From the Executive Director, Jay Noble

My own summers spent in college level immersive summer art programs were life changing.  I fell in love with this type of supplementary schooling as a complement to my liberal arts education.  

Studying and teaching in both the college setting and summer programs like the one we started here in Mount Gretna has taught me that the two environments make great partners in education.  The college setting excels at providing breadth, variety, and experimentation while the summer intensive setting provides an experience of depth, focus and continuity largely unachievable in any other context.

As a persuasive advocate for the benefit of summer study, I have helped my own students gain entry into numerous summer intensive art schools over the years.  The rising need among my own students and those of colleagues teaching at colleges and universities across the country for immersive and sustained study has motivated this endeavor along with a fierce desire to make the program affordable to all deserving students.

Mount Gretna is the perfect setting for this initiative and has proved ideal to provide support and encouragement to students.  Home to the Pennsylvania Chautauqua Foundation and the Mount Gretna Arts Council, this community is bubbling with energy for the arts.  The warm reception MGSoA has received has made the hard work of starting this school a pleasure.

I'm proud to share MGSoA with it and students across the country as a top quality artistic resource.

-Jay Noble