Distinguished Educators in the Arts, 2004
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Historic Selection:
Howard Pyle The illustrations of Howard Pyle, N. A. (1853-1911) are as exciting now as they were over a century ago. As a teacher, Pyle attracted large numbers of students, and inspired them as much by his idealism as by the high standards he set for picture-making. |
Contemporary Selection:
David Macaulay Macaulay was born in England and moved to the United States at the age of 11. He discovered a talent for drawing which lead him to the Rhode Island School of Design where he studied architecture. |
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Over the years, he taught at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia, lectured at the Art Students League in New York, and eventually conducted special classes for gifted students in Wilmington, Delaware, and during the summer at Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. He did not charge for his teaching and in fact, built a set of studios for the students to work in. N. C. Wyeth, Harvey Dunn, Stanley Arthurs, Jessie Willcox Smith and Frank Schoonover were among the beneficiaries of this instruction, and passed along to others Pyle’s unique approach as they in turn became illustrators and teachers.
At a time when it was customary and fashionable to study in Europe, Pyle had a strong conviction that students should seek their training and inspiration in America. Many of Pyle’s greatest pictures came from his intense and loyal interest in Americana. HIs renditions of the Revolutionary War period and of Civil War subjects have since become standard pictures in history books, among them Woodrow Wilson’s “History of the American People” and James Truslow Adam’s “History of the United States”. After Pyle’s death, his students collected many of his original paintings as a nucleus for the present comprehensive collection of his work in the Delaware Art Museum. Excerpted from: “The Illustrator in America: 1860 - 2000” by Walter and Roger Reed. |
He has never practiced as an architect, but uses his architectural training both in the obvious sense of the subject matter of his first several books and in his breaking down of large problems into smaller details.
He began his career as a picture-book writer with Cathedral (1973) and Castle (1977). Macaulay’s longest work, the way things work, has been adapted to an interactive CD-ROM format. While some people in the book world are threatened by the computer’s assumption of books’ traditional role in disseminating knowledge, Macaulay finds interactive multimedia to have enormous educational potential. “We’re not going to go back to books in libraries,” he says. The fact that we have all these things available now because of digital technology, we should not give that up--as long as we know what we want.” Several of Macaulay’s educational books have also been turned into television programs for PBS. As an educator Macaulay is linked to the Rhode Island School of Design. he has taught there since 1975 with only a brief hiatus to lecture nationwide and a year off now as he tackles his biggest book project to date. |
