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The Instituto Allende is a visual arts school in
San Miguel de Allende San Miguel de Allende () is the principal city in the municipality of San Miguel de Allende, located in the far eastern part of Guanajuato, Mexico. A part of the Bajío region, the city lies from Mexico City, 86 km (53 mi) from Quer� ...
, Mexico. The institute provides a range of courses, and offers a BA in Visual Arts and an MA in Fine arts in association with the Universidad de Guanajuato. Its courses and degrees are recognized by most North American universities. It has been popular with American and Canadian students and artists since it opened in 1950, and the town now has a large expatriate community from the USA and Canada.


Location

The town of San Miguel de Allende is about four hours drive north of
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of ...
. It is named after General
Ignacio Allende Ignacio José de Allende y Unzaga (, , ; January 21, 1769 – June 26, 1811), commonly known as Ignacio Allende, was a captain of the Spanish Army in New Spain who came to sympathize with the Mexican independence movement. He attended the secre ...
, a hero of the Mexican War of Independence. It is at altitude of and has a temperate climate. The town was founded in 1542. It was flourishing by the 17th century, but in the late 18th century suffered from a severe economic crisis. The wealthy inhabitants moved elsewhere, and the town stagnated. The institute brought new life to the town, which is now relatively prosperous. San Miguel has cobblestone streets and old stone buildings, and has been designated a national historical monument. The institute is a few blocks southwest of the town center. It is housed in a massive building that was originally erected as a country residence for the wealthy Canal family. The family of the Conde de Canal began building on the site in 1735. In 1809 it was sold to the
Discalced Carmelite The Discalced Carmelites, known officially as the Order of the Discalced Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel ( la, Ordo Fratrum Carmelitarum Discalceatorum Beatae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo) or the Order of Discalced Carme ...
sisters. They may have had the tunnel built that once connected it to the Parroquia. The art college occupies the rear of the complex and its gardens. The front has a commercial plaza with a café and several galleries. The Galería Pérgola, opened in 1951 as an exhibition space for the Institute, has a large collection of works by Mexican artists in different styles and media. The ''Feria de Lana y Latón'', a large crafts fair with vendors from across the country, is held every few months in the central plaza of the Institute.


Background

In 1927 the Peruvian diplomat and artist
Felipe Cossío del Pomar Felipe Cossío del Pomar (31 May 1888 – 25 June 1981) was a Peruvian painter and left-wing political activist. While in exile from Peru he founded an art school in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico in 1938. The school failed, but on his return in ...
visited the town and was enchanted by the quality of light. More than ten years later he founded the ''Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes'' (University School of Fine arts) in a former convent that had been used as a barracks. The influx of students brought new prosperity to the town. Cossío del Pomar returned to Peru when the Peruvian government granted amnesty to exiles. He sold his holdings, which included a ranch as well as the school, to the Mexico City lawyer Alfredo Campanella. When
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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
ended in 1945, the
G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...
provided free education for veterans. Campanella saw an opportunity to make money when the school was approved for GI students.
Stirling Dickinson Stirling Dickinson (1909 – October 27, 1998) was an American artist who spent much of his life in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato in Mexico, where he was one of the first members of what would become a colony of expatriate artists from the Un ...
, an artist in charge of promoting the school, was persuaded to over-state the quality of the teaching. Many took the opportunity to study art in San Miguel, where the cost of living was very low. The school had hired the muralist
David Alfaro Siqueiros David Alfaro Siqueiros (born José de Jesús Alfaro Siqueiros; December 29, 1896 – January 6, 1974) was a Mexican social realist painter, best known for his large public murals using the latest in equipment, materials and technique. Along with ...
as a lecturer, a noted communist. He had a dispute over funding with Campanella. Most of the students supported Siqueiros, and in the end most of them walked out. The school was forced to close in 1949. The former convent of the Immaculate Conception is now home to the government-run Centro Cultural Ignacio Ramírez.


History

Cossío returned, discovered the earlier school had been ruined, and founded a new school with the help of the former governor of Guanajuato Enrique Fernández Martínez, and Fernández's wife Nell Harris. Cossio and Fernández bought the ruined 18th century Renaissance palace that the Count of Canal had built during the silver boom, with its large grounds. They renovated the building, and also opened several cottages and a hotel for visitors. In September-October 1950, before the official opening, the Institute gave an exhibition of the work of local artists. The painter
Frank Leonard Brooks Leonard Brooks (7 November 1911 – 20 November 2011) was a Canadian artist. Biography Born in London, England, Brooks arrived in Canada in 1912. He studied art at Central Technical School, then the OCAD, Ontario College of Art and with Fra ...
and his wife, the photographer
Reva Brooks Reva Brooks (May 1913 – 24 January 2004) was a Canadians, Canadian photographer who did much of her work in and around San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. The San Francisco Museum of Art chose Reva Brooks as one of the top 50 women photographers in ...
, were both included in this show. Stirling Dickinson left a school he had opened in the town and became art director of the newly opened ''Instituto Allende''. The Instituto Allende was able to grant a Master of Arts degree from its beginning by arrangement with the Universidad de Guanajuato. It was therefore recognized by several universities in the United States, which attracted students since they could earn credits in Mexico. The Italian-American painter
Rico Lebrun Rico (Federico) Lebrun (Naples, December 10, 1900 – Malibu, May 9, 1964) was an Italian-American painter and sculptor. Early life Lebrun was born in 1900 in Naples, Italy. He initially studied banking and journalism before taking art classes a ...
was brought to the school as a star teacher. By 1960 the expanded institute began to offer undergraduate courses. North Americans who had studied in the Institute often returned to live in San Miguel, making the town increasingly prosperous. During the period from the 1950s to the 1970s the Instituto Allende attracted hundreds of students from the United States.
Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generat ...
writers including
Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian anc ...
and
Neal Cassady Neal Leon Cassady (February 8, 1926 – February 4, 1968) was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic and counterculture movements of the 1960s. He was prominently featured as himself in the "scroll" (first d ...
spent time in the town. The ''New York Herald Tribune'' published an article that praised the institute, the low cost of living and the diversity of the students, making a point of saying "there is nothing Bohemian about the Instituto's group." Dickinson continued to work at the Instituto Allende until retiring in 1983. By 2010 almost one tenth of the population of San Miguel, or 8,000 people, came from the United States.


Program

The Instituto Allende is an independent, private, non-profit organization. The faculty and office staff all speak both English and Spanish. Students may take Spanish language classes. Practical courses are given in painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, weaving, jewelry, photography, batik, lithography, paper making, etching, monotype printing, and silkscreen. The institute also gives classes on the history of art. Students may earn a Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts and a Master's degree in Fine arts, both recognized by many universities in North America. In 2012 the Lifelong Learning program was established to offer courses in English to visitors and locals.


Notable alumni

*
Lowry Burgess Lowry Burgess (1940 – January 28, 2020) was a conceptual and environmental artist and educator and was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was a Distinguished Fellow in the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. He also served on the Advi ...
*
Amanda Crowe Amanda Crowe (July 16, 1928 – September 27, 2004) was an Eastern Band Cherokee woodcarver and educator from Cherokee, North Carolina. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, her work has been widely exhibited and is held by ...
(1928–2004) *
Nicolás Cuéllar Jesús Nicolás Cuéllar (full name Jesús Nicolás Cuéllar Hernández, September 10, 1927 – May 17, 2010) was a Mexican painter who was best known for his surreal and magically themed work as well as his mentorship of the artistic community i ...
(1927–2010) *
Demi Demi is a feminine given name with Greek and Latin roots. It was originally a nickname of Demetria, the feminine form of the masculine name Demetrius, which is itself the Latin and English spelling of the Greek name Demetrios. It is also an Alb ...
(born 1942) *
Stirling Dickinson Stirling Dickinson (1909 – October 27, 1998) was an American artist who spent much of his life in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato in Mexico, where he was one of the first members of what would become a colony of expatriate artists from the Un ...
(1909–1998) * Margaret Webb Dreyer (1911–1976) * Gorky González Quiñones (born 1939) * Luis Gutierrez (born 1933) * Elaine Hamilton-O'Neal (1920–2010) * Ralf Henricksen (1907–1975) *
Joseph F. Hlavacek Joseph F. Hlavacek (July 13, 1921 – July 5, 1982) was an American painter from Whitewater, Wisconsin whose paintings, mixed oil and metal collages, drawings, and prints on themes of the natural world won him much acclaim in the Midwest and from ...
(1921–1982) *
Roy Kiyooka Roy Kenzie Kiyooka (January 18, 1926January 8, 1994) was a Canadian painter, poet, photographer, arts teacher, and multi-media artist. Biography A Nisei, or a second generation Japanese Canadian, Roy Kenzie Kiyooka was born in Moose Jaw, Saskat ...
(1926–1994) *
William Kurelek William Kurelek, (March 3, 1927 – November 3, 1977) was a Canadian artist and writer. His work was influenced by his childhood on the prairies, his Ukrainian-Canadian roots, his struggles with mental illness, and his conversion to Roman Cat ...
(1927–1977) * Joy Laville (born 1923) *
Don Mabie Don Mabie (born January 9, 1947), also known as Chuck Stake, is a Canadian artist based in Nakusp, British Columbia. Mabie has been performing, drawing, assembling, trading and mailing art since the early 1970s. Career Born in Calgary, Alberta ...
(born 1947) * Wynona Mulcaster (born 1915) * Joyce J. Scott (born 1948) *
Jolie Stahl Jolie Stahl (born 1950) is an American painter, sculptor, printer, and photographer. She has worked as a journalist and anthropologist. Early life and education Stahl spent her childhood in Los Angeles, California and later moved to New York wh ...
(born 1950) * Romeo Villalva Tabuena (born 1921) * Spider Webb (1944–2022) * Phyllis Wiener (1921–2013) *
Sebastián Canovas Sebastián Canovas Ávalos (born 1957 in Mexico City) is a Mexican artist known for watercolors, oil paintings and murals. He has exhibited throughout Mexico, in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Germany and France. Biography Educat ...
(born 1957)


References

Citations Sources * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Allende, Instituto Educational institutions established in 1950 1950 establishments in Mexico