This Sunday I visited the annual open house of a school gaining a strong foothold as the leading center of the classical art training tradition in Philadelphia; an art education market niche the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts formerly dominated. Two friends of mine, Kevin P. Lewellen, and Stuart Mark Feldman founded this Schuylkill Academy of Fine Art about five years ago after instructing for many years at the Pennsylvania Academy. Although this classical tradition is quintessentially Philadelphian and had it's American origins right here over two hundred years ago, in recent years these essential traditions had become somewhat relaxed and marginalized, and thus there was a need for a new Academy restoring the rigorous training and classical focus of our academic forebears.
I applaud their sincere effort. I am seeing great strides in portrait and figural painting and drawing, and this is a wonderful place to get a well-rounded solid foundation in figurative sculpture like no other place in Philadelphia. The rigorous disciplined study of light and form in classical plaster casts is applied here too. It is assuring to know the classical academic painting drawing and sculpture traditions remain alive and vital, with a brighter future continuing forward from the Philadelphia root source.
In their own words from their
website :
"...in the Classic Tradition
Schuylkill Academy of Fine Art is a not-for-profit, educational institution committed to the disciplined instruction of drawing, painting, and sculpture within the classically based figurative traditions for students seeking professional expertise in the fine arts.
Schuylkill Academy of Fine Art
cordially invites you to attend its
4th Annual Open House
and
Exhibition of Student Works
Sunday, May 20, 2007, 1
Schuylkill Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia
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