About Mission: Renaissance®
Mission: Renaissance® was founded by Larry and Sheila Gluck in 1975. Inspiration for the school’s name derives from the popular 1960’s television series, Mission: Impossible—Larry and Sheila’s mission being the creation of a Renaissance in fine art instruction around the world.
While seemingly impossible, their mission is well underway. Today there are 19 studios across Southern California with more than 2000 students attending weekly and a large home study contingent here and abroad. Serving children, teens and adults for more than a third of a century, Mission: Renaissance® has the honored distinction of being the largest fine art program in the world.
Students learn at their own pace in a non-competitive and encouraging atmosphere with attention on individualized instruction and maximum progress. But to fully appreciate Mission: Renaissance, it should be viewed against the greater backdrop of fine art training today to understand what sets it apart from every other art school and college.
Mission: Renaissance® was founded on a principle wholly at odds with the common misconception that you either possess talent or don’t; the myth that you are born with a fixed allotment of talent which can never change. In stark contrast to this, we believe everyone can acquire talent and can learn how to express themselves artistically given the right instruction.
Mission: Renaissance® is home to The Gluck Method® of fine art instruction, and therein lies the key to unlocking talent. All our instructors and franchisees are trained at The Larry Gluck Instructor Training Academy, located at our main offices in Glendale, California; and each is certified in Larry’s breakthrough process before they are allowed to teach students.
Historically, classically trained apprentices were first taught how to construct drawings from basic lines and shapes. Once they achieved a sound degree of competence they were taught how to create the illusion of depth using shading (otherwise known as tone). Only then were they shown how to paint, how to mix & combine colors. Sadly, this fundamental sequence is missing from art institutions today; moreover, no complete, step-by-step process of instruction exists. So students graduate with gaping holes in their art education.
The Gluck Method® follows in the classic tradition by instructing in this time-honored sequence providing the first complete series of courses and a thorough grounding in fine art skills. Larry Gluck, himself a successful, world-renowned representational painter, dedicated more than 25 years to unearthing and codifying the exact steps required to take anyone from novice to artist.
Every studio exclusively utilizes The Gluck Method®, which is founded on the underlying principles of drawing and painting learned by master painters since the Renaissance and the results are unprecedented. Even more amazing is the adaptation of this method for children as young 5. It is not uncommon for them to routinely win art competitions and even sell their work. At Mission: Renaissance®, creativity is the realm of every child old enough to hold a pencil and receive instruction.
In the end, our focus isn’t to provide a rigid set of rules, but an unshakable foundation upon which a child’s talent can grow. With that foundation firmly in place, only then is the artist in the child free to create with excellence and originality. One of the great pleasures of instructing at Mission: Renaissance® is seeing the beaming faces of children and parents when the student completes their latest piece of art.
At Mission: Renaissance® we are thrilled to be helping students obtain a life-long ability to create.
