Victor D'Amico

Victor Edmond D'Amico (May 19, 1904 – April 1, 1987) was an American teaching artist and the founding Director of the Department of Education of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. D’Amico explored the essence of the art experience and the ability to communicate one's most profound ideas and emotions through aesthetic expression. He considered that the individual's personality had to be respected and developed by providing opportunities for creative experimentation. D'Amico's philosophy was based on the fundamental belief in the creative potential in every man, woman and child. He believed "that the arts are a humanizing force and their major function is to vitalize the living."

Recognizing learning as a process that is unique in each individual, D'Amico embraced the different ways in which each person's experience, ability and perception require a different approach to teaching. Teaching by this process, according to D'Amico, meant that the teacher must be constantly sensitive to the needs of each individual so as to stimulate and satisfy emerging interests. Victor D'Amico was not only a remarkable artist and teacher, but also a visionary and pioneer of modern art education.

Early life and education

Victor D’Amico was born on May 19, 1904, in New York City. D’Amico was one of the eleven children (seven boys and four girls) born to Concetta Paula (Jennie) Vitale and Domenico Emilio D’Amico. Victor D’Amico's mother and father were born in Italy. Concetta arrived to the United States when she was one year old while Domenico emigrated to the United States when he was nineteen.

Victor D’Amico spent his childhood in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx (New York City); and Cuyahoga in Cleveland (Ohio).

Victor attended the Cooper Union, studying fine arts, illustration, and costume design (1920–1922); Pratt Institute, studying art education (1924–1926) and Teachers College Columbia University (1926–1930) where he earned his B. S. and M.S. D’Amico also studied and worked with Norman Bel Geddes (1928–1929).

While studying at Teachers’ College, D’Amico was hired as art teacher and Head of the Art Department of the Fieldston Schools, Riverdale, NYC from 1926 to 1948. While working at Fieldston, D’Amico joined MoMA part-time as director of the Educational Project in 1937.

Career In 1948 D’Amico started working full-time at MoMA as Director of the Education Department and remained in the post until he retired in 1969. At MoMA, D’Amico created and directed the Young People's Gallery, the Children's Art Carnival (in New York, Italy, Spain, Belgium, India and Harlem), the Committee on Art Education, the Veterans Art Center, The People's Art Center and the Napeague Institute of Art best known as the Art Barge. D’Amico also produced Through the Enchanted Gate, a NBC television program presented in 1952 and 1953.

D’Amico's most significant writings include Theatre Arts, Visual Arts in General Education, Creative Teaching in Art, How to Make Pottery and Ceramic Sculpture, How to Make Modern Jewelry, How to Make Objects of Wood, Art for the Family, Experiments in Creative Art Teaching, Found Objects, Collage Kit, and The Art of Assemblage. D’Amico authored many research papers published in different journals and lectured widely in the US and abroad.

Following D'Amico's retirement from MoMA, he taught classes for New York City Grade Teachers and created Parent/Child programs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and remained as Director of the Napeague Institute of Art, later renamed the Victor D’Amico Institute of Art, a non-profit art education organization on eastern Long Island.

D'Amico was granted the Medal of Honor by The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. for Outstanding Service in the Field of Art Education on March 17, 1966. He received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts by the Philadelphia Museum College of Art on June 8, 1964, and received a Citation of Merit by the State University of New York at Buffalo, April 13, 1964.

Victor D’Amico combined his museum and school work with university and college teaching. He taught art education at Teachers College, Columbia University (1932, 1934–1942), Black Mountain College (1944), the New York University (1965–1972) and Southampton College (1969).

Personal life and death While teaching art education at Teachers College Columbia University in the 1930s, D’Amico met Mabel Birckhead, a student and an artist/teacher. In 1945 they got married. Victor and Mabel D’Amico lived in the house they built in Lazy Point, Amagansett.

Victor D’Amico died on April 1, 1987, in Amagansett, New York, at the age of 83.

Art, a Human Necessity D’Amico believed that developing an aesthetic vision and art practice was both personally and collectively enriching, as it allows for a greater appreciation of the natural and built world. Regardless of artistic talent, D’Amico considered that creativity is intrinsic to every individual and should be fostered through art education

D’Amico stressed the importance of discouraging imitation and supporting individual expression. By challenging accepted norms and encouraging unconventional perspectives, D’Amico argued that the value of art making far surpassed that of the final product.

D’Amico also explored the role of parents as teachers. In his thirteen-week television series Through the Enchanted Gate (1952–53) and subsequent publication Art for the Family All exhibitions shown in the Young People's Gallery were selected for, or by, pupils in the art classes of secondary schools. Student juries composed of delegates from all the schools selected and hung the exhibitions. The project sought to give students a hands-on experience curating and producing art exhibitions.

Victor D'Amico designed special equipment in the Young People's gallery so that it served both as gallery and art studio. This included community easels, a continuous chain of desks folded flat against two of the walls and a large screen that covered an entire wall of the gallery that could be opened to form narrow drop shelves on which paintings may be stood and easily removed to make way for more paintings during demonstrations and lectures to classes.

The Children's Art Carnival In 1942, D’Amico founded the widely acclaimed Children's Art Carnival the committee came into the public eye because of its noted affiliates and associations with MoMA.

The War Veteran's Art Center The Museum of Modern Art's Armed Services Program, established during World War II, supplied art materials to men and women in uniform through the United Service Organization. With the end of the war, the program expanded its offerings at the MoMA. The War Veteran Art Center opened in the summer of 1944 on West Fifty-sixth Street, with additional studio spaces at 681 Fifth Avenue. From 1944 to 1948, the center was devoted exclusively to veterans “to discover the best and the most effective ways of bringing about, through the arts, the readjustment of the veteran to civilian life.” D’Amico insisted on distinguishing the work of the War Veterans’ Art Center from art therapy, with the expectation that veterans would develop their own individual aptitude. The program eventually expanded into the People's Art Center, which accepted non-veterans.

The People's Art Center The People's Art Center grew out of the structure and success of the War Veteran's Art Center. It opened in 1948 and offered classes in painting, ceramics, collage, and assemblage. Approximately 800 children and 500 adults attended the classes weekly.

Through the Enchanted Gate In 1952 and 1953, MoMA and WNBC-WNBT co-produced a television series called Through the Enchanted Gate created by Victor D’Amico and NBC vice president Ted Cott. Hosted by Ben Grauer and D’Amico himself, the series broadcast art projects and activities that took place at the People's Art Center to a national audience. Instructional pamphlets were available to families to try the exercises at home. Rene d'Harnoncourt, Director of the Museum during the 1950s, felt that "Through the Enchanted Gate points the way to far-reaching possibilities in the Museum's constant aim to extend all its educational opportunities to wider and wider audiences."

The Children's Art Caravan Victor D’Amico was intent on expanding the Children's Art Carnival, and in 1969, created The Children's Art Caravan. Financed by a grant from The John D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund, the Caravan consisted of two trailers that were designed as mobile art stations for children whose schools lacked art programs or proper facilities. Continuing in his vision of The Children's Art Carnival as a workshop for teachers as well as children, The Children's Art Caravan included visual aids and texts that would guide the teachers in D’Amico's educational philosophy.

In 1972, the New York Board of Education's Learning Cooperative proposed the prototype of the two-car caravan, created by Victor D’Amico and his wife Mabel, to various school districts, but it was ultimately unable to receive adequate funding.

The Kearsarge Art Center, "The Art Barge" In 1955, D’Amico sought to find a permanent location for the art classes that were initially offered by the MoMA at Ashawagh Hall in Springs, New York. In March 1960, with the help of local baymen, D’Amico anchored a WWII Navy barge in Napeague Harbor. A second story was added, creating additional studio space with panoramic views of both Napeague Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean. Originally named Kearsarge, a Native American word meaning “place of heaven,” it was affectionately known as The Art Barge.

The Victor D'Amico Institute of Art In 1982, The Art Barge