Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture

The interview was conducted by Ilana Stanger of TheArtBiz.com.

Skowhegan receives over 1,100 applicants for 65 spots. How are admissions decisions made?

Our overarching desire is to create a community that is diverse in almost every way. We’re looking for people who are communicative, curious, and open. And everything is very subjective, of course. We try to cast our net as widely as possible-- we have artists who work digitally and artists who do frescoes, and of course someone accepted based on his or her work as a painter may not paint the whole summer but instead perform or write. We hope to provide an atmosphere where people will move outside their comfort zone, and fail or stumble. Some people follow a straight line, others will arrive and find themselves influenced to work in different directions.

What do you look for in faculty?

There are two types of faculty. With the resident faculty, who stay the whole nine weeks, we’re looking for people who communicate and are open and concerned about young artists. Some of the best resident artists we’ve had are not teachers, they’re just the right type of person. Visiting artists come for the weekend and visit studios. They add interesting ideas to the mix. Some of them are great speakers, others are excellent in studio visits, and some just have a great presence.

Nine weeks is a long time to spend with a group of people. Do you purposely seek out artists who you think will function well in a community?

We always hope so. But part of the way people learn might be watching an artist with a family balancing family and work. The teaching relationship becomes transparent--you see all the ideas, because you’re around all the time. The artists are role models, but not in the traditional way. They’re people who live with art and have made it their life.

How do you assess an applicant’s work?

When we look at somebody’s work the admissions panel can sense direction and dynamic--sometimes it’s unstated, but you can see it. We’re not project-oriented like traditional residencies; we’re not looking for a definite plan. We also have no academic requirement. Skowhegan was started in 1946 when there were many fewer art schools and very few graduate degrees in studio art. Only in the last 25 years has there been this massive development of graduate art programs. Many people come to us through graduate school, but we’ve also had self-taught artists.

Skowhegan advertises as a space for “emerging” artists. How do you define emerging?

We let the artists who apply define it. Some people who apply are so accomplished that they’re just beyond the routine of studio visits and crits that we offer. They should look for a residency where they can work independently. It’s not age-related however. Though you have to be at least 21 to apply, there’s no upper limit. The average age is 27.

Does Skowhegan try to provide a network of professional connections for its artists?

Our artists tend to do well, but we don’t allow dealers to visit Skowhegan. It’s a refuge from academia and the marketplace. They do get certain tools, some subtle, to deal with the real world and the real marketplace, but we never broker relationships. It’s very important that we not be involved in specific promotions.

That said, there is a strong community of former Skowhegan artists. For example, at least one founder of Bellwether Gallery [Brooklyn] went to Skowhegan. The community is very, very intense. We’re not near a city or a coast, and there aren’t that many outside distractions. It’s a very different physical environment for most people, and there’s a long period of adjustment to, for instance, how dark it gets at night. People are tremendously generous with each other, and tremendously supportive. It’s part of the place: everyone who comes is literally handpicked. There have been lots of pairs of eyes on their work, and when they arrive we’re so excited to meet them.

Do you advertise for applicants?

Everyone who goes through the program does a slide presentation at a school or community arts center when they return. People primarily hear about us from word of mouth, but we also advertise in art magazines and do mailings. It’s important for us to get people from different parts of the country, and actually we’re getting more and more applicants from Europe and Asia as well. There’s a more vital community if everyone isn’t from the same neighborhood in Brooklyn--even if they all end up moving there after the summer.

Are there mistakes you see regularly in artists’ applications?

Yes, and they’re always the same. It’s wise to show a friend your slide presentation before sending it. Another pair of eyes should evaluate it to see if it’s coherent or if there’s enough range. We require ten slides, and people will send us seven of one installation. That just doesn’t give us enough sense of the scope of their work. You need to balance between scope and detail. And make sure the slides are as good as they can be.

That said, when you have competition like this--or like the individual artists grants I oversaw at the New York State Council [of the Arts]--even if you don’t get what you apply for people may remember your work. Juries really do observe the work that comes to them, and just because you don’t get one grant or get into a program doesn’t mean your work hasn’t been noticed. It may have been noticed, and the same person may remember it on a different jury. Keep applying.

How did you end up working in art administration?

I sort of fell into arts administration about 25 years ago. There were very few formal studies in that area. I had an art history background, but I had really intended to be a filmmaker. After finishing graduate school in film I did some technical work in the theatre with friends. I ran lights and eventually ran the box office, and when the manager of one of the companies I was working with left I started doing that. I became responsible for some fundraising at the theatre and came into contact with the New York State Council of the Arts, and eventually got a job there. When NYSCA was restructured in 1984 I was asked to head up the newly formed Individual Artists Program, which was a multi-disciplinary grant program. I got a very broad view of the contemporary arts; it was a very exciting position to be in. I got to find out what was going on in film, music, theatre, video, and the visual arts, and put together peer panels from which I learned a great deal. Public funding came under attack in the late 80's and that was a difficult time-- it was also a learning experience for all of us whose job was to defend and educate about contemporary art.

What advice would you give to someone interested in arts administration?

While I was working at the Council I taught film and women's studies at Barnard and Hunter and worked on some art organizations boards (there were very strict conflict of interest rules so I couldn't be involved with any organizations that applied to NYSCA). All of these experiences informed each other, and if I have any advice to give people going into arts administration it’s to try to get experiences in different parts of the field. There are now very sophisticated arts administration programs where you can learn the broad principles of budgeting, marketing, and so on. My generation of administrators just fumbled through. On the other hand, the arts are so mercurial, and the needs are so broad and ever changing, that 90% of the job comes down to judgment. So experience in whatever capacity is indispensable.

This article was originally created for TheArtBiz.com. It appears on NYFA Interactive courtesy of the Abigail Rebecca Cohen Library.

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