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History Over a period of years it had become apparent to Laura Harden and Lon Clark that a strong need existed for an art school with particular qualities that were missing from current art education. Such a school would be dedicated to in-depth study where students who had graduated from programs in art as well as others including emerging artists could continue their studies with their work itself as the only preoccupation. Many students had felt the diffused structure of degree-granting programs actually inhibited depth in their study of art. Some felt degree programs had become as much a career strategy as an involvement with the creation of art itself. There was a call for a place where art students could study visual principles and substantial contemporary content that can only be attained through long continuity of effort in the studio. It was also apparent that a school was needed that would provide low-cost tuition to support the students in their commitment to their work. A specific emphasis was essential to the idea of such a school: it would have to be a place where art could be studied and experienced in its visual form. This would provide an alternative to art schools that had lost touch with the visual arts by dealing primarily with verbally based trends such as the current market preoccupation with Conceptual Art, or the ephemeral in art, which begs the question of what makes visual art timeless. It would be an opportunity where the visual commonalities between the mediums of drawing, painting, photography and mixed media could be encountered and where only the most serious students would be admitted to foster an atmosphere of intense and dedicated study. There were precedents in 20th-Century history related to some of these issues. They could be found in the qualities of the renowned Hans Hofmann School as well as the Institute of Design under Moholy-Nagy and in the impetus to the founding of the New York Studio School in 1964. Each of those schools, while different from each other, had a vital quality; they produced artists who were independent and noteworthy in their own right, who engaged the visual nature of their medium of expression and they also recognized the issues inherent in their time period and responded to them. These were schools that fostered the belief in art for the sake of art and the singular importance of art as a way of life. Harden and Clark founded the San Francisco Studio School with awareness of the tradition of such groundbreaking schools and, at the same time, with a sense of purpose related to the uniquely relevant qualities that distinguish its structure and curriculum. Among these is the integration of the medium of photography as a co-equal discipline in relation to drawing and painting as well as the fact that at some point each student studies all disciplines taught. Another distinguishing feature is that all students, including those whose primary discipline is photography, practice drawing from observation; and drawing is an underpinning of the program as a fundamental means to comprehending visual experience. A facility that would encourage concentration and continuity of effort was sought out and developed as the highly-focused and rigorous program was realized. Sponsors came forward to support the school through donations in order to permit an affordable tuition for students. Painter and printmaker Karl Kasten, Professer Emeritus at UC Berkeley who studied with Hans Hofmann provided enthusiastic support in the founding of the school as well as giving the first lectures as Visiting Faculty. Peter Selz, influential and formidably knowledgeable curator, author and Founding Director of the Art Museum at UC Berkeley joined as Visiting Faculty. Artists, gallerists, museum curators and critics encouraged and participated in the endorsement of the principles behind the school and its form. A gallery was established where exhibitions relevant to the principles of the school are presented. Students from different schools, cultures and backgrounds in art applied to the intense, graduate-level, limited-size program. Public lectures and workshops were also instituted as a part of an ongoing dialogue with the art community. Today the school represents a distinct and vibrant voice in the discourse surrounding art in San Francisco.
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