Courage, Creativity, and the Early Arts of GDS

For eighty years, GDS faculty have provided the foundation on which our school is built. They are largely what makes GDS GDS, and several of our original faculty were creative arts teachers. Our founders’ vision included making the arts and creative expression a central part of the curriculum because they believed the creative arts were essential to childhood development. “Creative expression is not ‘play’ but work,” said founder Aggie O’Neil.

These early art teachers were accomplished, practicing artists and often pioneers in their fields. Along with Edith Butler, who had been a member of the Graham dance troupe and Martha Graham’s teaching assistant before teaching dance at GDS, Dante Radice, the founder of GDS’s first Art Department, was an established painter with works exhibited in local DC galleries and major museums in New York and Chicago, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. He became part of GDS serendipitously when Aggie first opened the school doors at the little townhouse on 13th and G Place where he wandered in from his studio across the street.

“I thought Aggie was out of her mind, opening up a kids’ school on that block. But the idea really appealed to me. I thought it was great that someone would have the courage to do a school there,” Dante said.

Dante was driven by courage as much as creativity. Born Donato Radice, he studied at George Washington University, Columbia University, and the Art Students League in New York. In addition to having his work displayed in established galleries, he ran one of the first art galleries in Washington devoted to contemporary art. A trained architect as well as artist, he created house plans in his spare time and designed the Eugene O'Neill Theater Museum in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

An unconventional teacher from the start, Dante fit right in with the founders of GDS. A Washingtonian of immigrant heritage whose grandparents were from Italy, he was also a WWII Army veteran who served in the 603rd Camouflage Battalion, also known as the Ghost Army. This unit was made up of artists, designers, and engineers recruited from top schools to create visual, audio, and radio deceptions for the war effort. The 603rd handled the visual work, producing inflatable tanks, cannons, jeeps, trucks, and airplanes, as well as dummy airfields, motor pools, and artillery batteries that could be assembled quickly in a matter of hours. The unit's operations remained classified until 1993, so their feats went largely unrecognized, and the soldiers were finally honored with the Congressional Gold Medal in 2024.

Dante’s experience with these wartime creations could be seen in some of his work at GDS, where he built a child-sized town of foot lockers and packing crates behind the school at Grasslands. He was also known for his elaborate decorations at the GDS annual Christmas parties, which drew extensive media attention during the 1950s and 60s, and in a way, championed the idea of integration in a still socially segregated Washington, as GDS hosted one of the only integrated social events of the season. 

Dante’s legacy lives on in the spirit of artistic curiosity, courage, and joyful innovation that still defines GDS today.