In 2021, Skowhegan celebrated its 75th Anniversary with a year-long series of programming and events that highlighted and celebrated Skowhegan’s long history and lasting impact as an art school, institution, and community; and launched several initiatives that included a $20 million Capital Campaign, a Campus Master Plan, and a Book detailing its history.
75 Years of Experiences
In an effort to deepen the understanding of Skowhegan's many iterations, and to celebrate the plurality of artists that have shared this common experience over the past 75 years, we asked alumni and faculty to send us a video message about what Skowhegan means to them—here are their messages to us and to you.
“It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. All of the visual beauty is enhanced by the psychic sort energy of all this creativity.”
— Whitfield Lovell (A ‘85, F ‘01, ‘02, ‘05)
Campus Master Plan
Between 2015 and 2019, Skowhegan embarked on the most comprehensive campus planning in its history. The central component was a Master Plan, led by architect Neil Kittredge, Beyer Blinder Belle, that was informed by extensive input from staff, alumni, faculty, governors and trustees through an exhaustive planning process. This included numerous interviews, a campus retreat to articulate priorities, and five workshops with alumni and faculty.
Skowhegan held a Block Party in front of its New York space on West 22nd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues on October 9, 2021. The event was organized by the Alumni Alliance and the Skowhegan Council.
The outdoor festival featured performances and installations by alumni artists, as well as music and food. Visit the Block Party page to view the full list of participating artists.
Skowhegan Book
Skowhegan has been widely recognized as a transformative program for over seven decades, and distinguished as a school founded by artists, for artists. Until now, its history has been told through the experiences of individual artists, and not within the larger context of American Art history.
Exploring nearly 75 years of existence, a major forthcoming publication will contextualize not just the School’s founding and evolution, but its place against the backdrop of the broader art world and global events in the 20th and 21st centuries. This will be Skowhegan’s first scholarly publication dedicated to an in-depth study of the School’s complex legacy and philosophy set forth by its founding artists.
Co-authored by art historian and editor Faye Hirsch and writer and curator Ingrid Schaffner, nearly all of the research is primary-source material that includes resources drawn from:
Skowhegan’s physical archives located in New York City and Maine;
Skowhegan’s Lecture Archives encompassing nearly 700 faculty lectures recorded on campus;
New in-depth interviews and recently conducted roundtable sessions with Skowhegan faculty, alumni, and leadership;
Photographs, film footage, and ephemera minded from the archives of affiliated artists;
and the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
“Skowhegan matters to artists and to anyone who cares about creativity and free expression in this country.”
— Darren Walker, President, Ford Foundation
Capital Campaign
For Skowhegan’s 75th Anniversary, we embarked on a years-long effort to expand the institution’s capacity to support emerging visual artists from every background. Our successes, realized through the 75th Anniversary Campaign, advance core values by upgrading the campus facilities to better house participants and staff and engage emerging art practices; growing the endowment to preserve need-blind admissions and artistic autonomy; prioritizing local investments that bolster regional food economies and environmental priorities; and publishing the first major book on Skowhegan’s history and impact.
Thanks to contributions from artists, foundations, Trustees, Governors, and supporters, the 75th Anniversary Campaign (2018–2022) raised more than $21 million—the most significant fundraising effort in Skowhegan’s history. These efforts will ensure that Skowhegan remains a place that engages the next generation of artists in the most urgent conversations about the evolving nature of artmaking and its future. Click below to download the PDF of the Capital Campaign Report.
Bernarda Shahn with participants by Wesserunsett Lake, 1967.
Standing (l-r): Jack Eastman, Philip Pearlstein, George Spaventa, Robert Mangold, and Willard Cummings / Seated (l-r) Jacob Lawrence, and Ben Shahn, 1968.
L-R: Henry Varnum Poor, Willard Cummings, Anne Poor, and Sidney Simon, 1950.
Judy Pfaff with participants, 1994.
Participants gathering in front of the Fresco Barn for group critiques, 1969.
Alice Neel with participants during studio visits, 1972.