 He joined the Art Students League, headed by his old teacher Walter Shirlaw, in which he remained involved for the rest of his life.Unlike many other Americans of his time who felt themselves to be living in a cultural backwater, Church - while he did think that an artist needed to be formally taught - saw no need to study art in Europe and in fact only crossed the Atlantic late in his life.He often expressed outspoken pride in original American art and declaring that "foreign art" had "little to teach Americans".