Galka Emmy Scheyer and the children

„I live only for art and children“ Galka Emmy Scheyer often said. She worked as a nanny in France and England and at a Girl’s School in Cheltenham she is said to have given courses in painting. Later she would refer to herself not only as a minister or ambassador, but also as the nanny of The Blue Four.

She taught for years in New York’s Experimental Schools and at the Anna Head School in Berkeley. In August 1928, she spoke in Prague at an international congress for art education on „Free, Imaginative and Creative Work.“

In Los Angeles she worked at various schools. And she had a private children’s group in Beverly Hills. With exhibitions of „her children“ in museums, she aroused the interest of social institutions and psychologists. She was also asked to sponsor children of destitute parents and young delinquents in Los Angeles. In the end, she also took adults like Lette Valeska into her „courses“.

We are looking for reports from people who attended Galka Emmy Scheyer’s painting classes in England, France and America.

Galka Emmy Scheyer with children, circa 1940
Photos: Lette Valeska, Copyright of Julia Hammid and the Estate of Tino Hammid