<b>Millbrook Arts Field Trip: Art History and So Much More</b>
Millbrook arts students took a step back in time during their recent field trip to Val-Kill Estate in Hyde Park and the Woodstock School of Visual Arts and Byrdcliffe in Woodstock.
The first stop was Val-Kill Estate, the home of Eleanor Roosevelt. Particularly important to this year's art history class, Val-Kill is also the home to Val-Kill Industries, which Roosevelt founded with two of her friends in order to train local young men to make furniture to support themselves. Art history students - under the direction of Bill Hardy and David Greenwood - are studying the Arts and Crafts movement and artists' responses to industrialization, particularly in the spirit of architecture. Art history student Sam Jaffe '12 was impressed by Val-Kill: "[This factory produced pieces that had] artistic integrity and backbone, unlike what you see in furniture that is mass produced."
The group also traveled to the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, where they toured the main house, White Pines. Byrdcliffe was established in 1903 by British immigrants Ralph Radcliffe and Jane Byrd McCall Whitehead. Today the Byrdcliffe Colony supports working artists while simultaneously undertaking a vigorous historic preservation program. Early on, artists lived at Byrdcliffe and studied in the community. Today, the Artist in Residence program is still active, and the property is used for exhibitions and workshops and to display outdoor sculptures and host performers - particularly musicians and dancers - in its theatre.
For Sam Jaffe, the high point of the day was the tour of White Pines, "which seemed liked the epitomoy of the Arts and Crafts movement. It was simple but elegant, and there was virtually no decoration in terms of garnish." What are Sam and the other students looking forward to? "We've started by talking about how the arts and crafts movement began and the ideology behined it. We'll be studying Greene & Greene, but right now wer're building a foundation. I am really looking forward to the discussions - reaching beyond art history to include philosphy, aesthetics, and interpretations of beauty. [We'll be learning about] so much more than just art history."
Stay tuned for much more information on Millbrook's very unique art history class and this year's focus on the Arts and Crafts movement and Greene & Greene architects.
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The group also traveled to the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, where they toured the main house, White Pines. Byrdcliffe was established in 1903 by British immigrants Ralph Radcliffe and Jane Byrd McCall Whitehead. Today the Byrdcliffe Colony supports working artists while simultaneously undertaking a vigorous historic preservation program. Early on, artists lived at Byrdcliffe and studied in the community. Today, the Artist in Residence program is still active, and the property is used for exhibitions and workshops and to display outdoor sculptures and host performers - particularly musicians and dancers - in its theatre.
For Sam Jaffe, the high point of the day was the tour of White Pines, "which seemed liked the epitomoy of the Arts and Crafts movement. It was simple but elegant, and there was virtually no decoration in terms of garnish." What are Sam and the other students looking forward to? "We've started by talking about how the arts and crafts movement began and the ideology behined it. We'll be studying Greene & Greene, but right now wer're building a foundation. I am really looking forward to the discussions - reaching beyond art history to include philosphy, aesthetics, and interpretations of beauty. [We'll be learning about] so much more than just art history."
Stay tuned for much more information on Millbrook's very unique art history class and this year's focus on the Arts and Crafts movement and Greene & Greene architects.
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