Scala was founded in 2016 by Margarita Mooney Clayton, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary. Scala engages in deep work with students at Princeton and Oxford to bring together artists, students, teachers, and scholars. Scala also produces publications (books, blogs, articles, interviews) and hosts public events like conferences, webinars, artistic events, and campus lectures open to the public. Scala’s activities are led by internationally renowned artists and prestigious scholars united by a desire to reinvigorate the sacred and classical arts.
Why Beauty and Wisdom?
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The Scala Foundation’s vision is to restore meaning and purpose to American culture by focusing on the intersection of art, liturgy, and education.
Who We AreBeauty awakens our desire to know. Through art, poetry, liturgy, natural beauty, and friendship, beauty can inspire students to become lifelong learners. Reason and open debate cultivate inspiration until it becomes wisdom. That is why Scala’s vision is attentive to the human longing for beauty, meaning, friendship and belonging.
Wisdom is the fruit of education. It is the hard-won power to judge rightly in service of our communities and our world. It includes knowledge, but goes beyond knowledge to incorporate experience and virtue.
Scala’s vision begins with the truth that humans are a unity of mind, body, and soul. Educating in beauty and wisdom ensures that the liberal arts form the body and the soul along with mind. Beauty and wisdom, almost forgotten in today’s modern society, are crucial to a good, well-ordered, holistic education.
Scala is the Latin word for ladder. A ladder needs a stable foundation: for Scala, that means being firmly based in community life that holds us steady as we climb to contemplate eternal truths.
The two sides of a ladder symbolize the need for balance between body and soul. The steps of the ladder represent the hard but necessary ascent to wisdom.
Scala’s Strategy to Renew Culture
Scala’s programs concentrate on pivotal agents of cultural renewal such as:
- Early-career professionals who are in training to become teachers, scholars, artists, writers, intellectuals, and culture-creators
- Major decision-makers in education and culture, such as university administrators and K-12 school leaders
- Educational entrepreneurs looking to found new schools, colleges, and curricular programs
- Artists and culture creators (writers, painters, musicians, architects, etc) who feed our culture’s hunger for beauty and wisdom
Scala’s student groups, seminars, conferences, artistic events, summer programs and online resources support educators and culture creators.
Be inspired by educators who build community with people pursuing the way of beauty
Meet internationally renowned artists and prestigious scholars and experience beautiful sacred music, art, and architecture
Form the next generation of students in sacred and classical arts and support cultural entrepreneurs renewing civic participation
“Scala’s conference was a testimony of how sacred beauty is a foundation for ‘good ecumenism’—not just words that feel good but the proper work of actually pursuing Beauty together, in light of the demands of Truth.”
— Ien C., Digital Artist and Entrepreneur, NYC
“As a curriculum coordinator and consultant for classical education, I am particularly grateful for the support received through Scala—from Dr. Mooney Clayton’s personal visit to our school to meet with students and teachers, to her books on liberal arts education and beauty, a writing workshop arranged by Scala, and the outstanding conference Art, the Sacred and the Common Good. All of these Scala events have reflected and supported our mission for academic excellence founded in the Catholic faith.”
— Peach S., Classical Educator in New Jersey
“Thank you so very much Professor Mooney Clayton for a salvific four weeks. You have pushed the horizons of my imagination, which, as Maritain points out, is the best thing one can do to expand the freedom of one’s mind. The course has made me want to become an educator, as the readings did a great job of communicating the importance of education and the passion and drama of the teacher-student relationship.”
— Alex H., Graduate, Yale University & King’s College London
“Thank you, David, for recommending me for a commission to Bishop Hugh and for promoting my art so much through your blogging. Scala’s mission to promote young artists is crucial.”
— Martin Earle, Artist at the Chichester Workshop for Liturgical Arts and winner of the 2023 Sacred Art prize from the Catholic Art Institute
“At the Sarum Vespers and Benediction, any struggles or problems fled my mind. I felt at peace. My focus was directed at one thing only: the Divine. It was impossible to think about something else amidst something as beautiful as that ceremony.”
— Jenny M., High School Student, NJ
“After hearing the scholarly talks and experiencing the music and art at Scala’s conference on Art, the Sacred and the Common Good, I’m now prepared to persuade others that our political life can’t ignore beauty if we wish to promote the common good.”
— Elly B., Princeton University graduate student in politics