Sponsors
As the ARC Salon™ is growing now with an 8th category and the live exhibition, we have decided to take on Category Sponsors to help fund our expanding competition. We thank them for their dedication to fine art and their generous donation to pay for the first, second and third place winners in their respective sponsored categories, to help the vision of an international traveling exhibition and our multi-genre competition to inspire, promote, and defend the advancement of the Realist Movement in the 21st century.
If you are interested in sponsoring an ARC Salon™ Category, please write to Kara Ross at kara.ross@artrenewal.org
Imaginative Realism
Sponsored by IX Arts
IX Arts is dedicated to the promotion, recognition, and elevation of imaginative realism. As the organization behind the IX celebration of imaginative realism, the curation of the record-breaking AT THE EDGE: ART OF THE FANTASTIC exhibition at the Allentown Art Museum in the summer of 2012, the Visions of Never anthology and other book publications, as well as the IX Exchange website and upcoming IX Gallery, IX Arts strives to bring a broad range of approaches to bear in its efforts to increase both popular awareness and critical recognition of imaginative realism.
The IX celebration is the first, ground-breaking art show and symposium dedicated solely to imaginative realism—bringing artists, students, collectors, and art fans together for an annual gathering intended to inspire and create further awareness and zeal for imaginative realism and all that's encompassed in the realm of the fantastic. Beginning with the October 2016 event, the IX celebration will take place at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts and the DoubleTree Hotel and Convention Center in Reading, PA.
Figurative
Sponsored by the Florence Academy of Art
The Florence Academy of Art, one of the Art Renewal Center's first approved schools, has been advancing the training and techniques of classical painting and sculpture for 25 years. It has formed many skillful artists who are important members of the Realist Art movement of the 21st century. The Florence Academy recognizes the importance of the ARC Salon as an international showcase for classically trained artists, in particular now as the exhibition expands to a live venue. Through its sponsorship of the Figurative Category, the Florence Academy hopes to help ARC continue to cultivate the global audience of students, artists and patrons.
Students who apply to The Florence Academy of Art seek the language used by Rembrandt, Velasquez, Titian, and the tools to convey their ideas with confidence through the oil or clay mediums. A common visual aesthetic draws them to the classical world (and its renaissance in Florence) to build an artistic vocabulary where beauty and humanity are intrinsic to art. To accomplish this, the Florence Academy’s methodology combines intense observation with advanced craft skills. The Florence Academy of Art is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) as an undergraduate certificate program. With three locations in the US and Europe, they encourage their students to take the opportunity to study in Florence, Sweden or New York.
Still Life
Sponsored by the Angel Academy of Art
Founded in 1997, the Angel Academy of Art, Florence, is considered one of the best of the 21st-century academies and ateliers that specialise in the teaching of representational painting. Most of the artists who have graduated from its full-time three-year programme have gone on to become successful professional artists, and several are now Living Masters in the ARC’s Living Masters list. The Angel Academy of Art, Florence, is proud to sponsor the Still-Life Category in the immensely important International ARC Annual Salon.
The Angel Academy uses sight-size to teach basic rendering skills—drawing and painting from the plaster cast and from still life—but uses the 19th-century academy method of comparative measurement when instructing from the live figure model. This teaches the student to interpret the model for artistic expression, increasing the viewer’s emotional response, while maintaining the illusion of Naturalism. This is done through a thorough understanding of human structure, proportion and gesture; gesture and composition are explained in the lectures and emphasised in the students’ third year of study.
The Angel Academy of Art, Florence, is recognised by the ARC Approved Ateliers and the Regione Toscana branch of the Italian government.
Drawing
Sponsored by Studio Incamminati, School for Contemporary Realist Art
For more than a decade, Studio Incamminati has been a leader in the growing contemporary realist art movement. Founded by the late Nelson Shanks and his wife Leona, it is now recognized nationally and internationally for its rigorous curriculum, accomplished instructors and diverse outreach efforts. An ARC-Approved Atelier, the school is modeled on the traditional Italian academia and French atelier and committed to the belief that mastery of technique is essential to creative expression. Its innovative curriculum fuses classical traditions of the Renaissance era masters, luminous color of the Impressionists and a fresh, contemporary sensibility. Its goal is to offer an affordable education that produces highly skilled artists who call upon their training and abilities to create art with depth of purpose and to give back to their community.
Its artists, faculty and alumni have been featured at prominent venues such as the National Arts Club and Philadelphia's Comcast Center. And, the school has received media coverage ranging from art-community thought leaders such as International Artist magazine and Fine Art Collector to mainstream media including The New York Times, CNN and NPR.
Even the school's name is filled with symbolism. In Italian, "Incamminati" means "moving forward" and invokes the spirit of its namesake studio founded by the Renaissance artist, Annibale Carracci. Studio Incamminati, one of the few schools of its type accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, fulfills its vision in a number of ways. In addition to its core Advanced Fine Art Program, the school offers workshops open to the general public both in Philadelphia and with the In Your Town programs nationwide. Other programs serve school-age artists and art educators. The Integrated Art Studio major, offers the opportunity to earn a liberal-arts degree at Chestnut Hill College while taking studio classes at Studio Incamminati.
Sculpture
Sponsored by Atelier Programs at Gage Academy of Art: the Magrath Sculpture Atelier and the Aristides Atelier
The Magrath Sculpture Atelier at Gage Academy of Art 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. Led by celebrated sculptor, Michael Magrath, students learn to become adept in both traditional approaches as well as contemporary concerns in a variety of media.
Designed to be undertaken over three years, but may be taken part-time over several years, the long term goal of the Magrath Sculpture Atelier at Gage is to confer upon the student who completes the program a well-recognized certificate of mastery in fine art figure sculpture, and the skills and confidence needed to make sculpture at the highest level.
Atelier Programs at Gage Academy of Art: The Aristides Atelier, run by world renowned artist and author Juliette Aristides and the Magrath Sculpture Atelier feature an opportunity to work and study in a stimulating, communal environment under the guidance of a master teaching artist. An intensive studio program for the serious artist-in-training, Ateliers offer a contemporary variation on the traditional teaching model of the 19th-century European academies, where dedicated art students apprenticed with a master artist. In the last two years Gage has greatly expanded its Atelier program from Classical Painting & Drawing, Contemporary Painting & Drawing and Still Life Painting to now include Figurative Sculpture, Contemporary Collage, Painting, & Drawing, and our new Core Drawing Intensive, each as vibrant and individual as the primary teaching artist. Gage Ateliers run mid-September through mid-June, and are designed as multi-year or tailored to meet the needs of the individual student.
Portraiture
Sponsored by the Texas Academy of Figurative Art
The Texas Academy of Figurative Art is pleased to sponsor the award for the Portraiture Category of the ARC Salon. TAFA was founded in 2007, and is the only fine art academy in Texas that offers a full-time curriculum in figurative realist drawing and painting. TAFA provides an atelier experience for contemporary artists seeking to connect with a foundational and historical approach to fine art education. Our curriculum reflects both the Old Master working methods alongside the Academic Realist approach. The primary emphasis is on rendering the human figure accurately from direct observation. They also embrace the ideals in support of traditional canons of beauty which have been accepted throughout Western European art history. TAFA is thankful for the Art Renewal Center’s commitment to help advance the atelier movement and the revival of classically-based fine art eduction. We are proud to partner with the ARC Salon to support the highest achievements in contemporary realist fine art.
Animals
Sponsored by Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier
Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier (BACCA), is in the San Francisco Bay Area City of San Carlos. We offer weekly Art Classes, Workshops, Intensive Summer Programs, Open Model Sessions for artists of all abilities who desire to study drawing and painting in the tradition of Classical Realism of the old masters. We are located 30 minutes south of San Francisco in mid peninsula's beautiful town of San Carlos CA, County of San Mateo. The New BACAA studio has 50 ft. wide north facing window and 20 ft. high ceiling, which provide the ideal environment for classical study. Please visit the About Us page for local accommodations and affordable housing and our BACAA (Bay Area Classical Artist) page on Facebook. Linda Dulaney, Founder of BACAA, is a lifelong artist who manifested her desire to bring a school to life in the San Francisco Bay Area, based on the ateliers of the Renaissance and old masters. Starting in the mid 1990s, Linda developed a clear understanding of the style and type of instruction she wanted in an atelier. Linda's most influential teachers were Tony Ryder, Ted Seth Jacobs and Michael Grimaldi. She currently teaches the ongoing daytime classes at BACAA and at Stanford University. BACCA also holds regular workshops by a long list of prestigious and world-renowned guest instructors. Please visit the BACCA website for additional information and to register.