Editorial Content

This is a promotional video from 1993, produced by Jacob Burckhardt. The video was originally made for distribution to art schools around the country as part of application processes during the 1980s until the early 2000s. The film is part of Skowhegan’s records and archives.

This trailer is an excerpt from Nao Bustamente’s film “Skowhegan”, released in 2024. The film was based on archival footage she recorded on campus when she was a participant in 1999.

This LP was recorded and presented as a gift on the occasion of Skowhegan’s Awards Dinner at Carnegie Hall in 1979, and includes two songs commissioned by the celebrated composer Michael Valenti, “Skowhegan Piano Quintet” and “Winter in Central Park.”

Everyday a Different School is a digital publication by Amanda Teixeira and Cristóbal García Belmont with documentation of a collaborative project that took place between July 21st to August 3rd, 2025 as part of the 2025 summer program. The publication was commissioned for The Library. Texts by the authors; photography and book design by Amanda Teixeira; English text review by Lindsey Arturo; Arabic text review by Layan Attari.

A Skowhegan Herbal is a publication edited by Maggie Barrett and Landon Newman with contributions by the editors and other participants, faculty, and staff from the 2025 summer program. It was printed in August 2025 on campus, then developed into a digital publication for The Library.

Artist Agnes Martin talks about beauty, art, what motivates (or should motivate) the artist, sources of inspiration, and the traps to avoid in the conduct of life and art.

Artist Mary Lovelace O’Neal reflects on her experience as a student at Skowhegan during 1963, her relationship with mentor and fellow artist David Driskell, and her time at Howard University during the height of the Civil Rights movement in an interview with Faye Hirsch, art historian and curator. The interview is edited from the original transcript of a Zoom conversation on July 21, 2020, between O’Neal, Hirsch and Ingrid Schaffner, editors and contributors of In the Company of Artists: A History of Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (forthcoming), and Paige Laino, former Alumni and Archive Manager at Skowhegan. The interview took place as research for the publication.

Anna Tsouhlarakis gives a lecture at Skowhegan. Tsouhlarakis comments on the importance of not being defined or called as an interdisciplinary artist, and speaks candidly about the many mediums that she makes art in, including but not limited to: video, sculpture, drawing, collage, and performance. Tsouhlarakis goes into detail speaking about her experiences learning traditional and indigenous forms of art and how her dad – also an artist– inspired her when she was growing up. Tsouhlarakis in particular spoke about turning to performance which she loved activating, because it didn’t have to be stagnant and it could live on in a different way. Another important revelation for Tsouhlarakis was when she took a Federal Indian Law course at the Yale Law School, learning about treaty rights, historical agreements between the US and Tribes, and tribal sovereignty under the guidance of the federal government which was an important part of Tsouhlarakis’s development as an artist. For Tsouhlarakis, this idea of native art always having to teach someone something and always having to be serious and only deal with spirituality and myth was something she has always fought against. Tsouhlarakis speaks about how humour is very important in her work and it is a strain that has maintained throughout all of her practice. Tsouhlarakis then speaks about photography and how it can be used as a tool for documentation because it implies one doesn’t know everything that happened in a space, only providing a snippet. Exploring the landscape, such as New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona and thinking about how the landscape and Navajo creation stories deal with one’s understanding of multiple worlds is another topic Tsouhlarakis touches upon. Tsouhlarakis tells the participants how she never wanted to rely on her artwork to make money and that selling and the market is not the sole focus for her of being an artist. Instead, Tsouhlarakis makes what needed to be made, and what she felt needed to be made and not what anyone else felt needed to. Tsouhlarakis ends the lecture by addressing the following questions: What does decolonization look like and does she believe in it? What action would make the indigenization happen and how could Tsouhlarakis illustrate that through sculpture and artwork? Tsouhlarakis addresses these questions by saying she is not interested in deconstructing something, or ripping something apart but instead wants something to keep going or to evolve. Ultimately, Tsouhlarakis is not a solitary artist that works alone, but likes to be in community, and likes talking to people. This is why Tsouhlarakis teaches, because it helps her navigate a community and have a separate income outside of just the market.

Ashley Bryan participates in an oral history with Liza Zapol. Bryan shares how he was always inspired to draw, and learned early on not to be ashamed of drawing any subject that interested him. Bryan then formally studied drawing at Cooper Union and later spoke about his experiences of the second world war, which took him from Boston to the docks in Glasgow, Scotland. In Scotland, Bryan spoke about attending the Glasgow School Of Art with the permission of the battalion commander. Bryan reminisced about the fact that there were several war artists who he met at Skowhegan when he attended as a participant in 1946, but they did not talk about war or their experiences. Instead, they depicted these experiences in their art work, especially through fresco. Bryan shares how Skowhegan taught him that everything that happens in art happens contemporaneously—from photo realism, to abstract ideas—is all current. Bryan reflects on the fact that after World War II, there was a break down of France as the center of all cultures, and how this shifted to New York. Bryan feels that the artwork seen globally now comes from things that happen in the U.S., whether that is Pop art, installations, experiments in scale and size, or deteriorating art. Bryan also feels the downside of this, stating that now there is an intense pressure artists feel which is about making it before one’s thirties, something that had never been a part of art when Bryan was coming of age as an artist. For Bryan—in his time–it was always about practice, work, and continuing to grow. Bryan states that there isn’t an age in history where young people aren’t meeting challenges of how they describe their lives, and that the step between zero and one is greater than one and a thousand. Once the artist, person and mind, make that first step, they can build on that and take further steps. Bryan hopes that Skowhegan continues to be an open environment and students can work in whatever is going on currently if that’s what they are after, and that they continue to be understood, directed, and worked with. For Bryan, this is something that he has also observed, stating that the students are working much more openly than when he was a participant there. Bryan believes that artists have to find their own way, find a way to overcome obstacles, and always keep a sketchbook with them. It is important that artists find the courage to realize that no one or anything can stop them if they are doing something creative or constructive. It’s important that artists always undertake things that are difficult, because it will teach them that the things which are challenging and not easy are what will lead to their growth. Artists will realize that they can and must live their lives for themselves.

Bryan ends his oral history with Zapol by stating that if Skowhegan ever calls on him, he will always step in to do what he can and contribute to Skowhegan because of what it gave him. Without Skowhegan, Bryan could not have realized some of the depths of himself. The gift of going to Skowhegan has continued to shape Bryan as an artist, and for that he is humbly grateful. Bryan will always carry the lives and meanings of people who are no longer here that he associates with Skowhegan.

During this lecture at Skowhegan, Billy Taylor draws from his diverse career as a pianist, composer, recording artist, arranger, conductor, actor, author, teacher, radio and TV star. Throughout the lecture, Taylor plays classical music and jazz for the participants. He states that jazz is the most democratic of all art forms for him. Jazz allows Taylor the opportunity to say things he can’t put into words. Taylor also gives a brief history about jazz to the participants, telling them how jazz is an oral tradition that came out of slavery and is tied to the arts in Africa. Traveling has also been a huge influence on his development as a musician. Taylor talks about visiting Pakistan and India in particular, and how watching musicians remix Indian Classical with jazz inspired his work. He then tells the participants about the history of blues music, and how it came out of a secular tradition with roots in Mississippi. All of these stories and histories have influenced his career as an artist and musician.

Interdisciplinary artist and professor Daniel Bozhkov gives a lecture at Skowhegan where he talks about his vast interdisciplinary and pedagogical practice. Bozhkov’s work has always been rooted in collaboration, especially collaborating across a wide range of disciplines: science, physics, mathematics, ecology, music, carpentry, just to name a few. During his lecture, Bozhkov specifically talks about his collaboration with Dr Alu in Austin Texas: where they explored meta materials to learn what make objects partially invisible, and most recently how he has focused his research on creating a circulator of acoustic waves that challenges the theoretical symmetry of the physical laws under time reversal transformation. Bozhkov talks about how interdisciplinary collaborations allow him to sustain his curiosity about the world, and specifically about universities. For Bozhkov, the university is a very special place of gathered expertise and knowledge, but also how one can be in university but not of the university, how is it possible to parasite over systems that were originally created as very racist structures, and how one can utilize something that is already organized and too rigid. Bozhkov continues to speak about collaborative research in his lecture, and how it helps him arrive at ideas that can turn into a type of materialization so one can palpably grasp or experience it in a variety of ways, even if some of those ways are negative. Bozhkov states that the artist is a very unusual type of figure within the culture at large: both almost useless and irrelevant and at the same time– to the people who pay attention– perhaps the only hope for the current state of the world. For Bozhkov, being an artist allows him the ability to shape shift as a natural instinct and face the world and do so accordingly. This allows Bozhkov to be aware of a deep, embodied knowledge of the world’s surroundings and to examine the hyper specificities of the situation he is in. Bozhkov ends his lecture by urging the participants to reflect on three thoughts; the first is that the people who are truly smart and interested in what they do also need to collaborate and work with artists, the second is that philosophy is not wisdom, but it’s the love of wisdom when one is looking for something, and the third is to think about care: how care can extend the scale of what we are doing which doesn’t always been bigger, but maybe smaller as well, for the more one can see care, the more they can connect to it and extract knowledge from it.

David Driskell participates in an oral history with Liza Zapol. Driskell begins the oral history by speaking about his childhood growing up in North Carolina and becoming interested in art as a young child, including watching his parents also make art. Driskell eventually went to study at Howard University, where he was influenced by the professor Lois Maillou Jones who encouraged him to attend Skowhegan in 1953. Driskell states that he will always credit Skowhegan for really introducing him to the real art world, and shares his memories of taking the train from Washington D.C. to Boston, getting off the train at the South Station in Boston and then taking another train from Boston to Maine. Driskell recalls being struck by the landscape and the romantic notion of the landscape that was evoked for him upon arriving at Skowhegan. Driskell talks about his experiences interacting with the fellow participants, meeting the cook Minnie Harville, and working with Jack Levine on chiaroscuro. For Driskell, that summer in 1953 at Skowhegan was being in a place that was communal, yet personal, overwhelmingly friendly, yet with checks and balances. It was a place where if someone was not serious about art, there was a pressure for them to leave. Driskell states that artists can’t help but feel a special kind of interested dedication and creative spirit with the Skowhegan experience. The beauty of the landscape being especially American was tied to the notion that no one had seen such an expansive land before, and the summer of 1953 revealed that figure painting and landscape painting were very popular themes and also had an Americana sense to them. Driskell states that following the death of Willard “Bill” Cummings, it was difficult to overcome the mystique of the Cummings spirit, because there was something very special about Skowhegan that you identified with the Cummings family. For Driskell, the school had to start seeing itself more as a national entity once Bill Cummings died.

Driskell then talks about how Skowhegan helped to place him in his professional career in places he would not have been otherwise. Driskell shares with Zapol that when he thinks of Skowhegan, he thinks of people who love that campus and who look forward to visiting it. Driskell reflects on how Skowhegan has given him so much, and how it has helped him to characterize ways to create a beautiful life. Driskell is hopeful that Skowhegan won’t change in its creative philosophy and its enduring aesthetics. He hopes it will remain a landmark in the sense of what artists think, and it will remain a model for others who will come after Skowhegan. Ultimately for Driskell, Skowehgan is a spiritual place, just like hallowed ground.

The recording of a conversation about Martha Diamond’s artistic legacy between artists Ann Craven and Nicole Wittenberg, moderated by Robert Storr, and held at Skowhegan NYC in celebration of the publication Martha Diamond, Deep Time.

Excerpt from Li-Ming Hu’s lecture-performance, a karaoke-style reinterpretation of Andrea Fraser’s Project in Two Phases (1995), originally presented during Fraser’s Visiting Faculty lecture at Skowhegan in 2008. Li -Ming’s lecture-performance took place at Skowhegan NYC, on January 30, 2026.

Elizabeth Catlett Mora discusses her personal history as an African American woman, including the legacy of slavery in her family, her life as an expatriate, and later citizen of Mexico and her marriage to Mexican painter Francisco Mora. She comments on her choice to use her art to communicate with people outside of the art world, her political convictions and her techniques and subjects.

African-American artist Emma Amos discusses works by previous participants of Skowhegan, several famous 20th century painters, and her own painting and fiber arts. Amos focuses on the racially discriminatory politics of the art world; the common practice of limiting museum and gallery shows to artists of one ethnicity and strategies for addressing that problem; her early involvement with feminist organizations; and the African American art collective, Spiral.

A textual and visual recipe by Mariel Capanna, one of the fresco instructors at Skowhegan, in which she combines the ancient tradition of buon fresco along with the School’s early history and her practice. Mariel discusses this ancient technique, how it’s still relevant today in contemporary practice, and step-by-step instruction for fresco preparation and painting process, with illustrations by Charlotte Fleming, Communications Coordinator at Skowhegan. The essay was originally printed in The Journal, 2024-25, and was adapted for digital publication.

Henry Varnum Poor gives a lecture talking about his experiences as an artist and offers words of wisdom to the participants. Poor begins his lecture by stating that in order to be an artist, artists should cultivate a fundamental sense of excitement for his or her relationship to the world. This will allow them to establish a point of view but also remain open minded to the world around them. Poor then states that Skowhegan pedagogically believes in discipline, specifically self discipline. Though there is no imposed outside discipline, every artist who expects to achieve anything must have a tremendous amount of self discipline. Poor tells the participants that they must throw themselves into problems, be able to cope with those problems, and put themselves through necessary routines in order to deal with them. Poor then goes on to describe how art is different from science, stating that science accumulates knowledge which leads to understanding but art is essentially primitive, because art is an expression of each new person who is a part of the world. Artists don’t need to know all the accumulation of data which lies back with them because that denies the whole point of art which is meant to be immediate and personal. Poor states that the accumulation of knowledge which the artist can use is a very slight accumulation of knowledge. Poor also states that art is the opposite of science, because art is not a river which goes towards an end, but a constant tide which rises and falls. Poor further elaborates by saying that the finest works of art come out of the immediate understanding of a person and their relation to the world. Poor then shifts gears and tells the participants that the artists don’t need to worry about freedom because freedom has already been established for them, and artists can carry their freedom with them everywhere they go. This will allow them to develop a steadiness and purpose which lets them go somewhere towards an end. They don’t need to determine what their end already is, but simply have to feel that they are going in a direction that they believe in and work towards that it. Poor ends his lecture saying that imagination in art lies in finding the most complete expression of the existing thing, whether that is the beauty in nature or any other forms they may encounter it in. Once they find these expressions, it will become a part of them and their art.

How Comes Community is an essay by artist Park McArthur on the concept of community leading up to the opening of Skowhegan NYC in 2014. This text was originally published in Skowhegan Journal 2013.

This is an essay about artist Betye Saar and her practice during the 1980s. It features ephemera and documentation from Saar’s time as Resident Faculty during 1985, including the installation Wood + Shadows. It was written by Lilia Rocio Taboada, editor and Associate, Programs and Editorial, at Skowhegan.

Janet Fish participates in an oral history with Liza Zapol. Fish attended Smith College for her undergraduate studies and then went to Skowhegan in the summer of 1961 in between her time as a graduate student at the Yale School of Art. Fish remembers that Skowhegan was a lot rougher then compared to now, but it worked out alright and it was not an unusual environment for Fish because she liked the roughness and also liked that it wasn’t a proper, traditional school but instead a place for working artists who wandered around and talked about what they were working on. Fish believes that the faculty were coming at it from a working artist perspective rather then a teacher’s perspective. Fish states that they were always getting critiques on the work they made and that it all worked out really well. Fish liked her cohort, especially the people from California who came with different art ideas compared to the people from the east coast. Fish then shares her memories of Bill Cummings who was always very kind and remembers his house where he made his own floor polish out of shoe wax, because he was from an old New England family. Fish reminisces that Bill Cummings was friendly to her because some of her family was also originally from New England as well. Fish says that Alex Katz taught her how to relax and immerse herself into painting the landscape which was very helpful advice. Katz liked the idea that Skowhegan was not a real school, but instead it was about being around working artists and being influenced by that, and not being instructed to paint in a certain way. Fish ends her oral history by saying that she wishes Skowhegan would stop being so clean and so school like, and that it goes back to bringing people in who are normally not teachers, because they have a different approach to art making versus the people who are not on university faculties. Fish believes that what makes a good teacher is people who are very actively involved in their own work.

Paint manufacturer Leonard Bocour lectures on what he calls “The Permanent Palette” (the paint pigments which are likely to stand the test of time, rather than changing or fading).  His lecture covers sources of these pigments, how they are prepared, and the effects of various solvents, extenders and canvas preparations on their quality and longevity.

Helen Wilson creates a diaristic, visual essay including the faces and bodies of others from summer 2025. Helen’s essay features drawings, collage, and handwritten text with reflection on her time in Frank Moore studio and her relationships with the community and environment at Skowhegan. The essay was originally printed in The Journal, 2024-25.

Lois Dodd participates in an oral history with Liza Zapol. Dodd recalls first visiting Skowhegan in 1951 when she came there with Bill King, Jean Cohen, and Alex Katz who had all been participants. Bill was there in 1948, Alex was there in 1949, and Jean was there in 1950. Dodd shares how Willard “Bill” Cummings was someone who immediately stood out to her, because of how generous he was to people and created such an atmosphere of inclusiveness. Dodd states that what she learned from that was if you want something done in the world, you should strive to be generous and kind. Cummings was a terrific example of what someone can achieve in this world if they are generous and open.

Dodd then spoke in depth about her experiences coming back to Skowhegan as a faculty member in 1979 where it was an all female faculty, as well as her memories of later becoming a governor. Dodd states how despite watching the campus change throughout her many visits, Skowhegan’s spirit continues to always feel positive because of the way it was baked into the DNA by its founders. Dodd reflects on how the constant change with new participants and faculty every year at Skowhegan is a positive thing. Dodd then shares memories of her time as a Governor, stating that it is the opposite of the yearly changing faculty and participants. Dodd believes that the board of Governors should not change too much and it has to remain steady. The board of Governors should reflect a leadership that maintains the vision and consistency of its founders in order for Skowhegan to continue. For Dodd, as long as Skowhegan maintains the openness of the framework, it seems like that idea is always a good one, because nobody can make it their school. Skowhegan should remain a very fluid thing because through that fluidity, it can provide a place for art to happen.

Nicole Awai gives a lecture about her interdisciplinary practice as an artist which spans-but is not limited too– drawing, painting, sculpture, and collage. Awai first begins talking drawing, and how for her, it has functioned as a place to create multiple perspectives. For Awai, drawing is a medium where one thing can be many things to many people. Awai then speaks about her relationship to collage, and how she first approached this medium by cutting up paintings she would make and rearranging them while still wanting the viewer to stay in the place of drawing. Working in these mediums has allowed Awai to take on a new relationship with time as well; it becomes elastic, and the present and the past become one for Awai. Awai then poses the following questions in her practice: What is real in the Caribbean diasporic landscape? What does it mean to make a painting that paints itself? It is these questions that gradually allows Awai to move from the two dimension and three dimensional. Awai also speaks about the afro-asian body that is connected to a history of being in the United States, particularly how these bodies functions as monuments. Thinking about these bodies in this way has led Awai too further think about transmutation and transition: when something becomes one thing and then morphs into something else. Awai ends her lecture by speaking about chance; how a lot of the work is also about chance: what works, what fails, what surprises Awai. For Awai, there is a risk and a chance involved in being an artist. None of what she can do is prescribed in anyway, and what this has taught Awai is that she has honed the skill of being prepared for and responding to anything.

The English-language version of a conversation between Skowhegan Co-Director Ruth Estévez and artist Sandra Gamarra Heshiki, faculty at Skowhegan in 2025, discussing her work, recent exhibitions, and the stories and ideas behind Mercancía (Goods), 2026, the limited edition created in support of the School. The conversation reflects on past and current projects, the legacy of painting in a postcolonial context, and Sandra’s experience at Skowhegan.

Playing and Reality is the essay version of cultural theorist Catherine Liu’s Paul Mellon Distinguished Fellow Lecture during the summer of 2025. 

This home movie from Skowhegan’s records includes faculty and participants during the late 1960s on campus in their studio and during critiques and mealtime. The film is dated to the late 1960s due to the presence of faculty artists such as Jane Freilicher, Jacob Lawrence, and Philip Pearlstein.

Robert Storr participates in an oral history with Liza Zapol. Storr first came to Skowhegan as a participant in 1978. For Storr, Skowhegan was one of the first—if not the first time—that he was really within a community of artists and where he saw what it might be like to become an artist. Storr shared about the friends he made that summer, and how he felt supported by the faculty as well, in particular Philip Pearlstein and Peter Saul. Being around these faculty members also gave Storr the courage to critique the work of his elders. The fact that they could take his criticism was only something that Skowhegan could foster: this kind of exchange helped build strong relationships between faculty and participants.

Storr remembers how there was very little expectation for anybody, and the participants were expected to do the kind of work they wanted to do. Storr found this incredibly refreshing, because it taught him how to figure out by himself what he needed to do. Storr believes that Skowhegan is especially beneficial for artists who have finished their formal studies, because it allows artists to breathe, let their mind wander, and begin to be the unpredictable artist that they may be, rather then be in a place that programs their moves. For Storr, Skowhegan is also a place that teaches artists how to build a rhythm of work that will sustain them regardless of what their economic status is.

Storr then shares how he tends to discourage people from going straight from art school into residencies, with a couple of exceptions: one is Yaddo (in Saratoga Springs, New York) and one is Skowhegan. Storr shares with Zapol that what makes Skowhegan so special is it allows artists to thrive in an environment where there are no expectations and one generally understands that they are the only person to decide what to do with the next hour and week, rebuilding themselves again and again. Coming back to Skowhegan as a faculty member in 2002 and to be able to be an artist again was also incredibly important for Storr. Storr ends his interview with Zapol by stating that the essence of Skowhegan is the environment that it fosters for it allows people to do anything. Even if someone goes to Skowhegan and ultimately decides that they don’t continue with an artistic career, they will still have experienced something invaluable that they will have benefited from as people.

Sandra Gamarra Heshiki gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about her figurative paintings, drawings, and textiles where she also on occasion works with fabric and adds it to her paintings. For Gamarra Heshiki, she is interested in exploring the circulation of images and how to navigate information systems. Gamarra Heshiki creates visual exercises based on a critical approach to studying colonialism and questioning the established orders in the imaginaries of both Spanish and Peruvian societies with respect to the historical moment of which there are two stories combined. Gamarra Heshiki also explores the theme of neocolonialism which is still prevalent in Spain and related to many Latin American cultures with a focus on the Indian Context. Gamarra Heshiki speaks about how she built a project on a conflict space, showing how the region of Latin American nations is intimately linked to the birth of Spain and Europe itself and how a critical look of these two legacies is key to building other forms of coexistence. Gamarra Heshiki speaks about the importance of exploring symbols and metaphors that have a connection between Latin America and the Western world. One such symbol is the mask: which conceals identity as a tool of otherness and otherness intrinsic to the self. For Gamarra Heshiki, the mask is the instrument for knowing the stranger within. Gamarra Heshiki ends her lecture by stating that she believes in the ability of art to create safe spaces to harbour difference, contradictions, and even conflict.

Skowhegan Co-Director Katie Sonnenborn discusses environmental stewardship through memory tied to multiple elements at campus, and ways in which the School approaches climate change: food, water, garden, site, and structure. Artists discussed or referenced include: Willard Cummings, Calvin A. Douglass, Frank Moore, Kate Valk. This essay was originally printed in The Journal, 2024-2025.

This text by editor and Skowhegan Co-Director Ruth Estévez introduces the initial ideas and conceptual framework behind Tree Talk, a body of work by artist María Elena González including a series of works each titled Skowhegan Birch. The text is accompanied by select ephemera from María Elena’s personal archive and reflects on her process studying birch trees on the School’s campus during her summer as resident faculty.

Artist Dan Levenson created an intake form and an essay as part of “Skowhegan Burial Society,” inspired by conversations with fellow artists and staff around the concept of community following Hurricane Sandy during the 2012 summer program. The essay was originally published in Skowhegan Journal 2013.

The Spanish-language version of a conversation between Skowhegan Co-Director Ruth Estévez and artist Sandra Gamarra Heshiki, faculty at Skowhegan in 2025, discussing her work, recent exhibitions, and the stories and ideas behind Mercancía (Goods), 2026, the limited edition created in support of the School. The conversation reflects on past and current projects, the legacy of painting in a postcolonial context, and Sandra’s experience at Skowhegan.

lele dai reflects on summer 2024 at the School through poems in her voice, as well as the voices of two natural creatures who were part of the campus environment: parakeets and luna moths. lele’s visual and textual poetry is written in both Chinese and English. These poems were originally printed in The Journal, 2024-25.

Writer and curator Makayla Bailey contributes an essay and dialogue on parenting in the arts. The essay discusses mothering, artistic practice, community, and the construction of time involved in parenting, informed by Bailey’s perspective and conversations with artists June Canedo de Souza and Tsedaye Makonnen. This commission is part of Opinions, a series where contributors respond to and share their perspectives on urgent topics for discussion, and debate.

The Drift is a text by Christopher Meerdo originally published in Skowhegan Journal 2013 and inspired by the boat excursion undertaken by faculty artist Marie Lorenz and a group of twenty-five participants during the 2013 summer program.

The Drift: Marie Lorenz is a visual essay created following a boat excursion down the Kennebec River in Maine during the 2013 summer program. The essay was originally published in Skowhegan Journal 2013.

Produced on the occasion of Skowhegan’s 70th anniversary, The Pivot documents life at campus during the 2015 program alongside interview excerpts from key figures in the School’s history. This video resides in our records and archives at archive@skowheganart.org and also through the Archives of American Art, Washington D.C.

The Present Classification is a philosophical artist essay by Heather Hart, Steffani Jemison, and Jina Valentine, inspired by The Black Lunch Table, a performance event during the summer program of 2005, and Future Plan and Program, a publishing project created by Steffani Jemison in 2010. This text and images were originally published in Skowhegan Journal 2012.

The unpredictable, next to the unknown is a conversation between artist Daniel Bozhkov and Skowhegan’s Codirector Ruth Estévez about the philosophies and pedagogies that have shaped Skowhegan over the years. They focus in particular on 2024 and 2025, weaving together examples of projects developed at the School with the works and ideas of artists that inspire them. Artists and thinkers mentioned include: Jerzy Grotowski, Mladen Stilinović, Eduardo Navarro, Pauline Oliveros, RELAX, Georgia Sagri, Vadim Zakharov. This conversation was originally printed in The Journal, 2024-25.

Text and videos about the symposium “Transmission for Transformation: On Artistic Pedagogies and Democracy,” organized by Institute Art Gender Nature HGK Basel FHNW in close collaboration with Skowhegan and Culturescapes 2025 Sahara.

Filmmaker, composer, writer, and interdisciplinary artist Trinh T. Minh-ha gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about her artistic practice. Minh-ha speaks about the importance of being invited to a place aligned with nature that offers her a trajectory which takes into its movement the question widely raised in our times about the migrant self, boundaries, and multiplicity. For Minh-ha, the migrant self moves physically and is a self that embarks on a practice having to negotiate between home and abroad, native culture and adopted culture, between a here, a there, and an elsewhere. Minh-ha speaks about her practice always being itself and more then itself, reflecting on how there is also always more to reality then what we are able to see, hear, or touch. Minh-ha believes that reality does not stop at our limits, and the boundaries we set up between what is real, what is natural, and what is supernatural speaks of and to our limits. Minh-ha then states that what is cinematic, poetic, and political thrives at the boundaries of cinema, poetry, and politics. Whether it’s the writing of a book or the making of a film, both creative acts transforms the way the artist sees herself and the world around her. The work is a gift, and whether it is worth passing it on or not depends on whether it succeeds in taking her elsewhere then where she started out. Minh-ha ends her lecture by stating that it is only in the transformative potential of the work that one can hope to make a difference in other peoples ways of seeing and experiencing.

An album of photographs and a home movie featuring Lee Bontecou as a participant at Skowhegan during the summer of 1955, during which she learned to weld. The home movie includes additional excerpts from 1955 and 1964, along with undated footage.

Well Radio was a micro-FM radio station during the 2025 summer program. Wishing Well was a project organized by Lara Castro Lema and Tinja Ruusuvuori as part of the radio station, later translated into a sound piece for The Library by Tinja Ruusuvuori.

This is the second segment of a two-part autofiction by Claudia La Rocco. The critic and novelist returns to her hometown in Maine after a quarter century away through memory, fiction, and art history about Maine. La Rocco includes references to authors Louise Dickinson Rich and John Steinbeck, artist Marsden Hartley, and 1980s pop culture icons Andre Agassi and Bobby Brown.

This is the first segment of a two-part autofiction by Claudia La Rocco. The critic and novelist returns to her hometown in Maine after a quarter century away through memory, fiction, and art history about Maine.

William King participates in an oral history with Liza Zapol. King shares his memories of attending Skowhegan in 1948 as a participant, following the completion of his undergraduate degree at Cooper Union. King states that he specifically spent the summer of 1948 working with Henry Varnum Poor and Anne Poor making frescos. King loved the sheer physicality that it required to make frescos and it was a wonderful experience for him.

King then shared his memories of Willard “Bill” Cummings, stating that Cummings was the nearest thing to genuine aristocracy the United States of America has. King believed that Bill Cummings was very real in the sense that he deeply cared about art and artists, and he cared about growing a metaphorical “crop” of artists and arranged their seedbeds so they would come through as best they could and continue to make art. King then states that for him, Skowhegan is the pivot, and people that get in there—for better or worse—decide the eventual question: When you wake up in the morning, are you going to go to the studio and make art, or are you not? That’s every morning, every day, all the rest of your life. That is the decision artists have to make. King also shares his memories of painting the frescos at South Solon Meeting House and how Bill Cummings played a huge role in Margaret Day Blake financing the frescoes at the South Solon Meeting House.

King then shared stories of returning to Skowhegan as a faculty member in 1967 and the various participants and faculty members he engaged with. King ends his oral history by reflecting on how Skowhegan has become a “Shangri-La” in his psyche, stating that he would go there anytime, under any circumstances, and to do anything Skowhegan asks of him. Ultimately for King, Skowhegan will always be a place of painting, drawing, and sculpture in all of its purity and grandness.

This Oral History interview was developed by Liza Zapol in New York on October 17, 2025 and covers William T. Williams’ early life, artistic development, experiences at Skowhegan, his teaching philosophy, and reflections on art education and institutional changes. Early life and dual cultural experience are discussed: living in rural North Carolina in the 1940s and urban New York City, which influenced his development and shaped his foundation for life and art. He discusses his introduction to art and early encouragement, the development of both his athletic and artistic interests, and linking discipline in sports to focus in art. Williams then moves into discussion of education and his decision to pursue art: graphic design, then enrollment at Pratt Institute, shift to painting, guidance from Richard Bove. He received support from paint supplier Leonard Bocour when he won the Skowhegan prize giving him material and technical support, and enabling him to experiment with acrylics.
Williams walks through first impressions and experiences at Skowhegan: Skowhegan in 1965, minimal racial diversity, and polite and supportive relationships, especially Alfred Leslie. He experienced artistic growth through critique and peer interaction including robust discussions about art, exploring differing views on abstraction and figuration, and the freedom to experiment. He then discusses his teaching philosophy and mentorship at Skowhegan. Williams returned as faculty and later director, supporting students’ individual artistic paths rather than imposing his views. He focused critiques on formal aspects of work and encouraged experimentation and learning from failure. He held administrative roles and discusses institutional challenges including his time as director during a tumultuous period marked by board conflicts and shifts toward greater diversity and inclusion. His tenure included an all-female faculty summer in 1979, and work in recognition of the need for institutional adaptation to changing art forms and demographics. He closes with reflections on diversity and sustainability in art education. His ongoing artistic motivation and legacy include: continual learning, focusing on the creative process rather than external validation, underscoring a lifelong commitment to art-making.

In a very abbreviated lecture, artist William Wegman shows slides of his photographic work (including Polaroids and dog pictures) and drawings, and speaks a little bit about his artistic background and the circumstances surrounding some of the pieces. Works are not identified by titles.

You Should have Seen it is a publication printed in 2024 by Skowhegan and featured as a downloadable PDF in The Library. The zine showcases eighty three Skowhegan alums, curated by Rebecca Shippe and organized by the Skowhegan Alumni Alliance, with support by Paige Laino and Lynn Perry.