Gage Academy of Art

St. Nicholas Building, home to Gage Academy

Gage is an innovative, independent, contemporary art school that ignites individual talent through mentorship and skills-based instruction from some of the finest studio teaching artists in the country. A 501(c)(3) non-profit, Gage is celebrating 25 years as a vibrant extended-learning and contemporary art center, providing community based artistic development for artists of all ages, abilities and economic means.

Featuring year-round programs that engage and inspire, Gage is home to public art events, lectures, youth programming and exhibitions. Located in Seattle, Washington, Gage is primarily focused on the studio arts of drawing, painting, and sculpting. The school is open to anyone interested in exploring and advancing their artistic skills, nurturing their appreciation, immersing themselves in the beauty and joy of the creative process, and creating opportunities for rich, lifelong engagement in the arts and art-making. Since 1989, Gage has taken pride in serving as inspiration and activist, resource and training ground, provocateur and champion – and stimulated the artistic abilities and interests of more than 100,000, one artist at a time. Gage offers full, part-time, one-off and drop-in programs, all designed to build technical skills, open doors to artistic discovery, showcase and celebrate art and artists, and fire the imagination and propel artists forward at whatever point in their artistic journey.

The core of its programming is traditional observational training, with an emphasis on the foundational skills of figure drawing and painting. Other classes include perspective, watercolor, still-life drawing and painting, cast drawing, egg tempera, design concepts, color theory and encaustic techniques.

History

Gage began as the Academy of Realist Art in New York City back in 1989, with the modest goal of being a home for arts workshops and intensive instruction. After moving across the country and establishing roots in Seattle, the organization was renamed Seattle Academy of Fine Art in 2000, received 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the IRS in March 2000, and in 2006, became Gage Academy of Art.

Over the next decade, Gage grew rapidly. In 2004, the school transitioned into the historic St. Nicholas Building in Seattle’s Capitol Hill area, quadrupling its square footage. This enabled the school to offer a broader range of educational and community events, specifically those tailored to serving emerging artists in the Seattle area.

Since then, the organization has grown into a network of more than 100 Northwest artists, a hardworking board of 12 individuals from all walks of civic and art life and a staff of 12 full-time and 10 part-time non-profit professionals Numerous prominent artists teach workshops at Gage, including Michael Grimaldi, Tony Rider, John Morra, Michael Lane, Jordan Sokol, Juliette Aristides, Tom Loepp, Yuqi Wang, Peter Van Dyck and Charles Emerson.

Gage works to ignite the artist inside each of us -- to teach when knowledge is required, to mentor when guidance is sought, to encourage individual talent and inspire appreciation, and to create opportunities for deeper, richer, and more engaged artistic experiences for students and art-makers of all backgrounds. Gage strives to educate, enrich and engage artists and the community in the visual arts through instruction in the principles of drawing, painting and sculpting and is dedicated to helping students of all ages, economic means, and abilities.

Adult Programs

All of the classes and workshops at Gage are open enrollment, meaning students can choose for themselves what to take based on their own interests and considerations. For students seeking continuing education, Gage offers 10-week classes throughout the academic year (and two five-week summer sessions) as well as weekend and weeklong workshops, lecture series and open and reserved studio sessions. Drawing, painting and sculpting from observation are the cornerstones of all of these classes. Typically more than 70 classes and workshops are offered each quarter.

Five Northwest artists, Juliette Aristides, Mark Kang-O’Higgins, Mike Magrath, Kimberly Trowbridge and Gary Faigin, teach year-long ateliers. From September through June, Gage Ateliers give an intensive studio program for the serious artist-in-training.

Mark Kang-O’Higgins teaches the Kang-O'Higgins Atelier, in which students work long-term with line and tone, light and shadow, color theory and mixing, proportion and anatomy, as well as different approaches to life drawing and painting. The atelier is a 30-hour-per-week commitment, including working half of every day from the figure model.

Juliette Aristides teaches a four-year diploma program presented in stages. For serious beginning students in the Aristides Atelier, the focus is on drawing. More advanced students move into monochromatic and then fully chromatic painting. Fourth-year students work on individual projects with guest mentors. The atelier is a 30-hour-per-week commitment.

Gary Faigin teaches the Faigin Atelier where, unlike the other two model-based ateliers, the focus is on still-life arrangements. Students work from the same objects, allowing creative influence and dialogue with peers in studio groups. Faigin’s students work independently for a minimum of 15 hours in the studio each week, in addition to attending two weekly teaching sessions.

The Magrath Sculpture Atelier is a multi-year, part-time Atelier designed to confer the core disciplines needed to become a practicing figurative sculptor at a high level of excellence.Build cumulatively upon the core skills of drawing and modeling from life, while adding critical understanding of anatomy, composition in the round and relief as well as technical skills such as mold making, casting, basic fabrication and subtractive techniques in wood, stone, metal and composite materials.

The Trowbridge Atelier is designed for students who have some experience with figure drawing and/or painting, and are ready to begin the journey of developing an individual body of work. Student-artists rigorously engage with color theory, figurative oil painting, collage and mixed-media drawing — all in the service of building a personal, visual vocabulary to develop a unique body of work.

Youth Programs

The Gage Youth Programs include a new class each month for children ages 8–12 and teens ages 13–17. Kids classes are tactile, providing instruction in everything from drawing animals to constructing sculpture out of recycled materials. Teen classes are focused on skill building and concentrate on more traditional subjects such as printmaking, figure drawing and even fashion illustration. Over the summer, eight one-week workshops are available to kids ages 6–11. Fantasy mask-making, sewing, hip hop dance, freestyle yoga and clay time are among the workshops offered.

Additionally Gage offers four one-week workshops for teens ages 12–17, and a two-week drawing intensive and a two-week painting intensive for older teens. Courses such as Green Building Design, Abstraction 101 and Mixed-Media Printmaking allow teens to explore both two-dimensional and three-dimensional art forms. The five-week all day Teen Intensive is also offered in the summer for teens ages 15–18, and is designed for teens who intend to build art careers. On weekends, the free Teen Art Studios (TAS) allows teens ages 13–18 to drop in and study with professional artists who provide focused instruction in a fun, relaxed atmosphere. Studios have included Techniques of Form in Clay, Portrait Drawing, Explorations in Paint and Observational Anatomy.

Youth Programs instructors have included Marita Dingus, Jim Woodring, Susan Robb, Jeanne Dodds, Janet Miller, Kirsten Graudins, Romson Bustillo, Noah Grusgott, Randy Wood, Ryan Finnerty and Greg Stump.

Community Events

Gage holds two major community events: Drawing Jam and Best of Gage. The former takes place in December, and features a cast of more than 50 models rotating throughout the building’s studios accompanied by musicians. Hundreds of artists of all ages and skill levels attend the 12-hour marathon, enjoying refreshments, professional artist demos, music and free art supplies.

In June, Gage invites its adult artists to showcase their work for a month-long exhibition. Best of Gage: Student Art Exhibition, Awards and Sale is judged by a local art professional (Derrick R. Cartwright, director of Seattle Art Museum, acted as guest juror in 2010), and ends in winners attending an award ceremony. First prize winners get to walk down the red carpet and accept prizes from the school’s directors. The free event draws hundreds of guests and thousands of dollars in art supplies go to deserving students. In 2009, the sale component was added to the event, allowing collectors to buy both submitted work and art from three ateliers.

Every year Gage also hosts an art auction to support the nonprofit institution.

In addition to the large-scale community events, Gage holds numerous lunch-time professional development seminars. ArtTalk focuses on artists’ intentions, process and methods. Artist’s Toolkit centers on the “real world” of art.

Exhibitions

Gage offers free rotating exhibitions in three galleries within the school. Art from students, instructors and locally and nationally recognized guest artists have been displayed in the Steele Gallery, Rosen Gallery and Entry Gallery. Past artists have included Anna McKee, Amy Johnson, Gala Bent, Chauney Peck, Paul Kuniholm Pauper, Whiting Tennis, Lisa Buchanan, Tip Toland, Jeremy Mangan and Timothy Cross.

To contribute to Seattle’s art discourse, Gage hosts lectures that coincide with the exhibitions. Working professional artists and art historians lead these discussions, covering a broad spectrum of topics. The lectures are free and open to the public.

External links

• Gage Academy of Art
• The Stranger newspaper, Art School Confidential, 2007