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kduley@scottsdaleartschool.org
‘It’s deja vu all over again.’
Ask Maxine Johnston what Scottsdale Artists’ School is planning as it prepares for its 25th Anniversary Celebration and she is likely to say, “It’s deja vu all over again.” Johnson is a professional artist-instructor at SAS, it's longest-serving Board member and last of the School's original founders.
“What began as an idea in a one-studio school twenty five years ago has evolved into one of America’s foremost schools of traditional fine art. Now the School is pursuing some new ideas that are about to steer SAS in some new directions.” Larry Charles, newly-elected President of the School’s Board, couldn’t agree more. “What’s ahead for the School is every inch as new, exciting and daunting as what was on the horizon for SAS in 1983."
According to Charles, "Scottsdale Artists’ School has become what is arguably the art Mecca of the Southwest.” What's more, he says, the School is in the process of expanding internally and externally. "For one thing, we are adding more nationally-prominent artists to SAS' visiting faculty and expanding the School's curriculum to accommodate other important genres of traditional art, such as western art and wildlife painting."
Expanding youth programs and outreach activities.
“We are also expanding SAS’ youth programs and broadening the School’s outreach activities to introduce the wonderful world of art to those in and around the Valley, including those who are disadvantaged and physically challenged. In fact, we have an important pilot program underway, where one of the School’s top sculptors has begun teaching blind students to sculpt three-dimensional figures using their ‘mind’s eye.’ We hope to train other sculptors in this technique and to join forces with the Phoenix Art Museum and other museums throughout the country to add an important art education element to the School's Sculpture for the Blind program.”
More "on-location" workshops planned
In addition to outreach programs, the School also will be reaching out more aggressively with some of SAS' top artist-instructors conducting SAS-sponsored workshops at a variety of scenic and other in-demand art venues throughout the country, even abroad. "Among the on-location workshops already programmed for the coming year," Charles said, "are classes at Oatlands Historic House and Gardens near Leesburg, Virginia, with Robert Johnson as guest artist-instructor; in breathtaking Robertson, Wyoming, with cowboy artist Jim Norton; in lush Vancouver Island, British Columbia, with holistic artist Nancy Chaboun; and in the Finger Lakes region of New York, with Thomas Buechner."
All of which reminds Maxine Johnston of what it was like in the beginning when SAS was just a glimmer in the eyes of a few local artists and community leaders. "That's what I mean by deja vu all over again."
Hours are 8:30 am to 5:00 pm weekdays and 9:00 am to 4:00 pm Saturdays. Admission is free and open to the public. Scottsdale Artists' School is located at 3720 N. Marshall Way in the Scottsdale Arts District (SW corner of 2nd Street and Marshall Way). Free parking is available in the school's parking lot
For more information call the school at (480) 990-1422 or visit the web site at www.scottsdaleartschool.org.
About Scottsdale Artists' School
Founded in 1983 by a group of artists and community leaders, Scottsdale Artists' School is a non-profit school of traditional
fine art offering workshops and courses in oil painting, drawing, watercolr, pastel and sculpture. The School attracts
more than 3,000 students each year from all 50 states and many foreign countries.
Supported by Arizona Commission on the Arts with funding from the State of Arizona and National Endowment for the Arts. Funding also provided by Scottsdale Cultural Council and Scottsdale League of the Arts.