Founded in 1946, it is one of the most important art schools in the United States. A program “run by artists for artists,” Skowhegan brings participants and faculty together for an intensive nine-week summer residency program located on 330 acres of farmland in Central Maine.
In 1952 Skowhegan began an on-campus lecture series that continues to this day. Speakers include resident and visiting faculty as well as distinguished guests. The lectures collectively represent the depth and breadth of post-war American art, including talks on contemporary art and ideas by visual artists, poets, architects, philosophers, journalists, curators, historians, composers, and choreographers.
These recorded lectures have been compiled as an audio collection consisting of more than 500 talks on more than 700 compact discs. The audio archive is a unique resource: unlike many artists' talks, the lectures were originally intended for art students and fellow artists. Speakers often address broader issues that affect artists and offer both philosophical and practical advice.
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The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, The W.L.S. Spencer Foundation, and The Henry R. Luce Foundation, originally donated copies of the Skowhegan Lecture Archive to five American art institutions:
- The Archives of American Art, Washington, D.C.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson Library, Chicago, Ill.
- Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine
- The Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Los Angeles, Calif.
- The Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y.
In 2005 The Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, Mass.) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art joined the list of repositories.
