Metropolitan Museum of Art Schools

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art Schools were a series of educational programs established by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to provide vocational training in the late 19th century.

Metropolitan Museum of Art Art museum in New York City, New York

The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the United States. With 6,953,927 visitors to its three locations in 2018, it was the third most visited art museum in the world. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among seventeen curatorial departments. The main building, on the eastern edge of Central Park along Museum Mile in Manhattan's Upper East Side is by area one of the world's largest art galleries. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains an extensive collection of art, architecture, and artifacts from Medieval Europe. On March 18, 2016, the museum opened the Met Breuer museum at Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side; it extends the museum's modern and contemporary art program.

History

The Metropolitan Museum of Art embarked its first educational venture during the winter of 1879-1880 with the establishment of a school to provide vocational training in woodworking and metalworking. This first school was funded by a $50,000 contribution from Gideon F.T. Reed, former partner of Tiffany and Co., with organizational assistance from Edward Moore, a silversmith. Over the next 15 years the school's name was changed numerous times, in part a reflection of changing ideas about education held by Metropolitan Museum Trustees. Among names used were Industrial Art Schools of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Technical Art Schools of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum Art Schools, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art Schools. The schools were supervised by a succession of managers under the direction of a Committee on Art Schools, which in turn reported to the Metropolitan's Board of Trustees. Managers included John Buckingham, John Ward Stimson, Arthur L. Tuckerman and Arthur Pennington. [1]

Woodworking process of making items from wood

Woodworking is the activity or skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making, wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning.

Metalworking production and processing of shaped workpieces made of metals

Metalworking is the process of working with metals to create individual parts, assemblies, or large-scale structures. The term covers a wide range of work from large ships and bridges to precise engine parts and delicate jewelry. It therefore includes a correspondingly wide range of skills, processes, and tools.

Industrial arts is an educational program which features fabrication of objects in wood or metal using a variety of hand, power, or machine tools. It may include small engine repair and automobile maintenance, and all programs usually cover technical drawing as part of the curricula. As an educational term, industrial arts dates from 1904 when Charles R. Richards of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York suggested it to replace manual training.

The first location of the Schools was the third floor of 31 Union Square, on the northwest corner of Broadway and 16th Street. Free classes in woodwork and metalwork met twice weekly in the evening. In 1880, Richard T. Auchmuty, a proponent of trade schools, offered the Museum rent-free use of a building he had newly erected on 1st Avenue between 67th and 68th Streets. His only condition was that students be charged a nominal tuition of $5 or $8 per semester, depending on whether they took day or evening classes. Prior to this classes had been free. At the 1st Avenue location 143 students studied drawing and design, modeling and carving, carriage drafting, decoration in distemper and plumbing. The school soon relocated to the upper floors of the Glass Hall building, 214-216 East 34th Street, where it remained until 1887. At this location elementary classes were added and the number of teachers was increased. The following year the school moved once again to 797-799 3rd Avenue. [1]

Union Square, Manhattan Neighborhood and square in Manhattan, New York City

Union Square is a historic intersection and surrounding neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century; its name denotes that "here was the union of the two principal thoroughfares of the island". The current Union Square Park is bounded by 14th Street on the south, Union Square West on the west side, 17th Street on the north, and on the east Union Square East, which links together Broadway and Park Avenue South to Fourth Avenue and the continuation of Broadway. The park is under the aegis of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

Drawing visual artwork in two-dimensional medium

Drawing is a form of visual art in which a person uses various drawing instruments to mark paper or another two-dimensional medium. Instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, various kinds of erasers, markers, styluses, and various metals. Digital drawing is the act of using a computer to draw. Common methods of digital drawing include a stylus or finger on a touchscreen device, stylus- or finger-to-touchpad, or in some cases, a mouse. There are many digital art programs and devices.

Design can have different connotations in different fields of application, but there are two basic meanings of design: as a verb and as a noun.

John Ward Stimson, a former Museum superintendent who became head of the Museum Schools, oversaw the development of the Schools from thirty to four hundred students in seventeen classes by 1888. At this point, two-thirds of the Schools' were women, and Stimson was adamant that the School had the potential to provide women with vocational training opportunities. [2]

Despite significant contributions from Museum Trustees (including a $30,000 gift from Museum President Henry Gurdon Marquand) the school was financially challenged through much of its existence. In an 1889 cost-cutting move, the school relocated into the basement of the Museum building on 5th Avenue and 82nd Street. There the curriculum evolved to encompass the fine arts; course offerings included antique, life and still life painting, architecture, ornamental design, illustration and sculpture. In 1892 advance courses were instituted and prominent artist John La Farge was hired as instructor. [1] In 1893, Frederick Ruckstull was appointed to teach modeling and marble carving, and the tuition was recorded as fifty dollars for a season ticket of day classes and thirty dollars for night classes. [3]

Henry Gurdon Marquand American philanthropist, financier and art collector

Henry Gurdon Marquand was an American financier, philanthropist and collector.

Painting Practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface. The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used. The final work is also called a painting.

Architecture The product and the process of planning, designing and constructing buildings and other structures.

Architecture is both the process and the product of planning, designing, and constructing buildings or any other structures. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements.

Two years later, because of increased expenses, all elementary courses were discontinued and the advanced painting class was cancelled soon after. Museum Trustees ceased operation of the school program in spring 1895. Early in the 20th century the Trustees recommitted the Museum to a pedagogic mission by establishing an Education Department focused on a collections-based fine arts instruction. [1]

Pedagogy the study of education

Pedagogy refers more broadly to the theory and practice of education, and how this influences the growth of learners. Pedagogy, taken as an academic discipline, is the study of how knowledge and skills are exchanged in an educational context, and it considers the interactions that take place during learning. Pedagogies vary greatly, as they reflect the different social, political, cultural contexts from which they emerge. Pedagogy is the act of teaching. Theories of pedagogy increasingly identify the student as an agent, and the teacher as a facilitator. Conventional western pedagogies, however, view the teacher as knowledge holder and student as the recipient of knowledge.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Finding aid for Schools of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Records (1879-1895). The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  2. "TO TRAIN ARTIST ARTISANS." New York Times (1857-1922): 9. Jul 15 1888. Retrieved via ProQuest 3 Aug. 2014.
  3. "A VITAL AMERICAN SCHOOL." New York Times (1857-1922): 8. Oct 02 1893. Retrieved via ProQuest 3 Aug. 2014.