Idyllwild Arts Foundation - History

History

Idyllwild Arts was founded by Dr. Max Krone and his wife, Beatrice. Envisioning a remote place where people of all backgrounds could come together to experience the arts, they established the Idyllwild Arts Foundation in 1946 and purchased acreage in the San Jacinto Mountains on which to build. In 1950, approximately one hundred adult students began attending summer classes in the arts.

Over the years, summer activities have continued to grow, expanding to include programs for children of all ages, a Family Camp, Metals Week, Native American Arts Festival and the Chamber Music Festival. Classes in music, dance, theatre, visual arts, writing and Native American arts are offered to students from age 5 to adult. Each year over 1800 adults and children attend Idyllwild Arts Summer Program courses. Courses were offered in classical music, folk music, visual arts, ceramics, sculpture, dance and theater. Norman Corwin, Ansel Adams, Herbert Zipper, Marguerite N. Clapp, Bella Lewitzky, Fritz Scholder, Maria Martinez, Lucy Lewis, Meredith Willson and other luminaries taught courses there in the summer.

In 1964, the school was given to the University of Southern California under the terms of an agreement with the Idyllwild Arts Foundation. In 1983, the Foundation exercised its option to resume independent management and resumed sole ownership of the school. In 1985, the first independent boarding high school for the arts in the western United States, the Idyllwild Arts Academy, was established.