About

Maine Media Academy is the high school arm of Maine Media Workshops + College, running residential 2-week and 4-week summer workshops in filmmaking, photography, and book arts & design on its 20-acre campus in Rockport, Maine. It's open to teens ages 14–18, with no prerequisite experience required for most tracks.

For 2026, the flagship offerings are two paired 4-week programs, each built from two individually-bookable 2-week workshops: Film School runs June 22–July 17 (2-Week Film School, June 22–July 3, followed by 2-Week Advanced Film School, July 6–17), and Photo School runs the same June 22–July 17 span (2-Week Digital Photography, then 2-Week Historic and Alternative Photography), both taught by photography faculty member Kari Wehrs. Students in the historic/alternative photography track work hands-on in the darkroom with classic processes — silver gelatin developing and printing, cyanotype, lumen printing, and wet-plate collodion tintypes — alongside the digital workflow taught in the first two weeks. Additional 2-week electives (Finishing Strong: Editing & Post-Production with Scott Sell, and Scholastic Portfolio Development with Renée Dennison) are also offered, though their 2026 dates were not yet updated on the primary source at the time of this entry and should be confirmed before publishing. Each class is taught by a working industry professional paired with a teaching assistant, and coursework includes field trips into the surrounding coastal region.

Students live on campus, checking in Sunday afternoon and departing Saturday morning at the end of their session; Resident Advisors supervise outside of class and organize weekend activities (swimming, canoeing, hiking, island trips), and a lobster dinner caps off each session's final Friday alongside a student work showcase open to parents. Tuition varies by individual workshop (not stated in aggregate) but includes housing, meals, campus amenities, in-session transportation, Resident Advisor and TA support, and instruction; an early-bird discount of $250 off any 2-week workshop or $500 off a 4-week program applied automatically for registrations completed by December 31, 2025. The program does not award formal academic credit, but students may request a transcript be sent to their high school for possible credit consideration. Need-based Young Artist scholarships are available.

Maine Media Academy suits a student who already knows they want hands-on, technically serious training in a specific visual medium — this isn't a broad enrichment sampler, and the historic-photography and advanced-film tracks in particular assume real commitment to craft over a substantial residential stretch (up to four weeks). It's a strong choice for a student building a scholastic portfolio for art-school applications, given the direct line from these workshops to professional careers the program can point to.