Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture


The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an artists residency located in Madison, Maine, 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, 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 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 that teaches this technique. Since 2010, N. Sean Glover has been the fresco instructor.
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 Archives of American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Getty Research Institute, and The Museum of Modern Art

Notable alumni

See also Category list of :Category:Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni|Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni.
Skowhegan alumni have included a number of well-known artists, including:
Artist's Lifetime Achievement Award, National Academy Museum–
Alex Katz
National Artist Award, Anderson Ranch Arts Center–
Enrique Martinez Celaya
Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant–
Jennie C. Jones
Adolph and Clara Obrig Prize, National Academy Museum–
Robert Andrew Parker
Susan Louise Shatter
American Academy of Arts and Letters Awards–
Brian Alfred
Ellen Altfest
Matt Blackwell
Mark Ferguson
Stephen Mueller
Dana Schutz
Gedi Sibony
Arthur Simms
Emna Zghal
Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome–
Daniel Bozhkov
William H. Johnson Prize, William H. Johnson Foundation for the Arts–
Edgar Arceneaux
Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship–
Marie Watt
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships–
SoHyun Bae
Chris Lan Hui Chou
Christopher Duncan
Amy Feldman
Judy Fox
Kalup Linzy
Karyn Olivier
MacArthur Fellowship–
Whitfield Lovell
New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships–
Danielle Abrams
Patricia Cronin
Peter Dudek
Alessandra Exposito
Heather Hart
Wayne Hodge
Shih Chieh Huang
Yoko Inoue
Jihyun Park
Michael Rakowitz
Peter Simensky
Shinique Smith
Steed Taylor
Mary Temple
Hank Willis Thomas
Traci Tullius
Nari Ward
Saya Woolfalk
Charles McGill
United States Artists Fellowship–
Laylah Ali
William Pope.L
Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant–
Cris Cristofaro
Art Matters Grants–
Sanford Biggers
Daniel Bozhkov
Wayne Hodge
Shaun Leonardo
Charles McGill
Kori Newkirk
Clifford Owens
Cauleen Smith
Allison Wiese
Saya Woolfalk
Leslie Hewitt
Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Grant–
Donna Conlon
Gwangju Biennial Prize–
Allora & Calzadilla - Guillermo Calzadilla
Creative Capital Grants–
Brody Condon
Allison Wiese
Wayne Hodge
Fulbright Senior Research Grant–
Margaret Lanzetta
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Grant–
Jon Cuyson
Joan Mitchell Foundation Grants–
John Bisbee
Amy Feldman
Lillian Garcia-Roig
Rajkamal Kahlon
William Villalongo
Allora & Calzadilla - Guillermo Calzadilla
Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Grants–
Astrid Bowlby
Amy Feldman
Heesop Yoon
Tamara Zahaykevich
Penny McCall Foundation Grant–
Allora & Calzadilla - Guillermo Calzadilla
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants–
Marcus Bjernerup
Sarah Cain
Beth Campbell
Christopher Duncan
Katie Grinnan
Iva Gueorguiva
Kirsten Hassenfeld
Eric Hongisto
Young-Min Kang
Elanit Kayne
Haegeen Kim
Tracy Miller
John O'Connor
Jean Shin
Hong Zhang
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts 2012 Fellowship -
Charles McGill
Cintas Fellowship–
Allora & Calzadilla - Guillermo Calzadilla