Reply To: Introduction to IN-ovations Council

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Ian Ramsey
A native of Maine, multi-instrumentalist and writer, Ian Ramsey has taught for fourteen years at North Yarmouth Academy, an independent day school in Yarmouth, Maine. He has toured Europe playing jazz, been in a Trinidadian Mas Band, played bluegrass in China, led chants in Northern Japan’s Nebuta Festival, and performed as a member of a subarctic Inuit dance troupe. A published poet and writer, he is committed to environmental work, arts activism and building community. He has been an artist-in-residence, teacher and performer throughout much of America and several foreign countries. Ian is a founder of the Maine State Acoustic Music Festival, a statewide auditioned roots music festival that is the first of its kind in America. In 2003 he was a featured artist in Maine Governor Baldacci’s conference on “The Creative Economy” and in 2007 he was chosen to participate in the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund. Ian is also a licensed Maine Guide and has taken students and music ensembles to Costa Rica, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, China, Ireland, and backcountry locations around North America. In addition to his work at NYA, Ian is the director of Pan Fried Steel, a not-for-profit community Steel Band. Ian is currently an MFA student in the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. He is devoted to place-based education, using the arts to bridge cultural divides, and inhabiting the rich and challenging terrain between diverse disciplines and ideas.