workshops.
Upcoming Workshop with Salt at MECA: Turning Archival Audio into Audio Shorts, Feb 16 – March 11, 2022
In this four-week course radio producer and oral historian Galen Koch will teach students how to bring audio archives to life. Students will have access to a rarely-heard archive of Salt recordings conducted in Eastport in the 1970s and 1980s. The interviews are the source material for the 1983 print issue of “Salt: Journal of New England Culture” and include Eastport residents talking about sardine factories, herring fishing, and changes to the working waterfront. Using these interviews, participants in this workshop will learn techniques to transcribe and assess content and how to identify and create a cohesive narrative from compelling audio shorts.
The course will also explore the nuts-and-bolts of creating exhibits, from virtual and in-person platforms and technologies, to where to find funding and how to work with community partners. We will discuss some of the ethical concerns surrounding the use of archival material, including how to contact participants and organizations for permission and how to create standard release forms. There will be opportunities for participants to share about archival or oral history projects that they may be working on, or would like to pursue.
For more information and to sign up for this course please visit Maine College of Art’s Continuing Studies Page, here.
Introduction to Oral History Methodology
This introductory course is meant to teach potential oral history practitioners the basics of how to conduct a life-course oral history. Identifying participants, conducting pre-interview research, informing interviewees of their rights, release forms, and interview etiquette will be discussed. The goal at the end of the workshop is for participants to be able to independently conduct their own oral history in their local communities. Samples of the necessary forms will be provided. Additionally, the legal and ethical issues involved in doing oral history will be discussed.
Oral History in the Classroom
This workshop is for educators who wish to integrate oral history primary sources into their curriculum. Participants will learn about useful resources, sample lesson plans, and other activities to bring history to life in the classroom.
Podcasting & Radio Storytelling
Turning oral histories into radio stories or a podcast series means your content can reach broader and more diverse audiences. Interviews are more flexible and versatile if shared in this way. This workshop is an introduction to the basic tools and techniques for creating a podcast. The first part of the workshop covers the technical aspects – basic equipment to get started, and professional sound recording tricks and techniques. Then we will cover interviewing for live to tape interviews and for creating radio stories. We will also discuss writing for radio and scripting the podcast, in addition to voicing narration, and editing and sound production. Finally, we will talk about podcast ideas, names, promotion and sponsorship.
To hear work by Maine Sound + Story partners, listen to the Island Institute’s podcast, “From the Sea Up” produced by Galen Koch.
