The Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists' Residency is an artists' residency program in Saugatuck, Michigan, United States, founded in 1908 by artists Frederick Fursman and Walter Marshall Clute, both of whom taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The founding mission of Ox-Bow was to provide a community and laboratory for artistic experimentation away from the city. The founding members of the school were inspired by their studies in French Impressionism and wanted to create a space for plein-air painting in inspiring landscapes. Since those early years, the school curriculum has grown to include various other methods of painting, sculpture, ceramics, papermaking, glass-blowing, and weaving. In addition to offering courses for academic credit in the summer and winter seasons, Ox-Bow offers fellowships and residencies for practicing artists of all media. History In the early years, Ox-Bow was called the "Saugatuck Summer School of Painting." In those days, classes were held at the Bandle Farm, just a mile up the Kalamazoo River from the present location of the school. In 1914, classes moved to the Riverside Rest Hotel in the village of Saugatuck. The Riverside Rest was later known as the Ox-Bow Inn, after ox-bow-shaped bend of the Kalamazoo River. The owners of the then Riverside Hotel, the Shriver Family had hoped that the area would be a major port for commerce along the Great Lakes. However, after the river channel was reshaped to flow directly into Lake Michigan, the area saw a great decline in both leisure and commercial visitors. Due to the shrinking clientele, the Shrivers agreed to lease their property to the group of artists visiting from Chicago. That building, now dubbed "The Inn," still stands on Ox-Bow campus and serves as gallery space, offices, and dormitories for students, staff, and visiting artists. In 1920, prominent architect and friend of the school's founding members, Thomas Eddy Tallmadge, encouraged the school to purchase the buildings and grounds to ensure its future. Tallmadge contributed a significant amount of funding towards this effort and also bought an additional hundred acres of land adjacent to the property (Tallmadge Woods). Today much of that land remains wooded and accessible via footpaths. There are several cottages for artists situated on that extension of the property, which include The Tallmadge, the Norton, Scanlon, and the Mary K. Mission "The mission of Ox-Bow, in keeping with its history, is to sustain a