Arthur Wesley Dow taught at major American arts training institutions for 30 years including Teachers College, Columbia University; the Art Students League of New York; Pratt Institute; and his own Ipswich Summer School of Art. His ideas were quite revolutionary for the period, he taught that rather than copying nature, art should be created by elements of the composition, like line, mass and color. He taught many of America's leading artists and craftspeople, including Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles J. Martin, two of the Overbeck Sisters and the Byrdcliffe Colony.