Francis "Faf" Foster

Francis Arthur Foster attended the college from the winter of 1941 to the summer of 1948. He left the college around 1945 to serve in the Army and work with the Red Cross and then returned to graduate after his service.

Francis attended BMC with a scholarship from the US Department of Interior, Office of Indian Affairs for being 3/32 part Chippewa Indian. He was active in many subjects, served as a student officer, and participated in many plays including, Ethan Frome, Fire Chief, Le Medicin, The Imaginary Invalid, and others.

He did his examinations in art, in which he focused on color theory and design, but also on the arts of the Chinese and West Africas. He also did a study on the serpent motif in Mayan culture for one of his exam areas. He had a love for both art and anthropology and requested to work for the Indian Services office upon graduation, though he also requested transcripts be sent to many art schools for his employment applications. His graduation exhibition consisted of weavings, drawings, paintings, constructions, and color studies, which were received well by his examiners and teachers. He studied weaving with Anni Albers and Franziska Mayer until he was drafted.

After graduating, he went to Columbia for a summer and Harvard for a year studying art and art history, and later taught at the Woodstock Country School in NY. After taking the GRE for graduate school, he ran into issues about the legitimacy of his degree at BMC and there are correspondences in his student file about accreditation and frustrations of potential graduate students.

He was a working artist, in painting, sculpture, and graphic arts.