Yellow Springs Institute for Contemporary Studies and the Arts

The Chester Springs, eastern Pennsylvania spa that was to become Yellow Springs, dates from approximately 1730. In 1778, the Continental Congress authorized the building of a hospital for Continental soldiers at Yellow Springs, the only facility of its kind constructed during the war. Following the Civil War, the Yellow Springs Village was operated as a home for war orphans.

From 1861 to 1952 the Village of Yellow Springs was owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts as a summertime painting and sculpture colony. The large sculpture studio was located on the ground floor of the large barn building that became the Institute’s theater. The “Swedish Nightingale,” Jenny Lind, is said to have visited Yellow Springs in the mid-nineteenth century.

From 1952 to 1974, the Village was owned by Good News Productions, the film studio that produced (at Yellow Springs) the cult classic film, The Blob, featuring Steve McQueen in the role that launched his career. Historic Yellow Springs purchased the entire village and began renovations in 1974.

The Yellow Springs Fellowship for the Arts, later Yellow Springs Institute (YSI) for Contemporary Studies and the Arts, was founded in 1975 to “establish an interdisciplinary laboratory for creative individuals whose work interprets aspects of contemporary experience, encourage creation of works that expand artistic boundaries, enlarge cultural understanding, and employ art and artists in the life of communities.” John A. Clauser, an architect, was its founding director and ran the Institute for its entire existence.

The Institute offered residency programs from one to three weeks between mid-May and October to both performing and visual artists, as well as presenting workshops. Those artists selected received room, board, and a stipend to develop their unproduced works during the residency, culminating in a work-in-progress performance before an audience. At its height, the Institute received more than three hundred applications from troupes and individuals all over the world. It accepted sixteen.

In the late 1970s, the physical facilities were built, including a two-story performance facility with an amphitheater. The Earthwork was an outdoor, experimental performance space. In 1990, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation funded the building of a conference center complex.

Among its most notable programs were Six Saturdays: Explorations in Six Archetypal Themes in 1980; mythology scholar Joseph Campbell and poet Robert Bly held workshops for this program; Ages Apart (1982) which examined cultural transformation and change, also with Robert Bly; and ACCIONES (1989), a project concerned with the cultural realities and concerns of Latino interdisciplinary artists from the two Americas.

Many of the artists who worked at Yellow Springs Institute included those on the cutting edge, such as Ping Chong and Company (1990), Mabou Mines (1993), and composer Morton Subotnick (1992). Other participating artists included Ridge Theater (1991) and Shaliko Company (1989), performance artists Holly Hughes (1992) and John Kelly (1992), composer Pauline Oliveros (1983, 1991), musical groups Orchestra of Our Time (1980), the Philadelphia Trio, Relâche, and dancers Kei Takei (1980), Joan Lombardi (1983), and Toby Vann (1991).

Drastic cuts in government funding in the late 1990s forced the sale of the Institute’s fifteen-acre site. In 1997, Historic Yellow Springs, Inc. purchased the Institute’s buildings and land. Clauser unsuccessfully sought a Philadelphia site for the Institute and spent the last few years of his life compiling an archive of the Institute’s activities. He died of pulmonary fibrosis in 2002.

From the guide to the Yellow Springs Institute records, 1972-2004, (The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.)