TALIESIN FELLOWS
an independent organization inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Building designed by Arthur Dyson – previous dean of Alumni of the School of Architecture at Taliesin (SoAT) and apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright
The Taliesin Fellows is a national group. We are an all-volunteer association dedicated to the promotion of the ideals and principles of Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic architecture, and to improving the quality of the built environment. Our members include licensed architects, students, emerging professionals and other supporters of the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Taliesin Fellows further the ideals of Mr. Wright’s organic architecture both as an independent organization & as part of the greater community inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Taliesin Fellows, the alumni organization of the School of Architecture at Taliesin was formally initiated in 1932 when twenty-three apprentices came to live and learn at Taliesin. The sources of this educational philosophy have roots that go back much further than the 1930s. The program of the School, while remaining remarkably true to its heritage, has evolved through experience and the need to address changing times.
In 1931, Frank and Olgivanna Lloyd Wright circulated a prospectus to an international group of distinguished scholars, artists, and friends, announcing their plan to form a school at Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin to “Learn by Doing.”
Frank Lloyd Wright School with apprentices
Winter home of Frank Lloyd Wright (Taliesin West)
“The fine arts, so called,” they asserted, “should stand at the center as inspiration grouped about architecture . . . . (of which landscape and the decorative arts would be a division).” Education would emphasize painting, sculpture, music, drama, and dance “in their places as divisions of architecture.”
Each of these elements of the fine arts, as the Wrights conceived them, would lead to broader learning: “Drama would be studied as the essential structure of all great literature;” while “Music would mean the fundamental study of sound and rhythm as an emotional reaction both as to original character and present nature.”
They anticipated a core faculty, “resident foremen,” at the school supplemented by “a guest-system of visitation, consultation and criticism” and faculty from the “nearest university” who would make philosophy and psychology and other disciplines available “by extension work.” The “Wisconsin Idea” at the University of Wisconsin conceived of the entire State as a classroom, and the Wrights with close friends at the University proposed to make full use of it.
The students, or “apprentices,” would round out their education in the spirit of Tolstoy’s “What to Do.”
“The entire work of feeding and caring for the student body so far as possible should be done by itself . . . work in the gardens, fields, animal husbandry, laundry, cooking, cleaning, serving should rotate among the students according to some plan that would make them all do their bit with each kind of work at some time.”
Taliesin – Home of Frank Lloyd Wright in Spring Green, Wisconsin
Living room at Taliesin West
The ambitious plan for an endowed school exceeded the Wright’s capacity to attract funds in the second full year of the Great Depression. So the next year, 1932, they issued a more modest circular announcing the formation of the Taliesin Fellowship and inviting young people to venture to Taliesin (now School of Architecture at Taliesin). The Fellowship would organize around the principles they had articulated in 1931.
But the sources of these ideas go back much further than the early 1930s. They rested on the Wrights’ own experience.
The Taliesin Fellows further the ideals and principles of Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic architecture as an independent organization inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright.
As an independent organization, The Fellows are an active organization whose membership includes those who have been educated at School of Architecture at Taliesin, practicing architects, and individuals with an interest in organic architecture. We utilize our members’ knowledge and passion for the built environment to raise monetary capital for projects that endeavor to solve societal design issues from single sites to constructing and reconstructing communities:
As a part of the greater community inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, The Taliesin Fellows:
The Taliesin Fellows
The Taliesin Fellows
New Programs We Want To Build:
In-House Community/Foundation Relations
Public Community Outreach