Bill Giordano

Giordano is developing knowledge-to-action entrepreneurship collaboratives in Maine’s rural and peri-urban communities as part of a University of Maine Doctoral Fellowship put forward by artist, historian, social scientist and UMaine Intermedia luminary Dr. Owen Smith.

Two current projects include an arts business incubator program in Biddeford in called “IGNITE” and an arts and engineering entrepreneurship program in Blue Hill called “Tilth Ag and Arts”. Both are piloting economic development strategies that employ intermedia research systems to address equitable and solution-oriented economic development in Maine- Dr. Smith oversaw Giordano’s research in the Intermedia MFA program at University of Maine from 2008 -2012.

Since 2010 and doing business as Valley of the Stars Farm Bill’s worked to align his arts and agricultural ambitions into a cultural mission. Making farming and farm infrastructure handiwork a day job, he’s also twilighted in Maine’s music industry as a producer, songwriter and on live stage events as co-producer and songwriter for Angelikah Fahray and Bridge Isabella

In 2015, after 3 years of running vegetable farm, Bill took a position as Education Director for a 6 year project of the Maine Sustainable Agriculture Society that tested promising but unproven greenhouse heating technology on commercial vegetable farms. It resulted in a series of fact sheets, videos and important next steps for regional covered agriculture infrastructure research and development. Research investments in wireless sensor/controller systems, thermal mass heaters, and market farm scale innovations were key among a series of urgent findings on Maine’s year round agriculture infrastructure.