Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists' Residency

Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency was established in 1910 and continues to serve artists through our mission of: connecting artists to: a network of creative resources, people and ideas; an energizing natural environment; a rich artistic history and vital future. Ox-Bow's egalitarian and intimate environment encourages all artists, regardless of experience, to find, amplify, rediscover, and share their impulse to create. Faculty, visiting artists, residents, staff, and students live together in a temporary intentional community on our campus in Saugatuck, MI where they share meals, social time, and exchange of ideas. We actively encourage our participants to live and learn together across differences in age, regional location, race, and gender-identity, learning what it means to be a community by participating in one.

Ox-Bow’s programs offer a balance of structure and experimentation, in an effort to maximize artists’ potential, and bring together different generations and experience levels to collaborate and engage in collective dialogue. Our residency program, workshops, and immersive courses are open to the public and exemplify a diverse, intergenerational learning space and community. Artists as prominent as Joan Mitchell, Theaster Gates, and Stephanie Syjuco have benefited from our unique blend of rigor and repose that defines Ox-Bow’s unpretentious, yet avant-garde environment. Each summer we offer a wide range of courses taught by faculty from around the country that strike a balance between technical skill-building and conceptual rigor while addressing a variety of subject matter and media including: metals, papermaking, ceramics, printmaking, fibers, painting, climate change, mycology, environmental sustainability, curation, performance, and more.