Since 1992
Print and digital marketing
WINTHROP — The Winthrop Maine Historical Society will host Genie Gannett, cofounder of the First Amendment Museum, at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, at the Winthrop History and Heritage Center, 107 Main St.
A Zoom option for the Gannett presentation is also available at A zoom option is also available at https://networkmaine.zoom.us/j/89167551737.
Gannett will tell the story about how the Gannett family lived the First Amendment across four generations and how she and her sister, Terry Gannett Hopkins, started the First Amendment Museum in Augusta.
Gannett is an Augusta native and retired public school art teacher, who 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. Gannett 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 as an account executive for newspaper, television and radio.
She returned to Maine to raise her family. Community engagement has always important to her. In Maine, she has served on the board of Fort Western, Friends of the Blaine House, (Maine’s governor’s mansion,) and Friends of the Maine State Museum.
For information, call WMHS at 207-395-5199 or email at winthropmainehistorical@gmail.com.
PHOTO: First Amendment Museum (Submitted photo)
