CAMDEN – Three summers ago, John Morin of Camden saw an opportunity where other people saw a problem.

There were teen-agers in Harbor Park. Kicking around Hacky Sacks. Hanging out. Being kids.

Some people saw it as a nuisance. Morin saw things a little differently.

“He thought, ‘Rather than kick them out, let’s find out what they need,'” said Sarah Wilbur, a volunteer with the Teen Arts program, which serves youth in the midcoast area. “He found the art connection. He discovered a lot of kids who had a lot of talent but weren’t necessarily inspired by [the programs they were in].”

So he organized a teen summer arts day at Harbor Park in Camden, a festival where teens could showcase their talent, whether visual, musical or dramatic. It was such a hit, he did it again the next year, and the next. Now, he and a group of coordinators want to expand the program to a year-round, community-based program that towns throughout the state could emulate.

“It came out of a need to give kids a pat on the back,” Morin said. “Its whole design was just to run a teen arts festival, but the need was so great that here we are, three years later, and we can’t let go of it because we’re the only ones meeting this need.”

To help meet the need, Teen Arts will hold “Hearts and Soul: Second Annual Evening of Stirring Celtic Performance” at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport. Featured musicians include Iain Mac Harg, a highland bagpiper; the Highland Soles dancers; Castlebay, a local Celtic music duo; and Jerry Sullivan, a Uilleann piper who recently visited Maine as part of Eileen Ivers’ band.

Tickets cost $15 each and are available only in advance. All of the proceeds and any additional donations will benefit Teen Arts, whose mission is to “facilitate self-awareness through developing self-expression.”

The group, which is run by a small group of volunteers, is looking to give teens an artistic outlet throughout the year. In addition to the summer arts day, Morin hopes to add discussion groups, training, gallery visits, performances, mentorships, critiquing sessions and formal courses of study.

In addition to monetary aid, Teen Arts also is looking for people willing to volunteer their time or talent to local teen-agers, whether by teaching them how to paint or taking them to a museum. Morin hopes to turn Teen Arts into a self-sufficient program run by people in the towns it serves.

“[We hope] some organization shifts its focus in order to satisfy this need so the need goes away or that we at Teen Arts get the funding to go into communities and start these programs and leave them with the communities able to sustain them,” Morin said. “The need is there. We’ve got the formula.”

When Morin started the summer arts day, he found that there were groups of teens in the area that weren’t being served by traditional, in-school arts programs. Some were homeless or home-schooled or dropouts. Others had a lot of talent but didn’t really get any recognition for it. This was a chance for all to showcase their art.

“I had tried to get into a program in the high school and I was denied,” said Loretta Tower of Lincolnville, who now is a student at Heartwood College of Art in Kennebunkport. She attended high school in Camden but later switched to home schooling. “I had almost given up hope. Then I ended up finding Teen Arts and was so encouraged. This ended up being even more of an opportunity for me to get out into the community.”

The program works to foster both cooperation and independence among the teens.

“It’s very self-run,” said Wilbur, who also works as the coordinator of the Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Museum. “They’re managing themselves. They get that validation that they’re doing it on their own.”

For the art shows, the work isn’t juried. It doesn’t have to fit a certain style or genre, as long as the subject matter isn’t offensive.

“You didn’t have to have one style, one way of doing it,” Tower said of her two shows with Teen Arts. “Everyone was unique and everyone was appreciated for their uniqueness.”

Morin said the youth may exhibit “whatever they call art,” and that inclusiveness is part of what makes the program special.

“This is a great opportunity for kids to get art up and get confidence in themselves,” said Brandon Smith, now 21 and a student at Southern Maine Technical College. “I did that for two years and I really had a good time.”

“Hearts and Soul” will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, at the Camden Hills Regional High School on Route 90 in Rockport. Tickets cost $15 and are available at Wild Rufus in Camden, The Second Read in Rockland, and The Green Store in Belfast. Tickets will not be sold at the door. For information, call Pinchbeck Photography at 594-0088.