A Message from the Academy

As you know, on Friday the 27th of January, President Trump signed an executive order barring all refugees from the U.S. for 120 days, visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days and all Syrian refugees indefinitely.

The Academy believes that this Executive Order stands in direct opposition to the values represented in our mission. To serve as a creative and intellectual center for all artists dedicated to highly-skilled, conceptually-aware figurative and representational art, the Academy must continue to value and support artists and creative thinkers globally. We believe that our community is enhanced and energized by exposure to ideas and cultures beyond our shores. All of our international students and visitors have a right to feel safe and secure during their time at the Academy. The demonizing of any one culture will not make us safer and will only serve to limit our exposure to the global culture that is the crowning achievement of all humanity.

We believe that creativity has no boundaries and neither should an arts education.

 

Signed,

David Kratz, President

Peter Drake, Dean