Peter Chapin

I was born in New York City in 1938. I earned a BA degree with honors in Art History from Yale, and an MFA in Painting from Columbia University. Visual art, specifically painting and printmaking, have always helped me make sense out of experience. When I was in 6th grade my father said I loved music and messed around with paint: that’s still an accurate description. I have shown and shared my artwork at several galleries in New York and elsewhere.

Indigenous artists often sign their work with their name and their community. Since I have moved about, I should probably sign as part of a family. It has been my great good fortune to have been married to Honey Chapin since 1960. We have 3 sons and a daughter, and 6 grandchildren.

As a teacher, primarily of studio art, I have worked at secondary schools and at Drew University, where I chaired the Art Department and directed the New York Art Semester and the University Gallery. In 1979 Lee Hall, then President of the Rhode Island School of Design, brought Honey and me out to Santa Fe to found and direct a satellite RISD here. Lee resigned, and that never happened, but we moved to Santa Fe in 1987 and launched “Skylight Conversations”, week-long programs for groups (primarily from the Newark Museum) talking with artists in their studios, from Santa Fe, nearby pueblos and Hispanic villages.

In retrospect it was a “blessing in disguise” that the RISD school didn’t happen, because it led me to join with wonderful people here in non-profits: as president of Santa Fe Habitat for Humanity, chair of the board of Cornerstones Community Partnerships and of Santa Fe New Music. We seek to find out who we are both individually and collectively. By painting I have sought to “find our way in this world of variety” (to use Paul Klee’s words). Santa Fe has tried to find collective meaning in a multi-ethnic community. Alas the plywood box covering the destroyed monument in the center of our Plaza and the destruction of the great “Multicultural Mural” on Guadalupe Street have set us back, but it remains the great strength of the spirit here that arts and people can be vigorous and positive in this place.