70th Anniversary Founder's Mug

For the 70th Anniversary Celebration, Skowhegan produced four unique mugs bearing portraits of the founders from its photo archive.

The founding of Skowhegan in 1946 is deeply connected to the explosive energy that characterized post-war American culture. In the mid-1940s the art world was in ferment; what was to become known as the New York School was in its formative stages. Willard W. Cummings (1915-1975), a New England portrait painter, shared his vision for enriching and educating the practical art experience of young artists with a friend he met while in the Army War Art Unit, Sidney Simon (1917-1997). Along with Henry Varnum Poor (1888-1971), already an established presence in the American art scene, and Charles Cutler (1914-1970), a New England stone sculptor, these men founded a summer art school that would ultimately achieve an enduring place in the development of artists: the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture.