Gage Academy of Art Programs
As the largest traditional art school in the Northwest, each year Gage enrolls more than 3,000 multi-generational students (age 6 to 93) in a broad selection of studio art classes, workshops and lectures. With a special focus on the engagement and artistic development of teens, Gage provides an outstanding portfolio-building resource for 13-18 year olds with after-school programs at Ingraham High School, free weekly studio classes on Capitol Hill and in Rainier Valley (with annual attendance of 1,288 teens), and intensive summer pre-college workshops.
As a catalyst for broadening community participation in the visual arts, Gage presents an extensive public calendar of free artist lectures and exhibitions annually and two lively Gage art events: the “Drawing Jam”, a 12-hour, all-ages, participatory art-making festival, and the “Best of Gage”, a celebration of Gage artists, from beginners to advanced. Collectively, these public offerings engage another 3,000 children, teens, families and adults in the visual arts each year.
As a champion for our local artist community, Gage hosts 20 free professional development lectures and seminars annually, which are attended by up to 100 students and working artists each session, to network and learn from arts professionals working in the Seattle gallery and museum scene. To give emerging artists professional exposure, many are invited to participate in the Gage annual cycle of on-site and public exhibitions around Seattle.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
A Community Celebration of Art!
Every December, Gage hosts the “Drawing Jam”, a 12-hour festival of art-making that welcomes hundreds of children, teens and adults to make art “in community.” The Jam features free art supplies, a dozen studios featuring different activities and live musicians throughout the day. After our last packed Jam, for safety and comfort reasons, in 2011 we decided to expand our activities into the on-site, 200-person-capacity Skinner Auditorium where we constructed a 12’-high scaffolding with catwalks for multiple models, installed a café and set up easels and café tables. With attendance up by 17%, the re-purposed Skinner Auditorium provided an excellent “pressure valve” for the 1,400 lively members of the public who attended and made the 2011 Jam a spectacular public art event for our whole community.
Supporting the Next Generation of American Artists
Gage offers full-time “ateliers, based on the traditional teaching model of 19th-century European academies where dedicated art students apprentice with a master artist over a period of several years. By offering an intensive studio curriculum and professional development skills, Gage can proudly claim many of this region’s successful emerging artists as alumni (many of whom have also won distinguished art commissions, awards and scholarships.) Gage seeks scholarship funding to help underwrite the educational expenses of our most talented and deserving atelier students – America’s future artists. .