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From the Director
(continued from
front
page)
Consistently
the artists here have had faith in both tradition and in discovery.
At the same time, they have believed that tradition
for its own sake, as well as novelty for its own sake, are hollow
– each devoid of meaning without the other.Matisse once
wrote that “When an artist doesn’t know how to prepare
for the time of flowering, by work which bears little resemblance
to the final result, he has a short future.”
Matisse also
said that “When an artist who has arrived fails to get back
to the soil from time to time, he begins to go around in circles,
repeating, until by this very repetition, curiosity is extinguished.”
These two notions form the core of what the artists at the Chautauqua
School of Art attempt to bring together during two intensive
months every summer.
The School of
Art offers serious young artists a chance to give themselves
over to a sustained period of exploration. The emphasis is on
a period of study in depth with a limited number of selected
instructors and a close-knit group of students. Repeatedly students
have commented that one thing they realize during the summer
is that it takes several weeks of intense involvement for the
work, the ideas and the experience to ferment, and by the second
half of the summer things really begin to come together. For
this reason, the program does not compromise the length of the
session, nor does it permit part-time study.
The studio program
is enhanced by a variety of outstanding visiting artists who
contribute to the overall experience, and students may sign up
for critiques with any of the 20 or more full-time faculty and
visiting artists who participate in the program during the course
of the summer. However, beyond critiques, the focus is on concentrated
study with the resident faculty. “I learned more about art
and myself in two months here than in two years in college,”
is a statement heard repeatedly at the end of the summer. This
is because the concerns here are different – the emphasis
is on continuity of experience and rigorous exploration and study
in the students’ major areas, where they are usually working
from 9 a.m. until midnight. Students and faculty live on the
grounds of the Institution. They get to know one another well.
They eat together, work together in the studios every day, talk
with one another about their work whenever they’re out of
the studios – there is a communal nature to the collaborative
dialogue that develops – a sense of common struggle and
shared experience.
The faculty at
Chautauqua, though often nationally recognized and always highly
respected, is selected, before anything else, because of their
deep-rooted conviction that art is a lifelong process of education
– a rigorous grounding combined with persevering exploration.
It is this conviction that provides art students with a genuine
educational experience in the midst of an extremely complex art
world – an experience that, while not alienating students
from that world, allows for the kind of commitment, awareness
and authenticity to also see beyond it. In the end, students
often find a connection, support one another on a deep level,
and collectively exceed their individual possibilities.
Don Kimes
Artistic Director |
