The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an

artists residency Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

located in Madison,

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

, just outside of Skowhegan. Every year, the program accepts online applications from emerging artists from November through January, and selects 65 to participate in the nine-week intensive summer program. Admissions decisions are announced in April. The school provides participants with housing, food, and studio space, and the campus offers a library, media lab, and sculpture shop, among other amenities. The tuition for the program is $6,000, however aid is available, ensuring that everyone accepted into the program can attend, regardless of financial need. While on campus, the participants interact with five or six resident faculty artists for the duration of the program, as well as five to seven visiting faculty artists, both of whom are selected by Skowhegan’s Board of Governors. Participants are not allowed to bring family or friends with them to Skowhegan, nor are visitors allowed on campus. Lectures by faculty artists, which are generally held on Fridays, are open to the public.

History

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, New England portrait painter Willard C. Cummings was stationed in Alaska in the War Art Unit. There, he shared his idea for an educational model “where young artists could study with leading artists of the time” with Sidney Simon, a sculptor also in the Unit. Upon returning from the war in 1946, with the help of Simon, Henry Varnum Poor, already an established presence in American Art, and Charles Cutler, a New England stone sculptor, Cummings turned his family farm into a functional alternative school run by artists for artists. As the name indicates, Skowhegan was originally focused on the traditional art forms of painting and sculpture, but gradually, the program began accepting artists of all practices, even being the alleged site of the first contemporary Land Art piece in 1968 by Douglas Leichter and Richard Saba. Similarly, while the school originally offered classes such as

life drawing A figure drawing is a drawing of the human form in any of its various shapes and postures using any of the drawing media. The term can also refer to the act of producing such a drawing. The degree of representation may range from highly detailed, ...

or plein air painting, it eventually forwent traditional forms of instruction save for weekly faculty lectures, and all classes on campus are now self-directed by participants. Fresco instruction, however, has always been a part of the program. Today, Skowhegan is one of the few institutions in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

that teaches this technique. N. Sean Glover was the fresco instructor from 2010 to 2019, when Oscar Rene Cornejo took over. Since 1952, Skowhegan has recorded the lectures given on campus by resident and visiting faculty artists. They now comprise an archive of over 700 lectures and are accessible to artists and researchers in select repositories including The

Colby College Museum of Art The Colby College Museum of Art is an art museum located on the campus of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1959 and now comprising five wings, nearly 8,000 works and more than 38,000 square feet of exhibition space, the Colby Colleg ...

, The Archives of American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, The

Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".

, and The

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

Notable alumni

''See also Category list of Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni.'' Skowhegan alumni have included a number of well-known artists, including:

Faculty

* William Zorach *

Karl Zerbe Karl Zerbe (September 16, 1903 – November 24, 1972) was a German-born American painter and educator. Biography Karl Zerbe was born on September 16, 1903 in Berlin, Germany. The family lived in Paris, France from 1904–1914, where his fat ...

* Henry Varnum Poor *

Jack Levine Jack Levine (January 3, 1915November 8, 2010) was an American Social Realist painter and printmaker best known for his satires on modern life, political corruption, and biblical narratives. Levine is considered one of the key artists of the Bos ...

* Herb Aach * Berenice Abbott

Awards to alumni

* Artist's Lifetime Achievement Award, National Academy Museum– Alex Katz ('49, '50) * National Artist Award, Anderson Ranch Arts Center– Enrique Martinez Celaya ('94) * Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant– Jennie C. Jones ('96) * Adolph and Clara Obrig Prize, National Academy Museum– Robert Andrew Parker ('52) Susan Louise Shatter ('64) * American Academy of Arts and Letters Awards– Brian Alfred ('99) Ellen Altfest ('02) Matt Blackwell ('80) Mark Ferguson ('94) Stephen Mueller ('68)

Dana Schutz Dana Schutz (born 1976 in Livonia, Michigan) is an American artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Schutz is known for her gestural, figurative paintings that often take on specific subjects or narrative situations as a point of depar ...

('99)

Gedi Sibony Gedi or GEDI may refer to: People * Ali Mohamed Gedi (born 1952), Prime Minister of Somalia, 2004–2007 * Bashir Nur Gedi (died 2007), Somalian dissident journalist who was murdered * Ahmed Jimale Gedi, Somalian Chief of Army, 2010–2011 * M ...

('99) Arthur Simms ('85) Emna Zghal ('04) *

Rome Prize The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Prizes have been awarded annually since 1921, with a hiatus ...

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History In 1893, a group of American architects, ...

– Daniel Bozhkov ('90), Heather Carson ('97) * William H. Johnson Prize, William H. Johnson Foundation for the Arts– Edgar Arceneaux ('99) * Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship– Marie Watt ('95) * John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships– SoHyun Bae ('93) Tracy Miller ('92) Chris Lan Hui Chou ('02) Christopher Duncan ('75) Amy Feldman ('18) Judy Fox ('76) Kalup Linzy ('02) Karyn Olivier ('00) * MacArthur Fellowship–

Whitfield Lovell Whitfield Lovell (born October 2, 1959) is a contemporary African-American artist who is known primarily for his drawings of African-American individuals from the first half of the 20th century. Lovell creates these drawings in pencil, oil stick, ...

('85) * New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships– Danielle Abrams ('92) Patricia Cronin ('91) Peter Dudek ('78) Alessandra Exposito ('97) Heather Hart ('05) Wayne Hodge ('06) Shih Chieh Huang ('01) Yoko Inoue ('00) Jihyun Park ('02) Michael Rakowitz ('96) Peter Simensky ('03) Shinique Smith ('03) Steed Taylor ('97) Mary Temple ('99) Hank Willis Thomas ('05) Traci Tullius ('02) Nari Ward ('91) Saya Woolfalk ('04) Charles McGill ('87), Heather Carson ('97) * United States Artists Fellowship– Laylah Ali ('93) William Pope.L ('96) * Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant– Cris Cristofaro ('70) * Art Matters Grants– Sanford Biggers ('98) Daniel Bozhkov ('90) Wayne Hodge ('06) Shaun Leonardo ('04) Charles McGill ('87) Kori Newkirk ('97) Clifford Owens ('04) Cauleen Smith ('07) Allison Wiese ('99) Saya Woolfalk ('04)

Leslie Hewitt Leslie Hewitt (born 1977, Saint Albans, Queens) is an American contemporary visual artist. Education Leslie Hewitt was born in 1977 in Saint Albans, Queens in New York City. Hewitt received a B.F.A. from the Cooper Union's School of Art in 2 ...

('01) * Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Grant– Donna Conlon ('02) * Gwangju Biennial Prize– Allora & Calzadilla - Guillermo Calzadilla ('98) * Creative Capital Grants– Brody Condon ('01) Allison Wiese ('99) Wayne Hodge ('06) * Fulbright Senior Research Grant– Margaret Lanzetta ('81) * Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Grant– Jon Cuyson ('06) * Joan Mitchell Foundation Grants– John Bisbee ('92) Amy Feldman ('13) Lilian Garcia-Roig ('90)

Rajkamal Kahlon Rajkamal Kahlon is an American artist based in Germany whose work draws on legacies of colonialism, often using the material culture, documentary material, and aesthetics of Western colonial archives. Biography Kahlon was raised in California, t ...

('98) William Villalongo ('02) Allora & Calzadilla - Guillermo Calzadilla ('98) * Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Grants– Astrid Bowlby ('02) Amy Feldman ('12) Heesop Yoon ('05) Tamara Zahaykevich ('95) Tim Doud ('92) * Penny McCall Foundation Grant– Allora & Calzadilla - Guillermo Calzadilla ('98) * Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants– Marcus Bjernerup ('04) Sarah Cain ('06) John Hock ('92) Beth Campbell ('97) Christopher Duncan ('75)http://www.chrisduncansculpture.com Katie Grinnan ('92) Iva Gueorguiva ('05) Kirsten Hassenfeld ('97) Eric Hongisto ('98) Young-Min Kang ('04) Elanit Kayne ('07) Haegeen Kim ('06) Tracy Miller ('92) John O'Connor ('00) Jean Shin ('99) Hong Zhang ('03) * Virginia Center for the Creative Arts 2012 Fellowship - Charles McGill ('87) * Cintas Fellowship– Allora & Calzadilla - Guillermo Calzadilla ('98)

References

External links

Skowhegan School of Art
website {{Authority control Education in Somerset County, Maine Skowhegan, Maine 1947 establishments in Maine Educational institutions established in 1947 Artist residencies