FINDING THE NEXT ROTHKO

In 1895, a downtown Manhattan settlement house named the Educational Alliance Art School began offering art classes for its struggling immigrant community members who were living in impoverished conditions. At the Educational Alliance, people could step away from their everyday realities to examine their creative potential.

Nearly a century later, following a renovation of its landmark building at 197 East Broadway, the renowned Art School recently reopened in the Manny Cantor Center, where today, nearly 1,500 people attend community and cultural programs daily in a sweeping new space.

From dabblers to would-be professionals, thousands of artists have passed through the Educational Alliance’s doors to study visual arts. Many contributed to a burgeoning art scene—whether on the Lower East Side or around the world. In this tradition, the school hopes to “foster a dialogue in the arts, an opportunity for artistic discovery, and a chance to honor the history of our storied neighborhood and the people who helped build it,” said Emily Aldredge, Director of the school.

The new art facility will build on the school’s legacy to offer a dynamic curriculum including drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture, and jewelry-making classes at affordable prices for all skill levels. Experienced, dedicated faculty will teach in a modernized space that includes a newly equipped ceramic and sculpture studio, a multidisciplinary studio, and two gallery spaces for public exhibitions. The setting is ideal: steeped in cultural history, poverty and grit, the Lower East Side today is rich in color, sounds, tastes and in inspiration.

“The Educational Alliance Art School is a link to old New York, when the Lower East Side served a community of new Americans: recent immigrants,” said Josh Bayer, a drawing instructor at the school.

Peter Blume, Adolph Gottlieb, Louise Nevelson, Mark Rothko and Max Weber— to name a few—have either studied or taught at the Educational Alliance Art School. There’s no telling who will be next.

Winter-term classes start January 12, 2015.

REGISTER and LEARN MORE: MannyCantor.org/Art

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