When World War II broke out, the buildings were abandoned. For a time, the Art Students’ League in New York City taught a summer program of art classes there; but when they left in 1979, Angeloch, who had been a student there, and as McGloughlin says, “always had his eye on the property,” came in with a group of supporters. After about two years of “scraping the vines off the doors, painting the place, getting the plumbing running and mowing the lawns,” they started WSA on the site, holding its first session in the summer months because the buildings were without insulation or heat at the time.
Angeloch had a gift for garnering support from the world outside the art community, says McGloughlin, and they responded generously to his innate integrity and commitment to his mission. “There were never any airs about him,” she says. “And people also knew that an art school would be good for the community.”
Today, WSA is a year-round operation. “Bob’s successor, Paula Nelson, was able to take it a step further,” McGloughlin says, “and use the money that Bob took care of for the endowment so we could build the operation.” The studios are now fully capable of handling the extremes of all seasons, and the buildings are listed on the National and the New York State Registers of Historic Places. From a handful of students in the beginning, the School now enrolls on average 400 a year, and awards tens of thousands of dollars in scholarship money to local youth.
“I don’t think Bob ever had any intention of being a leader,” says McGloughlin. “I think he just wanted to keep an art school going in Woodstock. But he had such determination and focus to keep this thing going, and he ended up singly influencing generations of artists. It’s remarkable how influential this one really solitary figure was.”
The Woodstock School of Art is located at 2470 Route 212 in Woodstock. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The Robert Angeloch exhibition will run July 7 through September 1. For more information, visit ulsterpub.staging.wpengineschoolofart.org, e-mail [email protected] or call (845) 679-2388.
