Art Institute Director Set to Retire

By Jacquelyne Taurianen

VERMILLION, S.D. – John Day will spend the next two weeks teaching students about painting, drawing, printmaking, poetry, photography and graphic design with assistance from other professional artists, before he hangs up his training tools once and for all.

This summer marks an end to Day’s 18-year contribution as program director to the Oscar Howe Summer Art Institute.

The program began in 1960 when Oscar Howe, artist and University of South Dakota professor, wanted to create a venue for Native Americans artists to advance their skills.

“He wanted to allow Native American artists to break free from stereotypical clichés of what Indian art was,” Day said. “It’s not always watercolor on paper with illusionism and traditional dances.”

Howe was determined to show students Native American art has no definition.

“He believed art is self-expression and that people shouldn’t be dictated by what to create simply because of who they are and where they come from,” Day said.

In 1970, Howe gave up his work with the institute because of poor health. The institute remained on hold until Day, a close friend, reinstated it in the summer of 1991 along with Bobby Penn, a Howe protégé.

The institute was reopened to high school and college students from all over the country “with all the principles and values that Howe established in the beginning,” Day said. “And we have been running it that way ever since.”

Day says things should change regularly in administration to keep programs ever evolving and growing for the better.  For that reason, he sees his retirement as necessary.

“I am a born anarchist,” Day said. “You attack a system that works before it becomes inbred and silly.”

He may see retirement as necessary but his time spent at the institute will not soon be forgotten.

The institute and Day have propelled multiple students to obtain college degrees and go on to be professional artists.

“This is such an important project,” Day said. “I’ve seen lives changed because of the time kids spend here.”

After four years spent transitioning out of his job as program director, Day leaves former students and faculty in charge of the Institute.
“This (summer) is the last shot at getting people in place,” he said. “We currently have a very supportive system, from both faculty at the program and at the University. I’m not worried the future of the program.”