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 The video was originally made for distribution to art schools around the country as part of application processes during the 1980s until the early 2000s.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 as a result 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.

The Agosto Machado lecture is split into two parts. The first one is an intimate lecture in which Machado shows slides and gives a lecture talking about his experience living in New York and his role as an interdisciplinary artist. Machado also talks about the many influences that have shaped his practice, and mentions the importance of making work around the AIDS crisis in New York. Throughout the lecture, Machado pays tribute to his friends who have passed away: many who are artists and who have influenced his practice as an artist and performer. The second part of the lecture includes an invocation to filmmaker Jack Smith by 1993 resident faculty artist Penny Arcade. Arcade talks about the importance of Jack Smith’s artistic and writing practice and philosophy, showing slides of Smith’s apartment and playing music.

The Agosto Machado lecture is split into two parts. The first one is an intimate lecture in which Machado shows slides and gives a lecture talking about his experience living in New York and his role as an interdisciplinary artist. Machado also talks about the many influences that have shaped his practice, and mentions the importance of making work around the AIDS crisis in New York. Throughout the lecture, Machado pays tribute to his friends who have passed away: many who are artists and who have influenced his practice as an artist and performer. The second part of the lecture includes an invocation to filmmaker Jack Smith by 1993 resident faculty artist Penny Arcade. Arcade talks about the importance of Jack Smith’s artistic and writing practice and philosophy, showing slides of Smith’s apartment and playing music.

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.

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.

“Bulbul in the Flume” is a song by composer David Michael DiGregorio in response to teaching notes by Joan Jonas, DiGregorio’s former professor and close mentor. The song was composed on the occasion of Ask your friend to give you a sentence: Joan Jonas and Friends, a public program at Skowhegan NYC on Wednesday, September 23rd in which artists, writers, improvisers, and musicians were invited to respond to one of Jonas’s course readings using her workshop method.

Calvin Albert gives an art historical lecture showing a series of slides from a wide range of artists working in sculpture. These artists include but are not limited to: Alexander Calder, Isamu Noguchi, Henry Moore, Glenn Chamberlain, Louise Nevelson, Marcel Duchamp, David Smith, Seymour Lipton and Pablo Picasso. Albert shows how these artists go after their ideas and the kinds of preliminary works they create to construct their sculptures. Albert then goes into various biographical details about each sculptor, and the experiences that led each sculptor to become the artist they are today. Albert continues to also share details of the various materials and techniques each artist used in their sculpture making process. Albert ends his lecture by then explaining to the students how showing these slides is not just a history of sculpture, but also a history of money: how these artists received the money they got to make their sculptures, and what tools they could buy to make them.

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.

Eduardo Navarro gives a lecture talking about his interdisciplinary artist practice. Eduardo shares with the participants how his need to create art comes from a desire to create an experience where one can allow something to transform themselves from within. That desire has more meaning than the mechanism of being paid for or exhibiting art. Navarro talks about his experience with meditation and how that inspired him to truly inhabit other creatures or ways of being. Navarro talks about his collaborative work with nature, animals, his surrounding landscapes, and with other performers. The transformation creates a synchronicity that is visible over time. Navarro then talks about his drawing practice, stating how he has always found clairvoyance in the practice. Navarro describes releasing art into the world as like having children: you cannot control what the art will do while trying to protect it. Navarro also discusses the release of work for interpretation by others. He states that once a work has a life of its own, it takes pressure off of him. For Navarro, art is synched to an energy that is pre-human, which allows him to let go of human consciousness completely.

Artist Elizabeth Murray gives a slide presentation which emphasizes early work as she chronicles the factors which led to her development as an artist with a strong interest in form (shaped canvas as well as imagery) and color. Questions from the audience deal with her working methods, particular features of her technique, and the role children and family play in her life as an artist.

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 The Library.

George Schneeman gives an art historical lecture at Skowhegan, showing a series of slides of art work which surveys a range of artists who have inspired Schneeman. These artworks range from paintings which depict landscapes, figures, and still life, to portraiture. Schneeman also talks about the process of Egyptian iconography paintings, and the history of artists working in fresco and ceramics. Schneeman in particular profiles Roman Frescos, examining their history which comes from Pompeii, and the ways in which the frescos became distinctly unique for their smooth surfaces. Schneeman ends his lecture by then shifting gears and talking about his own painting practice which includes frescos.

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.

Laura Owens gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about her interdisciplinary practice which spans drawing, painting, video, sculpture, textile, and artist books. For Owens, it has always been important to create paintings that don’t have any one preferred point of view, but instead change depending on the way a work is framed and altered, or that can be arranged in different ways. Owens then talks about the installation and design of the rooms in which her paintings are hung. Owens is interested in the marginalia of a room, and how those details can be utilized to bring the viewer’s eye to places that are not the main focal point. Owens reflects on her use of decoration and pattern making as two concepts that she explores in her work. These concepts allow her to challenge what is or isn’t considered art, or what is considered too feminine, or too kitsch. Owens ends her lecture by reflecting on the friendships and the relationships one makes in the art world. Owens tells the participants that they don’t need many friends, solely a select few good ones. She encourages the participants to think about friendship as just as important as a studio or materials, as it will support them in their lives as artists.

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.

Lonnie Holley and Matt Arnett have an intimate conversation about Holley’s experience overcoming the barriers, struggles, and prejudices he faced growing up in Alabama to become the internationally renowned self taught artist he is today. While the two speak to one another, a slideshow plays in the background of Holley’s visual art. Holley also shows moments from his film and video work, and speaks about the many lessons he learned that shaped him into the artist he is today, particularly lessons from his grandmother who imparted to him not to be afraid and relinquish fear. Holly states how the love he experienced from his grandmother shaped his commitment to children, education, and always visiting schools. Throughout the lecture, Holley sings and plays music and shares many words of wisdom with the participants, whether it is to always build a community to give and draw strength from, not to get so caught up in a type of love that can strangle you, and to share love as a force of generosity and responsibility. Holley talks about the kinship he feels between being a musician and a visual artist, and how the two are like siamese twins, operating in order to support one another. Holley also tells the participants to use their talents and what they have in order to get what they need, to learn how to give and educate oneself, and not to waste time dwelling in jealousy, animosity, and greed. Holley ends his lecture by stating that he uses the love that he has received from the people around him who have uplifted him and has transferred this into his art.

Artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles presents an illustrated, intense, and sometimes humorous lecture about many of her public art projects, done around the world, which blur the boundaries between art, work, the environment and sociology and elevate unseen service providers, such as maintenance and garbage crews, and ruined landscapes, such as landfills, through a transformative process which turns the former into artists and the latter into art.

Naomi Rincón-Gallardo presents a performance which is then followed by a lecture discussing her interdisciplinary practice. Rincón-Gallardo mixes and matches borrowed and discarded materials as part of her process. Rincón-Gallardo sees her artistic practice as a labor of underworld making, which allows her to acknowledge an intimacy with danger and death as forces that expand their domain horizontally. These mythic, political underworlds that Rincón-Gallardo creates are imagined from the necropolitical nation that Mexico has turned into over the last two decades, ever since the so-called war against narcos. The Mexican political situation unleashed plural forms of unofficial wars involving naturalized violence, a multiplication of femicides, disappearances, and forced displacements, a proliferation of clandestine graves, and an expansion of military and paramilitary forces. Rincón-Gallardo seeks to understand the history of formerly colonial territories and how they are often marked by the continuum of neocolonial disorder, dispossession and the spreading of necropower. Rincón-Gallardo seeks to create a materialized attempt to frame and host embodied forms of collective belonging and ritual. She explains that at times these materializations are ephemeral, and other times they are long-lasting. Rincón-Gallardo believes that artists need to collectively imagine conditions of living where many worlds can fit. This then allows them to pay attention to what can still be repaired, sustained, and cared for, despite multiple ongoing collapses. Ultimately, for Rincón-Gallardo, her works are offerings that imagine entanglements of earthly creatures together with death, an aspiration to rehabilitate affection, emotions, interpersonal bonds, and the desire to craft horizons of transformation. 

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.

Performance artist Penny Arcade (art name for Susan Ventura) presents a program of original performance pieces (mostly not transcribed) and talks about the need for practice, apprenticeship, patience and discipline, which she feels are critical to the development of an artist, and how she feels the contemporary art world has failed in this regard. Much of the lecture is autobiographical. The recording is not complete, ending during the Question and Answer period.

This is the full text and video documentation from a reading by artist Georgia Sagri at Skowhegan NYC on March 31, 2026. The text includes references by Luce Irigaray, André Lepecki, and Melanie Klein, among many others. Sagri’s text reflects on work with Skowhegan community during the weeks prior in IASI (ίαση)—an ongoing and temporary, flexible infrastructure for one-to-one sessions and reflection on how artistic structures can create conditions for recalibration and sustainable artistic practice.

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.

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.

Sonic Muscle was a circular heart-hearing experience organized by Resident Faculty Eduardo Navarro in dialogue with participant Lola Barraud and created during the summer of 2026 at Skowhegan’s campus in Maine.  The “actition” invited the group of participants to connect with one another through the sound of their own hearts, creating a shared sonic experience in which listening became both an intimate and collective act. Following the experience, Eduardo Navarro wrote a text in response to the project, accompanied by images taken by John Harlow, Nasser Alzayani, and Steven Anthony Johnson II. The group portraits were made by Mattia Pajè. Eduardo Navarro received support from the Eras Foundation, whose grant made the experience possible. 

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.

The Journal, 2024–2025 is a publication edited by Ruth Estévez, Lilia Rocio Taboada, and Katie Sonnenborn with contributions by the editors, as well as Daniel Bozhkov, Mariel Capanna, lele dai, Claudia La Rocco, and Helen Wilson. It includes illustrations by Charlotte Fleming and was designed by New Information. This journal was originally printed in July 2026, with select features adapted for digital publication.

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.

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.

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.