The world’s first private resort collection, ÀNI Private Resorts not only offers exclusive retreats in the most beautiful and far-flung corners of the earth, but it is also behind the non-profit ÀNI Art Academies, which provides an intensive, multi-year art skills education to aspiring artists at no personal cost.
Established in 2010, the ÀNI Art Academies organisation was designed to promote creative freedom through logic and discipline, and programs utilise the successful curriculum developed by renowned artist, Anthony J. Waichulis.
ÀNI Art Academies currently has six schools worldwide, two in the United States in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and four that are situated just minutes from ÀNI’s private resorts in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Anguilla, and the Dominican Republic. While many luxury hospitality brands establish outreach programs to support the communities in which they operate, ÀNI Private Resorts was founded at the same time as ÀNI Art Academies to support and grow the art organisation and help uplift the local communities of some of the world’s most beautiful natural destinations.
Students of ÀNI Art Academies aren’t charged for their tuition or supplies, and they receive free lunches, which allows them to stay on campus for a full day, at no cost to their families. The artwork they produce is either displayed – available for purchase – in the resorts or the academies themselves, where ÀNI guests are encouraged to buy them as meaningful souvenirs from their travels, with 100 per cent of the proceeds going to the students. Graduates around the world have gone on to lead highly successful careers as sought-after artists and art educators, benefiting their families and communities alike.
Both ÀNI Private Resorts and ÀNI Art Academies were founded by philanthropist and arts patron Tim Reynolds. Co-founder of a thriving Wall Street trading firm and founder of the Tim Reynolds Foundation, Tim’s interest in art as a means of social upliftment began with his own artistic training. His fascination with Irving Stone’s argument that both Michelangelo and Van Gogh were more hard-working achievers than born geniuses sparked the idea that individuals could become artists through education, thereby offering opportunities to those who otherwise had none.
Today, the ÀNI Art Academies family has expanded to include ÀNI Art Academies Americas in Red Bank, New Jersey, which is exclusively for veterans and those with disabilities, and four academies uniquely paired with ÀNI Private Resorts. Exclusively designed for a single group of guests, each resort accommodates up to 20 or 30 guests across 10 to 15 suites positioned around sparkling swimming pools and expansive living, dining, and entertainment areas. A full complement of staff takes care of every detail, including visits to the resort’s local ÀNI Art Academies campus, situated nearby.
According to Tim, the crossover between the resorts and schools offers guests a truly enriching experience: “The campuses are beautifully landscaped, with pavilions in which guests can enjoy the scenery and perhaps the sunset while watching the students at work. This is often when art gets purchased, with all proceeds going to the artists themselves, as guests meet the students and learn their stories, while witnessing their incredible talent honed through years of hard work,” he said.
Before an ÀNI apprentice even picks up a pencil, they are taught the discipline of how to set up and care for their tools, their easels, and their space. Apprentices start learning fundamentals like how to properly hold a pencil and competently draw a straight line. They progress to perfecting the execution of spheres, cones, cubes, and other shapes, and understanding the principles of light, draftsmanship, and visual perception. The level of competency in these fundamentals can take years to achieve, and this is the key to creating fine art to the level of excellence for which ÀNI Academies are known.
Over a four-year period, apprentices are encouraged to develop their own creative voice and go beyond the rudiments of just being able to draw a good picture. They take the subject or the visual format and push it to a different level by evolving it, perhaps narratively or historically. Each artist decides what kind of story they want to tell, and each is mentored individually by the Academy’s Dean.
“When students of ÀNI Art Academies graduate, the goal is for them to have a full toolbox of skills. From photorealism to abstract painting, they can paint anything, as their artistic development has been supported through learning,” Tim said.
When Tim started this initiative, he felt that placing some of the strongest artistic training into the hands of emerging artists around the world would give rise to a generation of creatives capable of contributing exciting new ideas, sharing robust cultures, and pioneering new means of connection and communication through expression on a scale previously unseen. Over the past decade, this vision has come to impressive fruition.
“The success of ÀNI Art Academies is not measured by revenues, rather, it is and will continue to be measured by how many people this program has touched,” Tim explained.
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