Mission
The mission of the World institute for Extreme Beauty (the Institute) is threefold:
- To implement the philosophy of extreme beauty (see below) in the Walker House and the enterprises operated by the Institute.
- To disseminate the philosophy of extreme beauty throughout the world.
- To implement the philosophy of extreme beauty in businesses and households throughout the world.
Objectives
Mission: to implement the philosophy of extreme beauty in the Walker House and the Institute’s enterprises.
1. The first objective is to implement the mission in the Walker House, which includes the Walker House 3- acre campus and the Walker House building.
To be continued…
On the Home of the Institute: The Walker House
The Institute found its home in the world-renown Walker House in historic Mineral Point, Wisconsin, though the two entities remain legally distinct. The World Institute for Extreme Beauty, LLC names the Institute, and the Walker-Curtis, LLC (a passive rental corporation) owns the Walker House. The Institute rents space in the Walker House from the Walker-Curtis, LLC to conduct its events. The Walker House (built in 1836) is one of the oldest, unique, and most beautiful buildings in the United States–it is since 1971 a part of the historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. The 42-room, 16,000-square-foot Walker House sits in the southern portion of Mineral Point, which is part of the Midwest’s driftless region (the area the glaciers missed eons ago when they slipped down the Midwest and flattened the terrain). The marriage between the Institute, which teaches how to develop genius and beauty in brokenness, and the Walker House, which displays its own beauty through 175+ years of wear-and-tear, could not be more perfect.
On Genius
Genius as an isolated inherited trait tracks few followers in the 21st century. First, no DNA or genetic structure can reveal or produce genius. Great talent develops over time as a person engages in deliberate activity within a social setting. Celebrated art historian Linda Nochlin said about genius: “[It] occurs in a social situation, is an integral element of the social structure, and is mediated and determined by specific and definable social institutions.” The Institute is such an institution. Second, genius does not flow from just the mouth (singers and teachers, for example), fingers (painters and carpenters, as examples), or feet (dancers and sprinters, for instance). Genius requires the investment of the whole person. These two characteristics—deliberate activity repeated over and over in a social setting and the investment of the whole person—define genius for the 21st century. To read more about genius, please go to Library—Shorties–“The Genius Next Door Art Project.”
On Extreme Beauty
Extreme beauty bears no resemblance to standard beauty. Where standard beauty identifies an impossible ideal, extreme beauty keeps it real. Standard beauty freezes persons in poses and then compares them to ideals where they invariably fall short. Who can compare favorably to movie stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Miss America Carissa Cameron, or Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman? Extreme beauty accepts human beings as they are, with flaws and imperfections (in brokenness, to borrow a Biblical concept), and it does not reside in the superficial frozen pose of the body but in the dynamism of the person in talented action, the very domain of genius. Indeed, genius brings extreme beauty into the world. Thus, both genius and extreme beauty identify the same objective entity: action according to one’s talent. This view of beauty is extreme, because, given the pervasiveness of standard beauty in today’s society, human beings must make an effort, often an extreme effort, to act according to their talents (instead of utilizing their available time trying to improve their looks) or to perceive the beauty of persons with manifest flaws, no matter the talented activity. To read more about extreme beauty and to learn about the role of love in creating and perceiving this form of beauty, please go to Library–Shorties and read Dan Vaillancourt’s works, and read the books under Library–Books.
“The formation he [Matteo Ricci] received gave him the tools to develop his genius. So the question is: The formation that we give today—does it offer such tools?”
-Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., “Depth, Universality, and Learned Ministry: Challenges to Jesuit Higher Education Today.”
