Gordon D. Chase has always been attracted to crashes, upheavals, and crises. He has sought to capture moments of intense human drama, to make art that asks, “ What will happen next?” He believes that art is about identity, both personal and shared, and that “art with a social conscience” allows us to test our assumptions.

    Chase went to Phillips Exeter Academy, studied for a year in Paris, and graduated from Yale in 1970 at the peak of the social upheavals of the 1960’s. He taught art and coached soccer for 40 years, first at Groton School until 1978, and then twice as chairman at Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts until 2012. In addition to teaching art in every medium, he organized many professional events for teachers and students, many as head of the Art Association of New England Preparatory Schools.

    “I grew up playing in the woods and at the ocean and had an untroubled childhood. I thought that I would become a scientist but became an artist instead. I survived intense competition at boarding school that applied equally to playing ice hockey and to making art. I came to identify with the artist-as-outsider. Over time this has given me insight into what it means to be different.”

    His many professional events organized have included a “Shelter Fair,” an experimental video festival featuring WGBH and WNET, a conference called "The Biological Revolution” on medical ethics, arts festivals featuring “The Art Chariot Race, Art Olympics, and The Mythological Steeplechase,” the New England Design Olympics including “Great American Dream Machines,” and 30 art seminars for the N.A.I.S. national conference in Boston, MA. His educational work has included two conferences on “College Admissions and the Arts,” a series of student exhibitions called “Art with a Social Conscience,” and events in cooperation with "Facing History and Ourselves" including a public and independent school conference called "Classrooms with a Conscience" in 2010.

    Chase has exhibited primarily at the Nesto Gallery at Milton Academy. Solo shows have been titled “Creatures” in 1979, “Puzzle Pieces” in 1983 that earned a Boston Globe “Critic’sTip,” a two-person show called “Conflict and Compromise” in 1989, and “Human Behavior” in 1998. He has curated or co-curated many shows including “The Nuclear Question,” “The Extraordinary Object”, and “Innocence.”

    Now retired as a teacher, Chase divides his time between the rural New England town of Shirley, Massachusetts where he maintains a barn studio, and the challenging coastline of Port Hood on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia where he creates trails and enjoys the sunsets on the Northumberland Strait.

EDUCATION

1968-1969   L’Institut D’ Etudes Politiques, Paris
1970             BA, Yale University
1966             Phillips Exeter

EXHIBITIONS

2025     The Insanity of Violence, The Landau Gallery, Belmont Hill School
2022     The Insanity of Violence, The Remis Gallery, Governor's Academy
2021     Forces in Motion, The Lamont Gallery, Phillips Exeter Academy
2020     High Contrast, The Lamont Gallery, Phillips Exeter Academy (digital show)
2018     The Insanity of Violence, Carney Gallery, Regis College
2017     The Insanity of Violence, Robert Lehman Art Center, Brooks School
2017     The Insanity of Violence, Cornelius Ayer Wood Gallery, Middlesex School
2017     Resist, Group Show, Hess Gallery, Pine Manor College
2016     The Insanity of Violence, Brodigan Gallery, Groton School
2016     The Insanity of Violence, De Menil Gallery, Groton School
2012     Faculty Show, Nesto Gallery, Milton Academy, Milton, MA
1998     Human Behavior, Nesto Gallery, Milton Academy, Milton, MA
1991     The Child Is the Father…, Milton Art Museum, Milton, MA
1989     Conflict/Compromise, Nesto Gallery, Milton Academy, Milton, MA [Two-person show with Marky Kauffmann ]
1988     The Extraordinary Object, Nesto Gallery, Milton Academy, Milton, MA [Curator and participant in group show.]
1987     Innocence, Nesto Gallery, Milton Academy, Milton, MA [Curator and participant in group show.]
1986     The Nuclear Question, Nesto Gallery, Milton Academy, Milton, MA [Co-curator and participant in group show.]
1983      Puzzle Pieces, Nesto Gallery, Milton Academy, Milton, MA[Boston Globe “Critic’s Tip”]
1979     Creatures, Nesto Gallery, Milton Academy, Milton, MA
1970     Yale University, Branford College, New Haven, CT
1969     Reid Hall, Paris, France

PROFESSIONAL EVENTS ORGANIZED

2010     Classrooms with a Conscience [conference for New England teachers, co-sponsored by Milton Academy and
              Facing History and Ourselves]
2000–2004     Art with a Social Conscience [Art Exhibition (for public and independent schools) Boston College 2000, 2001
             and Milton Academy 2002, 2003, 2004]
1997     The New England Design Olympics, Milton, MA [featuring 12 professional workshops, student design contests,
              the Ralph Bradley Inventor’s Hall of Fame, a demonstration of the FIRST Robotics Competition, and the
              “Great American Dream Machines” race (for human powered vehicles)]
1994–1997     AANEPS Teacher Workshops [Included "The Arts: Models for Academic Disciplines,” “Photomontage and the
              Computer” and “Group Experience”]
1996     College Admissions and the Arts – New England Teacher’s Conference
1995     Models for Changing Schools  [Offered through AISNE]
1988–1990     The Codex Independent Schools Art Competition, Canton, MA
1984–1985     AANEPS Teacher Workshops
1983     The Ralph Bradley Arts Festival, Milton, MA [for 15 schools and featuring “The Mythological Steeplechase”
               for human powered vehicles]
1981     NAIS National Conference, Boston, MA [30 Arts Workshops]
1979     The Ralph Bradley Arts Festival, Milton, MA [for 15 schools and featuring “The Great Space Race" for human
               powered vehicles]
1979     College Admissions and the Arts, Exeter, NH [for 15 AANEPS Schools]
1975     The Biological Revolution, Groton, MA [with Nobel Laureate George Wald and Ethicist Joseph Fletcher]
1974     The Ralph Bradley Arts Festival, Groton, MA [for AANEPS schools and featuring “The Art Chariot Race” and
               the “Art Olympics”]
1973     The (first) New England Video Festival, Groton, MA [WNET, WGBH, and others]
1972     The Shelter Fair, Groton, MA [Experimental Architectural Structures]

OTHER PROFESSIONAL INITIATIVES

2012     NEASC  Visiting Committee at B. B. & N.
1989     NEASC Visiting committee at Phillips Academy
1984     NEASC Visiting Committee at St. Mark’s School

2008     Consultant on the Arts at Winsor School
2009     Consultant on the Arts at Roxbury Latin School
2001     Consultant on the Arts at Belmont Hill School
1991     Consultant on the Arts at Groton School
1986     Consultant on the Arts at Rivers School

1990     Swett Grant – Milton Academy [for “Creativity Institute”]
1988     Talbot-Baker Award for Teaching, Milton Academy
1980     Swett Grant – Milton Academy [for proposed “Design and Communications” Institute]

1997, 1999     Judge for Connecticut Invention Convention
1988     Coordinator of Milton Academy student art exhibit for Facing History and Ourselves – “Choosing to Participate”,
              Boston Public Library and at the De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, MA.
1983     Judge for 8th Congressional District Art Competition

1997, 1998     Attended Facing History and Ourselves – Brookline, MA. [Introductory and Advanced Institutes on the Holocaust]

2006     Presented “Art with a Social Conscience” Weston High School
2005     Presented “Art with a Social Conscience” at Facing History
1999     Presenter at “Ethics and the Environment” Seminar at the Mountain School Vershire, VT