Betsy Mellor on a Beatnik Summer Camp

Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts began in 1950, located in a pine forest in the San Jacinto Mountains of Southern California. The school was started by Bee and Max Crone, artists who believed everyone should grow up exploring all the arts. They thought nature was the best environment for that exploration. So, they brought their artist friends up the mountain, a mile above sea level, to teach in outdoor classes. The classrooms were surrounded by trees, alongside a creek, with a view of the meadow. The outdoor art classrooms had cement floors, a wood wall or two, covered by a wooden roof or a parachute. The pottery classroom was on a bluff and remnants of cast off ceramics littered the pine needles beneath. The amphitheater covered in grass, and shaded by large green parachutes, still exists today. 

Wellfleetian Betsy Mellor grew up in Southern California. She attended classes in those pines at the ISOMATA. Here she talks about her father Dr. Norman Mellor, a physician, Camp Emerson science teacher and one time chair of the Idyllwild School of Conservation and Natural Science. Betsy talks about the beatnik teachers she learned from and about the incredible impact learning relaxation techniques had on her.