Our Story

Art Workshop International began with a simple idea: that artists could deepen their work by gathering in a place rich with history, beauty, and cultural exchange.

Since its founding more than forty years ago, the program has grown into an international creative community while maintaining the intimate atmosphere that defined its beginnings.

Our Founders

Art Workshop International was founded by painters Bea Kreloff and Edith Isaac-Rose, whose careers as artists and teachers shaped the spirit of the program.

Bea Kreloff (1925–2016)

A painter and educator, Bea Kreloff served as head of the art department at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York and taught widely at institutions including Cooper Union, Marymount Manhattan College, and The New School.

Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in numerous private collections. For more than thirty years she directed Art Workshop International, creating an environment where artists could learn from one another in an atmosphere of curiosity and generosity.

Edith Isaac-Rose (1929–2018)

Painter and educator Edith Isaac-Rose co-founded the workshop alongside Kreloff. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she later taught at Ohio State University and the Princeton Art Association.

Her work has been exhibited internationally and is included in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and other institutions. Throughout her career she remained deeply committed to teaching and mentoring artists.

Together, Kreloff and Isaac-Rose established a program built on the belief that creative work flourishes through shared experience, conversation, and the inspiration of place.

  • Edith Isaac-Rose

  • Vintage AWi poster

  • Bea Kreloff and Ellen Stewart

  • Tony Kushner and Bea Kreloff

  • Bea Kreloff

  • Edith Isaac-Rose

  • Dorothy Allison

  • Jonathan Santlofer, SJ Rozan, Barbara Shoup, and Lynn Gernert

  • Charles Kreloff and Charles Busch

  • Charles Kreloff and Edmund White

  • Dorothy Allison

  • Lynn Gernert, Edmund White, and Charles Kreloff