Founder and Instructor, Alton C. Frabetti
PhD, Humanities, Aesthetics and Creativity, University of Louisville, 2015
Master of Fine Arts, Stony Brook University, 2007
Master of Arts, Philosophy, Stony Brook University, 2007
Authors in Bloom is born from Alton C. Frabetti's desire to bring to youth his rich experiences in art, education, writing, editing and philosophy. Alton studied critical philosophy and social theory during his undergraduate years at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and participated in the Study Abroad Program in Siena, Italy, in 1992. He relocated to San Gimignano, Italy, where he would direct a private painter's studio. He later founded his own art gallery, Studio D'Arte La Rocca, where he displayed his sculpture (under the pseudonym 'Alton Falcone') as a permanent exhibition as well as hosting many other artists' exhibitions.
In San Gimignano, he was part of a community of artists and art galleries in which he first appreciated the culture of museum visits, art observation and the flaneur aesthetic experience of urban life.
After nearly a decade in Italy, he returned to the United States in 2003 and enrolled in Stony Brook University's Manhattan-based Master of Arts in Philosophy. He continued his studies on their Long Island campus, eventually earning a Masters in Fine Arts as well. He taught student-centered courses in the prestigious Program in Writing and Rhetoric, founded by Peter Elbow. He studied also 20th Century art criticism under the renowned Donald Kuspit.
After successful completion of his studies, he relocated to the Cincinnati region. He founded the journal AEQAI: Critical Thinking, Review and Reflective Prose on Contemporary Art in Greater Cincinnati with assistance by the journal's subsequent editor, Daniel Brown. As of 2023, AEQAI is in its 14th year of monthly publications.
In 2010, Alton departed Cincinnati to enroll in the Doctoral Progam in the Humanities at the University of Louisville. During his studies, he taught courses in writing and art appreciation to undergraduate students. The experience demonstrated to him the usefulness of using visual culture to stimulate students' writing.
He relocated to the North Shore in 2013 in order to complete his doctorate and found a new studio for his sculpture. In the ensuing years, he homeschooled his son, Rowan, and deepened his art and philosophy of aesthetics. Alton witnessed on the North Shore a distinction between costly, private education and the challenges facing all other students seeking affordable postsecondary preparaton. In response, he envisioned a critical writing program utilizing the visual objects and spaces of the exemplary Peabody Essex Museum.
