at any other schools, but I did teach Plein air ink drawing classes in Yosemite National Park for two summers. I would love to teach an art history or humanities class.

Is there anything else about you that you’d like our readers to know about you? Or do you have a favorite quote you’d like to share? 

“Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.” – Julia Child