Saugatuck school of painting

Founded in 1910 as a summer school near the village of Saugatuck, Michigan by Walter Marshall Clute and Frederick Fursman, teachers at the Art Institute of Chicago. Shortly after the school was renamed Ox-Bow and was moved several times from the Bandle Farm, a place where Clute and Fursman loved to paint on the east bank of the Kalamazoo River and property owned by the family of artist Bessie Bandle. The final location was in Saugatuck at the Riverside Hotel, a 20-room restored hotel, later named the Ox-Bow Inn. In 1915, Fursman became the Director for the next 30 years. That same year, the School was gifted 110 acres for expansion and painting expeditions. In 1919, the entity was renamed the Ox-Bow School of Painting and was taken over by the Art Institute of Chicago. Other art schools formed in the area: AK Studio, Taylor Art School founded in 1931 by Cora Bliss Taylor, and Greason School of Painting founded in 1931 by William Greason. Source: www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/2008/septoct/saugatuck.html; http://www.ox-bow.org/history/; Edward Bentley; (LPD)