Our Story

Hello, and thanks for checking out our campaign!

Four of us (Jeremy Deck, Tony Ranalli, Andrew McManus and Angela Cunningham) founded Cambridge Street Studios, a non-profit art school in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in early 2011.

We teach Naturalist realism, which means painting and drawing things as they are. Students here gain considerable powers of observation, problem solving, technique and theory, and learn how to accurately represent nature on the page and the canvas. Those same powers of observation are then joined with a discerning eye and a personal aesthetic; the student becomes a thinking, feeling conduit for the beauty of nature and the human form.

To make our school possible, we completely rehabbed a two-story, 4,000 square foot carriage house. When we moved in the structure was empty, front to back, and in very poor condition. The four of us spent nine months, and all of our free time, energy and money completely renovating the structure and turning it into a functional art studio. We have a life drawing room with north-facing skylights, a cast hall with a custom built lighting system, a still-life room and a sculpture studio.

We started classes in September 2011, and have started to build a solid group of dedicated part-time students, who are already making remarkable progress! We are also very pleased to welcome our first Full-Time student, Mark Fiorenza, who moved all the way from San Francisco to study with us! We also have a handful of other prospective Full-Time students that should be starting in early 2012.

The Impact

Cambridge Street Studios is run by artists, for artists. We started our school in Philadelphia, and structured our business the way we did, in order to make this type of instruction more accessible and affordable to artists seeking this type of training. There simply aren't many places in the world that do what we do, and there need to be more of them.

Our business model is crafted to keep tuition costs considerably lower than comparable institutions. Tuition at other schools like ours is generally 65% more expensive (or even higher) than at Cambridge Street. The four of us pool our resources, and perform all the administrative and maintenance tasks ourselves, so we can keep instruction as affordable as possible.

Your contributions will not be used to offset our personal or operational costs. We will continue to subsidize the school with our time, effort and money. Your contributions will go straight to improving the facilities and, if we exceed our goal, making scholarships available to students.

With your help, we will be able to provide an incredible value to aspiring artists. Your contribution will be amplified by our hard work, and our students will reap the benefits in terms of enhanced facilities and programs.

The ripple effect of your generosity will be felt and appreciated for years and years. The artists that we train will in turn train others, and your contribution will fuel this cycle at a critical time for our young school.

If we do not meet our funding goals, we will make whatever improvements we can; every dollar will be stretched. We have all worked too hard on this to let the school fail, so we will be around, training artists and making work, whether or not we meet our goal. We will continue to scrape by, prioritizing purchases and very slowly making the place more comfortable and functional.

Why We Need Your Help!

As decent as the school is, and as much progress as we have made, there are a lot of things that still need to be done that are simply out of our budget.

We are trying to raise at least $15,000. It sounds like a lot, (it sure does to us) but it will go a very, very long way and make an incredible impact on the school.

Our most urgent need is heat! We have a big, old building, and only one small stove to try and heat it. It never keeps up, and we are usually wearing winter coats all day long. It will cost about $1,500 to buy and install two more stoves. It often gets below freezing, and two more stoves would make a huge impact right away, especially to our figure models!

Your contribution, of whatever amount, will help us to complete our renovations, and to continue teaching and learning. It will mean the difference between our just getting by and the artistic community in Philadelphia gaining another world-class engine of culture and educational resource.

Any amount collected over our goal will be used to make additional improvements to the school, and towards making tuition even more affordable for students. Our hope is to raise enough to make all of our repairs and improvements, and still have money left over to establish a scholarship fund. Our goal is for the person who wants to learn how to draw and paint to have access to that instruction. Your generosity could make the difference between them pursuing their dream or not. Think of the potential positive impact that you can have on that person's life, and how much beauty will be wrought with their hands, just because a few dollars made the difference at a critical point in their life!

Perks

We are pleased to offer some pretty unique perks to thank you for your contribution. We hope you find something exciting. The Gala is going to be awesome!

Another note: our artists are motivated and dedicated. They are going to succeed, and make names for themselves. This is a rare opportunity to own an original artwork by an emerging artist, and even rarer, it is accompanied by the knowledge that you made a real impact on their success and the success of those around them.

It is not on our Perks list, but we would also accept larger donations for use solely as a named scholarship. This could be in the form of a one-time or perennial award made in your name, or to honor a friend or loved one. Please contact us with your idea, and we would be more than happy to work with you!

Other Ways You Can Help

Spread the word! Do you know someone else who appreciates what we are trying to accomplish? A patron who might want to purchase a piece? Or, better yet, a potential student? Please tell them about us! Telling people about us is just as valuable as a financial contribution and can make all the difference. When you tell your friends about us, tell them to tell their friends too!

Thank you so much for your interest and support. It means the world to us.

Sincerely,

Angela, Jeremy, Andrew Tony

The music in the video is "Tetrishead" by Zoë Keating. Google her; you will not be dissapointed. Thanks again, Zoë!