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60-630: Leslie Harrod Blank Jr. was born November 27, 1935, in Tampa, Florida. He attended Phillips Academy , and Tulane University in New Orleans , where he received a B.A. degree in English. He also briefly attended University of California, Berkeley . In the early 1960s, Blank studied filmmaking at the University of Southern California and received his master's degree . Following his university education, he worked for

120-717: A need-blind basis and provide financial aid covering 100% of students' demonstrated financial need. 45% of Andover students receive financial aid. Phillips Academy is the oldest incorporated academy in the United States. It was established in 1778 by Samuel Phillips Jr. , a local businessman who hoped to educate Calvinist students for the ministry. The American Revolutionary War had caused significant upheaval to education in New England, and Phillips Academy filled part of that gap. (For example, Boston Latin School shut down during

180-404: A parent who attended Andover , and at least one out of every five Andover students has a sibling who attended Andover. Andover enrolls a student body that is more racially diverse than Massachusetts, although the numbers vary significantly depending on whether respondents are permitted to identify as two or more races. The academy reports that 59% of students identify as people of color. For

240-489: A trimester program , where a school year is divided into three terms lasting around ten weeks each. With 232 teaching faculty, a 7:1 student-faculty ratio, and an average class size of 13, Andover is able to offer 300 courses and a faculty-guided independent research option. Courses may last one, two, or three terms. Although Andover helped create the Advanced Placement program, the academy de-emphasized AP classes in

300-553: A Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock in Normandy was completed shortly after his death by Gina Leibrecht, and was a portrait of the co-founder of Direct Cinema, Richard Leacock . In 2007 Blank was awarded the prestigious Edward MacDowell Medal in the Arts. Les's son, Harrod Blank , has also become a documentary filmmaker. Blank lived in the Berkeley Hills and for more than 30 years he was

360-557: A collection of colonial model ships. The gallery also features rotating exhibitions. The Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology was founded in 1901. The academy bills it as "one of the nation's major repositories of Native American archaeological collections." Unlike the Addison Gallery, the Peabody Institute is accessible to researchers, public schools, and visitors only by appointment. The collection includes materials from

420-401: A debate club. Andover's weekly student newspaper, The Phillipian , claims to have been publishing since 1857. If true, it would be the nation's oldest secondary school newspaper, ahead of Exeter's The Exonian . However, the official school history questioned the 1857 date, noting that no further issues were published until 1878, the same year The Exonian began publishing. According to

480-516: A production company called Operation Success, making films that he would later describe as "insipid films that promote business and industry." In 1967 he founded his own production company, Flower Films, with the release of God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance , a short colorful document of Los Angeles' Elysian Park Love-in . During Mardi Gras in late February 1968, Blank, Barry Feinstein and others were in New Orleans as part of

540-548: A resident of Berkeley , which celebrated Les Blank Day on Jan 22, 2013. His company, Flower Films , was based in El Cerrito, Contra Costa County, California . Blank died of bladder cancer at his Berkeley Hills home on April 7, 2013. The nonprofit Les Blank Films continues to release Blank's work. Blank was the first documentary filmmaker to earn the Edward MacDowell Medal in 2007, a national honor given to one artist

600-572: A retrospective of his work at the festival, which took place from April 25 to May 5, 2013. The moving image collection of Les Blank is held at the Academy Film Archive. The Academy Film Archive has preserved numerous Les Blank films including A Well Spent Life , Always for Pleasure , and Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe . ≠ National Film Registry inductee (former 1993; latter 2004) Phillips Academy Phillips Academy (also known as PA , Phillips Academy Andover , or simply Andover )

660-433: A significant increase from 2021, when 10.4% of students identified as black and 6.8% as African American. Andover enrolls a large international student population, representing approximately 15% of the student body. In March 2024, Andover enrolled 184 international students, of whom 55 were U.S. citizens living abroad. Conversely, a quarter of the student body lives off campus in neighboring communities. The student body

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720-681: A year. He was awarded in 1990 the American Film Institute 's Maya Deren Award for outstanding lifetime achievement as an independent filmmaker. In 2011, the International Documentary Association honored Blank with a career achievement award. Two months prior to Blank's death, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival announced that Blank had been accepted to receive its 2013 Outstanding Achievement Award along with

780-599: Is a co-educational college-preparatory school for boarding and day students located in Andover, Massachusetts , a suburb of Boston . The academy enrolls approximately 1,150 students in grades 9 through 12, including postgraduate students. It is part of the Eight Schools Association and the Ten Schools Admission Organization . Founded in 1778, Andover is one of the oldest high schools in

840-558: Is an award which has been given since 1960 to one person annually who has made an outstanding contribution to American culture and the arts. It is given by MacDowell , the first artist residency program in the United States . The award is named for composer Edward MacDowell , who, with pianist Marian MacDowell , his wife, founded the MacDowell artist residency (formerly known as The MacDowell Colony) in 1907. The residency exists to nurture

900-632: Is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Academy Hill Historic District . It includes the historic campuses of Phillips Academy, Abbot Academy, and Andover Theological Seminary, the latter of which sold its buildings to Phillips Academy when it left Andover in 1907. In the 1920s and 1930s, Andover added new buildings around this campus core, including the administrative building, library, dining hall, art gallery, chapel, math building, and dormitories. Many of

960-447: Is now known as American football was played in 1869 , and resembled soccer more than gridiron football. ) Andover participated in the first-ever high school football game, playing Adams Academy in 1875. The school organized an athletics department in 1903 with the objective of "Athletics for All." Today, Andover is an athletic powerhouse among New England private schools. Andover athletes have won over 110 New England championships in

1020-473: Is one of the most selective boarding schools in the United States, especially in light of its size. In 2016, four boarding schools had an acceptance rate lower than 15%, and Andover was larger than the other three put together. The acceptance rate normally hovers around 13%, but during the COVID-19 pandemic , it fell to 9% in 2022. Andover has practiced need-blind admission since 2007. Andover and Exeter are

1080-857: Is relatively affluent and politically liberal. As of March 2023, 95.4% of Andover students have at least one parent who graduated from college, and 46.8% of students have family household incomes over $ 250,000/year, compared to the 11.3% of students with family household incomes under $ 100,000/year (another 22.9% do not know their family income). 38.8% of students identified as liberal, 13.3% as independent, 8.6% as conservative, and 8.0% as either communist or socialist (another 26.5% were unsure as to their political affiliation). 21.6% of students identified as agnostic and 21.1% as atheist, compared to 22.5% who identified as "Christian," 16.9% as Catholic, and 5.4% as Protestant (students could select multiple choices). In addition, 6.4% of students identified as ethnically Jewish and 5.3% as religiously Jewish. Phillips Academy follows

1140-631: The Andover Theological Seminary , which was founded by orthodox Calvinists who had fled Harvard University after it appointed a liberal Unitarian theology professor. The Phillips family financially backed the seminary, and the two institutions shared a board of directors. Andover's commitment to orthodox theology helped fuel the Exeter rivalry. Exeter was more welcoming to Unitarians or at least less religious; for example, unlike Andover, its academy constitution did not compel Exeter to teach

1200-589: The Phillipian website, the newspaper is "entirely uncensored and student run." The Philomathean Society is the nation's second-oldest high school debating society, after Exeter's Daniel Webster Debate Society. Andover students operate the Phillips Academy Poll, the first public opinion poll to be conducted by high school students. In 2022, the poll was featured by Boston Channel 7 News and The New Yorker , among others, after releasing polling results for

1260-409: The Ten Schools Admission Organization began coordinating outreach to potential applicants and streamlining the admissions process. After Kemper's retirement, Andover became a founding member of the Eight Schools Association , an informal group of headmasters of large boarding schools that began meeting in the 1970s and formalized in 2006. Raynard S. Kington has been Head of School since 2019. He

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1320-465: The 1880s, the bulk of Andover students came from Congregationalist (mainly Calvinist) and Presbyterian households, and the academy enrolled "almost no" Unitarians or Methodists. However, by the 1900s, Calvinism was no longer popular in New England, and Andover Theological Seminary was facing declining enrollment. In 1907, the seminary reconciled with Harvard and returned to Cambridge . Today, Andover and Exeter are now both nonsectarian institutions, and

1380-816: The 2021–2022 school year, Andover reported that 36.5% of its students were white, 33.0% were Asian, 10.2% were black, 10.5% were Hispanic, 0.5% were Native American/Alaska Native, and 9.3% were multiracial. The survey in question did not allow Andover to identify one student in multiple categories. By contrast, a March 2023 survey conducted by Andover's student newspaper (to which 81.0% of the student body responded) found that 50.2% of Andover students identified as white, 42.9% as Asian (including 25.8% as Asian Americans), 13.4% as black (including 8.6% as African American), 10.9% as Hispanic or Latino, 1.4% as Native American/Alaska Native, and 1.3% as Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. This survey allowed students to identify with multiple categories. The percentage of black students represents

1440-510: The 2022 midterm elections. The original pollsters graduated in 2023, and the current status of the poll is unknown. Athletic competition has long been a part of the Phillips Academy tradition. As early as 1805, some form of "football" was being played on campus; that year, Eliphalet Pearson 's son Henry wrote that "I cannot write a long letter as I am very tired after having played at football all this afternoon." (The first game of what

1500-652: The 21st century, citing a desire to maintain curricular flexibility and independence. Andover does not rank students. It calculates GPA using a 6.0 scale instead of the usual 4.0 scale, where a 6 is considered outstanding, a 5 is an honors grade, and a 2 is a passing grade. A March 2023 student survey found that the average GPA was 5.41; it was 5.18 in 2018. Andover also runs a five-week summer session for approximately 600 students entering grades 8-12, which dates back to 1942. Andover does not publicly report its students' standardized test scores, explaining that many colleges have adopted test-optional admission policies during

1560-494: The COVID-19 pandemic. The Class of 2019's average combined SAT score was 1460 (720 reading, 740 math), and its average combined ACT score was 31.1. In the 2022–23 school year, Andover enrolled 214 freshmen (in academy jargon, "juniors"), 276 sophomores ("lowers"), 311 juniors ("uppers"), and 348 seniors and postgraduates ("seniors" and "PGs"), for a total enrollment of 1,149 students. The old core of Phillips Academy's campus

1620-621: The Cowboy Artists (1994) and Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella (1995) were Blank's last two films using 16mm film. He later worked in digital video. One of his last films, All in This Tea , which was co-directed with his creative partner Gina Leibrecht, was a profile of the western Marin County -based tea importer and adventurer David Lee Hoffman . In 2014, his last film How to Smell

1680-519: The English public schools to learn about best practices in Europe. Aided by a "sink-or-swim" policy of expelling underperforming or undisciplined students, the academy was able to place a majority of its students at Yale, Harvard, or Princeton (64% in 1931 and 74% in 1937). Enrollment, which had fallen from 396 students in 1855 to 177 in 1877, rebounded to roughly 400 by 1901 and passed 700 in 1937. To compete with newer, fully residential boarding schools,

1740-621: The Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, Mexico and the Arctic, and range from Paleo Indian (more than 10,000 years ago) to the present day. Since the early 1990s, the museum has been at the forefront of compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act . Phillips Academy's extracurricular activities include music ensembles, a campus newspaper, an Internet radio station (formerly broadcasting as WPAA ), and

1800-416: The United States. It has educated a long list of notable alumni through its history, including American presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush , foreign heads of state, members of Congress, five Nobel laureates and six Medal of Honor recipients. Along with its athletic rival Phillips Exeter Academy , Andover is one of only two co-ed high schools in the United States to both admit students on

1860-469: The academy, including George Washington (who personally visited the academy while president in 1789; eight of his nephews and grandnephews attended Andover ), John Hancock (who signed the academy's articles of incorporation), and Paul Revere (who designed the academy seal). Revere's design of the academy seal incorporated a beehive, crops, the sun, and the academy's two mottos: Non Sibi ("not for oneself") and Finis Origine Pendet ("the end depends upon

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1920-493: The arrangement in 1939 at the State Department 's request. Following America's entry into World War II, over 3,000 Andover graduates participated in the war effort in some capacity, with 142 deaths. John Kemper (h. 1948–71) updated the curriculum and improved salaries and benefits for faculty members. Under his leadership, Andover co-authored a study on high school students' preparation for college coursework, which led to

1980-420: The arts by offering creative individuals of the highest talent an inspiring environment in which to produce enduring works of the imagination. Each year, MacDowell welcomes more than 300 architects, composers, filmmakers, interdisciplinary artists, theatre artists, visual artists, and writers from across the United States and around the globe Established in 1960 with the first award going to Thornton Wilder ,

2040-468: The assistance of grants from cultural agencies, both governmental and non-governmental. Most of his films focused on American traditional music forms, including (among others) blues , Appalachian , Cajun , Creole , Tex-Mex , polka , tamburitza , and Hawaiian music. Many of these films represent the only filmed documents of musicians who are now deceased. Blank's films focusing on musical subjects often spent much of their running time focusing not on

2100-402: The award in 1972. O'Keeffe, who was then 84 years old, decided not to attend, and asked art historian Lloyd Goodrich to accept the award on her behalf. Goodrich explained that O'Keeffe believed that her paintings were more important than her words. When writer Mary McCarthy won the award in 1984, The New York Times sent culture reporter Samuel G. Freedman to interview McCarthy and cover

2160-443: The award is given to one artist each year, from among seven artistic disciplines, "architecture, visual art, music composition, theater, writing, filmmaking and interdisciplinary art." Composer Aaron Copland was the second recipient of the award in 1961. Copland had been a resident of the artist's residency eight times between 1925 and 1956, and served as MacDowell's president from 1962 to 1968. Painter Georgia O'Keeffe received

2220-441: The beginning"). Other mottos include Youth from Every Quarter and Knowledge and Goodness , two paraphrases from the academy constitution. In 1828, all-boys Phillips Academy was joined by a sister school, Abbot Academy . Abbot was one of the first secondary schools for girls in New England. Although the academies had neighboring campuses in the town of Andover, their administrations sought to limit and regulate contact between

2280-464: The brightest constellation of American talent that could be assembled in the latter half of this century", and that "their work has been of supreme value to the world". Composer Stephen Sondheim , who won the award in 2013, was the first winner with a background in musical theater. When California artist Betye Saar won the 2014 award, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times commented that she

2340-586: The buildings were named after notable Americans, some (but not all) of whom attended Andover. Portions of Andover's campus were laid out by Andover alumnus Frederick Law Olmsted , designer of Central Park . Beginning in 1891, Olmsted and his architectural firm advised Andover on campus design; this relationship would continue for the next five decades. The academy's dormitories vary in size from as few as four to as many as 40 students, and are organized into five "clusters" of roughly 220 students and 40 faculty affiliates each. Many social events are organized through

2400-543: The campus. Andover began to admit more black students in the 1950s and 1960s, but progress was slow; by 1978, 6% of the student body was black or Hispanic. Andover abolished secret societies in 1949, although one society still exists. It also abolished mandatory attendance at religious services in the early 1970s. Phillips Academy became co-educational in 1973, when it merged with its sister school Abbot Academy. During this period, Andover also began coordinating policy with other large and wealthy secondary schools. In 1952,

2460-400: The ceremony. McCarthy commented that if she knew that her nemesis, writer Lillian Hellman had won the award in 1976, she would have "probably not" accepted it. McCarthy conceded that the fact that her former husband, writer Edmund Wilson , had received the award in 1964 lent credibility to the honor. Composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein won the award in 1987. Bernstein observed that it

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2520-515: The cluster system, including orientation, study breaks, and snacks. None of the original dormitory buildings remain; the oldest dorm is Blanchard House, built in 1789. Two dormitory names carry on the Andover Theological Seminary tradition: America House, where the song America was penned by a seminarian, and Stowe House, where American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin ) lived while her husband taught at

2580-543: The creation of the Advanced Placement program. Although tightening academic standards at elite universities and increased competition from public schools caused Andover's college placement record to decline significantly during Kemper's administration—the proportion of graduates attending Yale, Harvard, or Princeton fell to 55% in 1953 and 33% in 1967—nearly every major boarding school endured similar declines during this period. Like many other boarding school administrators, Kemper and his successors also sought to democratize

2640-691: The doctrine of justification by faith alone . As such, Exeter tended to send its students to Unitarian Harvard. Andover steered its students to Yale , which was more hospitable to Calvinists. This was due in part to the conservative influence of the seminary (whose endowment and facilities were superior to the academy's ), and in other part to the fact that Andover's constitution explicitly required Andover to profess and teach Calvinist theology. The constitution also required all teachers and trustees to be Protestants, although Andover no longer enforces this restriction. Certain New England families were drawn to Andover's reputation for theological conservatism. In

2700-432: The headmasters built new on-campus housing and modernized the academic facilities, a process that took over a generation to complete. Shortly after taking over, Bancroft recognized that Andover's historical reliance on local families for student housing was hurting its reputation. By 1901 Andover provided housing for approximately one-third of boarders; by 1929 all boarders could finally live on campus. Much of this expansion

2760-437: The keynote address at Andover's 150th anniversary celebration, a speech that Cochran had arranged. During this period, Andover was a primarily white and Protestant institution, although its expanding scholarship program and occasional steps toward racial integration made it relatively diverse by New England boarding school standards. The share of scholarship boys steadily increased from 10% in 1901 to roughly 25% in 1944. Andover

2820-728: The last three decades. Some teams have even competed internationally; for example, the boys' crew has competed at England's Henley Royal Regatta . Andover is not part of any formal athletic conference, but through its membership of the Eight Schools Association, it participates in certain ESA-specific athletic contests. In postseason play, Andover's teams compete in playoffs organized by the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council . Edward MacDowell Medal The Edward MacDowell Medal

2880-459: The music itself but on the music's cultural context, portraying the surroundings from which these American roots musics come. Other notable films on non-musical subjects include a film about garlic and another about gap-toothed women, as well as two films about German film director Werner Herzog : Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980) and Burden of Dreams (1982), the latter about the filming of Herzog's Fitzcarraldo . The Maestro: King of

2940-476: The only two co-educational prep schools in the United States that both admit students on a need-blind basis and offer financial aid that covers 100% of demonstrated financial need for every admitted student. To recruit U.S. students from "historically underrepresented" backgrounds, Andover pays for certain prospective financial aid applicants and their guardians to visit the campus during the admissions process. About one of every eight Andover students (12.9%) has

3000-441: The original “underground filmmakers” crew of Easy Rider which produced the acid trip segment of that movie, but was replaced afterwards by a more experienced crew. This was followed by The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins (1968) and The Sun's Gonna Shine (1968) about Houston blues musician Lightnin' Hopkins . He never went back to work making industrial films and all of his films were independently produced, often with

3060-445: The rivalry no longer carries religious overtones. After a period of decline, Cecil Bancroft (h. 1873–1901), Alfred Stearns (h. 1903–33), and Claude Fuess (h. 1933–48) led Andover through a long era of expansion that transformed Andover into one of the largest and richest prep schools in the United States. Bancroft improved Andover's academic reputation; he reformed the curriculum to the expectations of college presidents and visited

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3120-1052: The seminary. The academy also operates the Andover Inn , which has 30 guest rooms and various event spaces. It was built in 1930 and renovated in 2009–2010 and 2023. The Addison Gallery of American Art is an art museum donated by Thomas Cochran in memory of Keturah Addison Cobb, the mother of his friend Zaidee Cobb Bliss. It is open to the public, and underwent a $ 30 million renovation and expansion from 2008 to 2010. The gallery's permanent collection includes Winslow Homer 's Eight Bells , along with work by John Singleton Copley , Benjamin West , Thomas Eakins , James McNeill Whistler , Frederic Remington , George Bellows , Edward Hopper , Georgia O'Keeffe , Jackson Pollock , Frank Stella , and Andrew Wyeth . The museum also features collections in American photography and decorative arts, with silver and furniture dating back to precolonial America and

3180-561: The student bodies. The two academies merged in 1973. Phillips Academy's traditional rival is Phillips Exeter Academy , which was established three years later in Exeter , New Hampshire , by Samuel Phillips' uncle John Phillips . Andover and Exeter's sports teams have played each other since 1861, and the football teams have met nearly every year since 1878, making Andover-Exeter one of the nation's oldest high school football rivalries . From 1808 to 1907, Phillips Academy shared its campus with

3240-631: The war because its headmaster John Lovell, a Loyalist , fled to British Canada after the fall of Boston in 1776. ) The founders of Phillips Academy were strongly associated with the Patriot cause. Samuel Phillips and Eliphalet Pearson (later Andover's first head of school) manufactured gunpowder for the Continental Army, and the founders attempted to stock Andover's library with books confiscated from Loyalist families who had fled New England. Several prominent Revolutionary figures maintained links with

3300-730: Was "joining an elite roster of honorees." Jazz composer and musician Gunther Schuller was scheduled to receive the 2015 award on his 90th birthday. However, Schuller died June 21, 2015, before he could receive the award. The Edward MacDowell Medal has been awarded during a free, public ceremony at MacDowell grounds in Peterborough, New Hampshire , to such figures as Aaron Copland (1961), Robert Frost (1962), Georgia O'Keeffe (1972), Leonard Bernstein (1987), Stephen Sondheim (2013), and Betye Saar (2014). The MacDowell chairperson—currently MacDowell fellow and author Nell Irvin Painter —hosts

3360-602: Was also one of the first American schools to educate Chinese students, participating in the 1872–1881 Chinese Educational Mission ; one student, Liang Cheng , later became the Chinese ambassador to the United States . In the 1930s, Andover participated in the International Schoolboy Fellowship, a cultural exchange program between U.S. boarding schools, British public schools , and Nazi boarding schools . As U.S.-Germany relations deteriorated, Andover terminated

3420-583: Was funded by banker Thomas Cochran '90, a partner at J. P. Morgan who had no children and wanted to make Andover "the most beautiful school in America." Cochran donated roughly $ 10 million to Andover (approximately $ 181 million in February 2024 dollars); for reference, when he died his estate was probated at $ 3 million. In 1928, as many as 15,000 people visited Andover's campus to hear President Calvin Coolidge deliver

3480-421: Was one of the first New England boarding schools to accept black students, starting in the 1850s. However, it had just five black students when Bancroft died in 1901, and black representation actually declined under Bancroft's successors: only four African-Americans attended Andover between 1911 and 1934. The academy admitted more Jewish students but capped their numbers at roughly 5% of the student body. Andover

3540-628: Was previously the president of Grinnell College in Iowa. The previous Head of School was law professor (and 1990 Exeter graduate) John Palfrey , who left Andover to take over the MacArthur Foundation . The academy is supervised by a board of trustees, all of whom are alumni except the Head of School. It is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges . Phillips Academy

3600-494: Was the first award he had received solely for musical composition. Bernard Holland , writing in The New York Times , noted that Bernstein had "made full use of the quiet and solitude of this venerable refuge for artists" three times previously, having been a resident there in 1962, 1970 and 1972. Award winner and writer William Styron spoke at the 1988 awards ceremony. He said that the group of previous winners "represents

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