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DescriptionA booklet for the first summer session for the New York City based Grand Central School of Art to be held in Eastport, Maine in 1927. Described on the front cover of the booklet as “A Modern Summer School of Art,” the first session ran from July 5th to August 17th. Instructors included New York City based artists, George Pearse Ennis and Edmund Greacen, with instruction in outdoor oil and watercolor painting. Ennis had been coming to Eastport during the summer for many years and the area was well known to him. At this time Eastport was readily accessible by both steamship and train from Boston and from Boston to New York City and to other points south and west. In selecting Eastport for the location of the summer session, the local Eastport newspaper of the time noted: “Many possible locations were discussed, but by the influence of Mr. Ennis and Mr. Greacen, Eastport was selected. No better place for an art school is to be found on the North American coastline, according to Mr. Ennis, from the standpoint of scenic values and climate, and it has the invaluable advantage of not having been ‘worked to death’ as an artists’ field.” The booklet goes on to note that at the end of summer session, an exhibition of the work of the class was to be held at the local Eastport public library. Forty students participated in the first summer session and instruction was held in the second floor auditorium of the local Boynton High School. The summer school would continue for another nine years, through the summer of 1936, under the primary directorship of Ennis. He was tragically killed in a car accident the end of August, 1936 in upstate New York and the summer school ended with his death. Photo caption: Booklet for the first summer session for the New York City based Grand Central School of Art to be held in Eastport, Maine in 1927. Described on the front cover of the booklet as “A Modern Summer School of Art,” the first session ran from July 5th to August 17th.