Winthrop center to host Augusta museum co-founder Oct. 13

Genie Gannet Submitted photo

Genie Gannett, co-founder of the First Amendment Museum in Augusta, is scheduled to speak at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, at the Winthrop History and Heritage Center, 107 Main St.

She will tell the story about how the Gannett family lived their First Amendment freedoms across four generations. Inspired by this history, she will talk about how she and her sister, Terry Gannett Hopkins, started the museum to inspire all Americans to live their First Amendment freedoms, according to a news release from Mary Richards, a member of the society’s public relations committee.

Genie Gannett is a retired public school art teacher, having taught in Maine, Florida and Alaska. Her first lesson each year was to have students make small self-portraits to attach to an “artistic license.” This symbolic “license” helped students understand that they had permission to think outside the box and embrace their freedom of expression.

Her graduate field work was centered on interdisciplinary instruction and became the focus of her teaching. She was the founder and president of the Marion County Art Association, an affiliate of both the Florida and National Art Education Association. She was also an educational television producer and director for the Marion County School District.

In Alaska, she worked in the media industry as an account executive for newspaper, television and radio. An Augusta native, she returned to Maine to raise her family.

She was a founding director of the Friends of Independence Mine in Willow, Alaska; founder of the Marion County (Florida) Art Association; vice chair of the Ocala (Florida) Municipal Arts Commission; and a former board member of Old Fort Western, Friends of the Blaine House, and Friends of the Maine State Museum.

Inspired by her own childhood memories, she wrote and illustrated a children’s book, “My Firefly and I.”

A Zoom option is also available at networkmaine.zoom.us/j/89167551737 (meeting ID: 891 6755 1737).

For more information, contact the society at 207-395-5199 or winthropmainehistorical@gmail.com.