Press Release

May 2010

What makes a man go from being a hunter just looking for another challenge to a leading American conservationist honoring wildlife and nature? The answer lies at the heart of the mission for a non-profit.

For the Academy for the Love of Learning, a non profit based in Santa Fe New Mexico, the life and story of Ernest Thompson Seton demonstrates the human capacity to transform – and how a single person’s transformation can affect their life and change the world. The Academy for the Love of Learning is an innovative ‘think and do tank’, devoted to the in depth study and practice of transformative learning.

Ernest Thompson Seton came to New Mexico in 1893, a consummate hunter and tracker hired by a group of ranchers in Clayton, New Mexico, to kill an elusive wolf. When he left New Mexico he was on his way to becoming a leading conservationist of his time — defending the rights of animals, providing groundwork for outdoor youth movements such as the Boy Scouts — and with John Burroughs shepherding the successful passage of the first Migratory Bird Act in 1913 (the Weeks-McLean Act), which set a precedent for environmental legislation to follow.

What were the events and experiences that would lead to such a complete change of heart? As the author of a book on how to hunt wolves, Seton assumed that his assignment would be accomplished in a few weeks, but as the king of the wolf pack eluded him over and over — a dilemma began to live in him. While his obsession and frustration still lay with the wolf’s capture and killing, much of his time was spent reflecting and observing the landscape around him. As the weeks turned into months, the naturalist in Seton took form in his writing and his drawings. As his respect for this wolf grew, so did his conflict between the expression of Seton, the hunter and of Seton, the natural-ist. In the end, it was his final encounter with the elusive wolf, who prior to Seton’s transformation had been merely a number, not a name, that would change forever Seton and his relationship to the natural world.

For it was in that very moment of seeing the wolf caught in Stone’s trap, that Seton recognized something astonishing to him — something that at the time was not considered at all characteristic of animals: nobility, courage, loyalty, strength and honor — and true intelligence. After all of his time spent watching and learning about this wolf, in this one moment — Seton was able to comprehend the horror of what he had done in trapping and killing this animal.

He named the wolf Lobo, and memorialized him in one of his great stories, Lobo, The King of Currumpaw, which is part of his anthology of stories called Wild Animals I have Known. From then on, Seton could no longer look at animals in the same way. He was transformed from one who numbered, tracked and killed animals to one who loved and served them. The value and meaning of the natural, wild world that he shared through his art, his books, and his words truly began through his experience with Lobo.

Seton, who would be 150 years old this August, is best known for his immense contribution as an author, artist, scientist, lecturer and founder of large scale youth movements. But what most inspires the Academy, home of the Seton Legacy Project, is the extraordinary transformation he went through and how, as a result, his own world changed, as did ours.

The example of Seton’s capacity to learn and be changed by his life experience, as well as becoming a passionate influence on others, shines light on the potential for human beings to transform — and affirms the Academy’s mission to awaken, enliven, nurture and sustain the natural love of learning as a transformative process in people of all ages.

A show of Seton’s art and life in New Mexico — Wild at Heart: Ernest Thompson Seton, organized by Academy Curator and Seton Legacy Project director, David L. Witt will be on display at the New Mexico History Museum from May 23rd, 2010 through May 8th, 2011. A program series of lectures as well as interactive workshops for children and adults, are scheduled through the duration of the show. On the 150th anniversary of Seton’s birth, August 14, 2010, the public is invited to join in a celebration held on the grounds of his former home, Seton Castle. Accompanying the exhibition and anniversary, the highly illustrated hardcover book written by David L. Witt with a foreword written by Sir David Attenborough: Ernest Thompson Seton, The Life and Legacy of an Artist and Conserva-tionist (Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2010) is sure to garner public interest in this remarkable man and his story.

The Academy’s New Center at Seton Village

In 2003, at the invitation of his daughter Dee Seton Barber, the Academy purchased Ernest Thompson Seton’s last home, Seton Castle, as well as the remaining 86 acres of what once was a 2500-acre land grant that Seton purchased in 1930, just outside of Santa Fe, in Seton Village. In doing so, the Academy became stewards not only of his former home and land, but also of its contents — the remains of the prolific archives of his work in art, writing, education and the fostering of cultural and environmental understanding which has become known as the Seton Legacy.

After an accidental fire destroyed Seton Castle in 2005, while in the process of being restored, the Academy decided to build a new facility close by— to be home to its work and programs. In keeping with both the Academy’s and Seton’s regard for the natural world and its cycles, the new center is being built as a LEED project with anticipated gold certification. It will open in late fall of 2010. The center will house a gallery dedicated to Seton’s work and archives, and will host the Academy’s offices and its many programs, such as its Annual Teacher Renewal Institute, El Otro Lado, and Heart of Action, as well as the next installment of its Certificate Foundation Course, which begins in January 2011.

An outdoor learning landscape project and contemplative garden is planned for the site of the Seton Castle ruins. The gardens and their development will provide a connection to nature’s own essential learning processes and a window into the intent of the Academy’s programs. The natural world, with its seasonal and other cycles, reflects the same innate intelligence and the same kinds of evolutionary/learning impulses that people do.

The Academy for the Love of Learning: An Institute for Transformative Learning

The Academy for the Love of Learning as an inquiry and action institute, works with teachers, artist-educators, facilitators, parents, leaders of all kinds and others seeking to stimulate and support the re-imagining of learning and education, locally and nationally. The Academy also offers advisory services through its Ventana Project, to social benefit organizations wishing to develop sustainable internal learning environments, congruent with the organization’s vision and mission.