 Aesthetic Realism, described by Eli Siegel. In his Preface to Self and World: An Explanation of Aesthetic Realism (Definition Press, NY: 1981) Eli Siegel asks:"Is it true, as Aesthetic Realism said years ago, that man's deepest desire, his largest desire, is to like the world on an honest or accurate basis? ..." more
Eli Siegel, Founder of Aesthetic Realism
Biography of Eli Siegel, Originally in Idaho Senior News. There is also a biography of Eli Siegel, with photographs, on the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company website and in Google Knol.
In The Right Of, Ellen Reiss has written about the death of Eli Siegel every year since 1987. See "Always: Love of Reality."
The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known. The international periodical of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation: with essays, commentaries, poems. Edited by Ellen Reiss. As editor of TRO her commentaries are in every issue. See, for instance, "Nature, Romanticism, & Harry Potter"; "Clothing and Emotion"; and "Jobs, Discontent, and Beauty". more
Ellen Reiss, Class Chairman of Aesthetic Realism,
teaching The Aesthetic Realism Explanation of Poetry class
Faculty Biographies. Bios of the faculty of the Foundation. This is where you can read about Ellen Reiss, who is head of its educational activities, and about everyone on the faculty. more
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HOW TO STUDY AESTHETIC REALISM
SPEAKERS • OUTREACH DEPARTMENT • MUSIC • DRAMA
TERRAIN GALLERY and ELI SIEGEL COLLECTION
The Eli Siegel Collection, located in the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, houses the books and some of the manuscripts of Eli Siegel. The 25,000-volume collection includes world literature, philosophy, works on approaches to mind, poetry, history, art and literary criticism, labor and economics, the sciences. more.
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BOOKS by ELI SIEGEL and about AESTHETIC REALISM
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Illustration from Children's Guide to Parents and Other Matters |
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There is no more important news than the fact that in classrooms where teachers use the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method, learning succeeds and students become truly kinder to each other... more
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AESTHETIC REALISM in the Press: A Sampling
 Philadelphia Sunday Sun: "Groundbreaking After-School Program Based on Aesthetic Realism" by Alice Bernstein. A groundbreaking after-school program for youngsters ages 6-13 has been taking place in New York State youth centers for over six years....They encourage children to love reading and other subjects, and to be kinder. Directors at these centers applaud the beneficial effect of this program on the youngsters they serve." >> more
SCOPE's Education Forum, "A Lesson in Aesthetic Realism—Duck Incubation" by Lori Colavito. "Like teachers everywhere, I began my career hoping to have a good effect on children. Eighteen years later, I’m happy to say, this hope has been a reality every year since, and the reason is my use of the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method." >> more
New York Newsday (Sept. 26, 2005) "The Bane of True Democracy" by Timothy Lynch, president of Teamsters Local 1205 >> more
British Journal of Aesthetics (Oct. 2005) "ON AESTHETIC REALISM"
by Edward Green >> more
New York Newsday (12/16/02) "Health Care S.O.S." by Dr. Jaime Torres >> more
The Philippine Post Magazine (2/02) "Purposes in America, Once and Now" by Ellen Reiss, Class Chairman of Aesthetic Realism >> more
Northport Journal (Huntington, NY) 12/19/99 "Filmmaker Tackles Homelessness Issues" by Carol Parker. Solution to homelessness as Aesthetic Realism proposes it. >> more
For more articles in the press click here. |
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On this page you'll see links to :
 Events & Seminars
Theatre Company
Online Library
Preface to Self and World
Biography of Eli Siegel
Biography of Ellen Reiss
Faculty Biographies
Outreach
Classes/Consultations
Books
The Right Of (TRO)
Aesthetic Realism
 Teaching Method
In the Press
How to Contact Us
A note on the beginnings of Aesthetic Realism — and about classes today:
Aesthetic Realism was founded and first taught by Eli Siegel in 1941. A poet of "the very first rank," as William Carlos Williams described him, and a critic whose "penetration [is] both original and extraordinary" (N.Y. Times Book Review), Mr. Siegel developed a new way of seeing the world and people which he first called Aesthetic Analysis and later Aesthetic Realism. (See Self and World.) Over the years it became evident that this way of seeing reality and the things in it can enable every person to like the world on an honest basis—an aesthetic basis—and at the same time like him- or herself too.
All Aesthetic Realism classes are based on this way of seeing—the aesthetic way. Aesthetic Realism arises from poetry. The world and people are seen fairly in true poetry—in Keats, Shakespeare, Whitman, Molière, Lorca, Li Po, Basho.
That is why the Aesthetic Realism method of education is in this principle by Eli Siegel: "The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites." You'll see more about the meaning of this great idea in the following:
CLASSES
• The Aesthetic Realism Explanation of Poetry is taught by Ellen Reiss, Class Chairman of Aesthetic Realism, who writes in her class description: "Eli Siegel is the critic who showed truly what poetry is. He showed that poetry — because it is fair to the whole world and oneself at the same time, because it is logic and feeling as one thing, because it puts opposites together — answers the questions of every person's life."
• The Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method workshop for educators explains the aesthetic structure in each subject, from spelling to algebra, to show its beauty and relate it to students' lives. It is taught by distinuished New York City teachers Barbara Allen, Patricia Martone, Arnold Perey, and Rosemary Plumstead.
• Aesthetic Realism and Anthropology, taught by Dr. Arnold Perey, discusses the Aesthetic Realism explanation of self to oppose racism and study what people have in common East and West, in the Arctic & the southern tip of Africa.
• The Aesthetic Realism music classes, taught by Aesthetic Realism faculty members Barbara Allen, Anne Fielding, & Edward Green, and mezzo-soprano Carrie Wilson (the Singing class), are based on this principle of Aesthetic Realism: "All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves."
• Aesthetic Realism classes in art include The Visual Arts and the Opposites , a museum / gallery course taught by Marcia Rackow; The Art of Drawing: Surface & Depth, taught by Chaim Koppelman; and Critical Inquiry: A Workshop in the Visual Art s, in which works in process are looked at, taught by painter Dorothy Koppelman.
• The Aesthetic Realism and Acting class, taught by Anne Fielding * is based on this concept stated by the founder of Aesthetic Realism: "Acting is a certain way of taking the contraries of the world. It is a way of being somebody else for the purpose of coming back home immediately."
• In the Aesthetic Realism and Marriage class, taught by Pauline Meglino, Anne Fielding & Barbara Allen, Aesthetic Realism consultants, women study "the opposites of contempt and respect in the history of marriage and in their own lives including yesterday's incident at the breakfast table."
• In the Learning to Like the World class, Robert Murphy and Barbara Allen teach young people how "everything — from a flower to mathematics to their mothers — can be used to like the world!"
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* Director of the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company
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Articles on the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method |
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