Altschul led the transition of Maine Media to non-profit status and served as its President from 2006 – 2011. He continues to teach at the school, both as a member of the M.F.A. faculty as well as workshops in digital photography and book arts. He received his B.A. and M.F.A. from Yale University where he later held a faculty appointment as Senior Lecturer in the School of Art. Altschul founded the New Overbrook Press in 1982 (now Camden Hills Press) to publish handcrafted artist books, most notably an illustrated folio signed by Nobel prizewinning author Samuel Beckett. In 1991, he moved to Camden, Maine to become Director of Education at the Eastman Kodak Center for Creative Imaging, a facility that pioneered the teaching of digital arts. Subsequently, Altschul worked with several art schools, including the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, to integrate digital technologies into their curricula. In 1997, he created the nation’s first B.F.A. program in Multimedia at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He has served on the Yale President’s Council, the Board of the Experiment in International Living and Maine Media Workshops & College. He is currently Vice President of the Board of the Farnsworth Art Museum and is a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Working in both 500-year-old as well as cutting edge technologies, his work as an artist and teacher stems from contemporary as well as historical perspectives.

In June 2014 Maine Media opened the Charles Altschul Book Arts studios to accommodate the expansion of the book arts and alternative process programs, which specialize in the honoring of historic craft melded with the newest visual technology. The new studio was a complete renovation of the lower level of Maine Media’s Ernst Haas building and designed to be a permanent space dedicated to enhancing the Book Arts and Design program, which Charles introduced in 2007.

Crowd gathers around the newly renovated Book Arts and Historic Processes facilities for the press conference announcing the private partnership between Maine Media Workshops, the Town of Rockport, Network Maine, and internet provider GWI to bring fiber optic connectivity to the town of Rockport. Photo by Devin Altobello.
Crowd gathers around the newly renovated Book Arts and Historic Processes facilities for the press conference announcing the private partnership between Maine Media Workshops, the Town of Rockport, Network Maine, and internet provider GWI to bring fiber optic connectivity to the town of Rockport. Photo by Devin Altobello.
Charles Altschul does a printing making demonstration using photopolymer plates on the Vandercook printing press.
Charles Altschul does a printing making demonstration using photopolymer plates on the Vandercook printing press.

Charles participated in a 1500 mile offshore sailing passage from Portsmouth, Virginia to Tortola in fall 2015. He currently resides in Maine, and is a father to one daughter.