National Academy of Design - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from The National Academy of Design) Professional honorary art organization in Manhattan, New York

National Academy of Design

The academy's previous building at 1083 Fifth Avenue

Formation	1863; 161 years ago (1863)
Type	Honorary organization, museum, and school
Purpose	To promote the fine arts in America through instruction and exhibition
Headquarters	Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Location	14-15 Gramercy Park South
Coordinates	40°44′15.7″N 73°59′12.3″W / 40.737694°N 73.986750°W / 40.737694; -73.986750
President	Wendy Evans Joseph
Website	www.nationalacademy.org

The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fine arts in America through instruction and exhibition." Membership is limited to 450 American artists and architects, who are elected by their peers on the basis of recognized excellence.

History

The original founders of the National Academy of Design were students of the American Academy of the Fine Arts. However, by 1825 the students of the American Academy felt a lack of support for teaching from the academy, its board composed of merchants, lawyers, and physicians, and from its unsympathetic president, the painter John Trumbull.

Samuel Morse and other students set about forming a drawing association to meet several times each week for the study of the art of design. Still, the association was viewed as a dependent organization of the American Academy, from which they felt neglected. An attempt was made to reconcile differences and maintain a single academy by appointing six of the artists from the association as directors of the American Academy. When four of the nominees were not elected, however, the frustrated artists resolved to form a new academy and the National Academy of Design was born.

Morse had been a student at the Royal Academy in London and emulated its structure and goals for the National Academy of Design. The mission of the academy, from its foundation, was to "promote the fine arts in America through exhibition and education."

In 2015, the academy struggled with financial hardship. In the next few years, it closed its museum and art school, and created an endowment through the sale of its New York real estate holdings. Today, the academy advocates for the arts as a tool for education, celebrates the role of artists and architects in public life, and serves as a catalyst for cultural conversations that propel society forward.

According to the academy, its 450 National Academicians "are professional artists and architects who are elected to membership by their peers annually."

Official names

After three years and some tentative names, in 1828 the academy found its longstanding name "National Academy of Design", under which it was known to one and a half centuries. In 1997, newly appointed director Annette Blaugrund rebranded the institution as the "National Academy Museum and School of Fine Art", to reflect "a new spirit of integration incorporating the association of artists, museum, and school", and to avoid confusion with the now differently understood term "design". This change was reversed in 2017.

1825 The New York Drawing Association
1826 The National Academy of The Arts of Design
1828 The National Academy of Design
1997 The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Art
2017 The National Academy of Design

Locations

The academy occupied several locations in Manhattan over the years. Notable among them was a building on Park Avenue and 23rd Street designed by architect P. B. Wight and built 1863–1865 in a Venetian Gothic style modeled on the Doge's Palace in Venice. Another location was at West 109th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. From 1906 to 1941, the academy occupied the American Fine Arts Society building at 215 West 57th Street.

From 1942 to 2019, the academy occupied a mansion at 1083 Fifth Avenue, near 89th Street; it had been the home of sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington and philanthropist Archer M. Huntington, who donated the house in 1940.

The National Academy of Design shared offices and galleries with the National Arts Club located inside the historic Samuel J. Tilden House, 14-15 Gramercy Park South from 2019 until 2023.

Currently the home of the National Academy of Design is at 519 West 26th Street, 2nd Floor with offices as well as meeting, event and exhibition space.

Organization and activities

The academy is a professional honorary organization, with a school and a museum.

One cannot apply for membership, which since 1994, after many changes in numbers, is limited to 450 American artists and architects. Instead, members are elected by their peers on the basis of recognized excellence. Full members of the National Academy are identified by the post-nominal "NA" (National Academician), associates by "ANA".

At the heart of the National Academy is their ever-growing collection. Academicians choose and contribute a work of their own creation, building upon the academy's distinguished legacy. Today, their permanent collection totals over 8,000 works and tells a singular history of American art and architecture as constructed by its creators. The academy organizes major exhibitions and loans their works to leading institutions around the world, in addition to providing resources that foster scholarship across disciplines.

Notable instructors

Among the teaching staff were numerous artists, including Will Hicok Low, who taught from 1889 to 1892. Another was Charles Louis Hinton, whose long tenure started in 1901. The famous American poet William Cullen Bryant also gave lectures. Architect Alexander Jackson Davis taught at the academy. Painter Lemuel Wilmarth was the first full-time instructor. Silas Dustin was a curator.

Notable members

References

"Charles Cushing Wright (1796-1854)". Retrieved August 14, 2017.
Dunlap, William (1918). A History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States (Vol. 3). C. E. Goodspeed & Co. pp. 52–57. Retrieved February 17, 2008.
^ Historical Overview, National Academy of Design.
Kennedy, Randy (March 17, 2016). "National Academy Plans to Sell Two Fifth Avenue Buildings". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
Allen, Brian T (January 5, 2019). "The National Academy of Design Makes a Triumphant Comeback". National Review. Retrieved March 19, 2020. It has always been an artist-run organization. Its exclusive, invite-only membership comprises many of the best artists in the country, and going forward it has decided to focus its resources and energy on serving them. This means promoting their achievements, helping them through grants, and producing a snappy online journal that's fresh and focused.
National Academicians, National Academy of Design.
Annette Blaugrund as quoted in Traditional Fine Arts Organization, News: National Academy Clarifies Identity with Change of Name and New Visual Identity.
Cassell, Dewey, with Aaron Sultan and Mike Gartland. The Art of George Tuska (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2005), ISBN 978-1-893905-40-5, p. 10
"Celebrating the American Fine Arts Society Building". asllinea.org. November 4, 2017. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
"Art of Past Era to Be Exhibited; National Academy of Design Opens New Home Jan. 1". The New York Times. October 5, 1941. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
The New York Times, January 11, 1998
Artist Membership, National Academy of Design
"NAD". nationalacademy.org. Archived from the original on July 6, 2009.
"Painting by Dustin". fineart.ha.com. Retrieved October 19, 2010.
Board of Governors. "National Academicians". The National Academy. Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
"William Penn Morgan Painting - Loves Me-Loves Me Not - 19th Century American Fine Art". www.bedfordfineartgallery.com.
Erin Corley (2007). "American Watercolor Society records, 1867-1977, bulk 1950-1970". Archives of American Art Oral History Program. Retrieved June 17, 2011.

External links

v t e Museums in Manhattan
Financial District and Battery Park (Below Chambers St)	Castle Clinton China Institute Federal Hall National Memorial Fraunces Tavern George Gustav Heye Center Mercer Labs Museum of Art and Technology Mmuseumm Museum of American Finance Museum of Jewish Heritage National September 11 Memorial & Museum New York City Police Museum Skyscraper Museum South Street Seaport
Lower Manhattan (Chambers-14th Sts)	Asian American Arts Centre Drawing Center Eldridge Street Synagogue FusionArts Museums Hall des Lumieres International Center of Photography Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art Lower East Side Tenement Museum Merchant's House Museum Museum of Chinese in America New Museum New York City Fire Museum The Theatre Museum Ukrainian Museum Whitney Museum of American Art
Chelsea, Flatiron, Gramercy (14th-34th Sts)	Center for Jewish History Dia Chelsea Fotografiska New York John J. Harvey The Museum at FIT Museum of Sex National Museum of Mathematics Print Center New York Poster House Rubin Museum of Art The Shed Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace Tibet House
Midtown (34th-59th Sts)	Houdini Museum of New York Intrepid Museum Japan Society John M. Mossman Lock Museum Madame Tussauds New York Morgan Library & Museum Museum of Arts and Design Museum of Broadway Museum of Modern Art New York Public Library Main Branch New York Transit Museum Paley Center for Media Scandinavia House United Nations Art Collection
Upper West Side (59th-125th Sts west of 5th Av)	American Folk Art Museum American Museum of Natural History Rose Center for Earth and Space Carnegie Hall (Rose Museum) Children's Museum of Manhattan New York Historical New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Nicholas Roerich Museum
Upper East Side and East Harlem (59th-125th Sts on or near 5th Av)	The Africa Center Asia Society Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum El Museo del Barrio Frick Collection Frick Madison Gracie Mansion Grolier Club Guggenheim Museum Jewish Museum Metropolitan Museum of Art Mount Vernon Hotel Museum Museum of Motherhood Museum of the City of New York National Academy Museum and School Neue Galerie New York
Upper Manhattan (Above 125th St)	American Academy of Arts and Letters The Cloisters Dyckman House Hamilton Grange National Memorial Hispanic Society of America Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center Morris–Jumel Mansion National Jazz Museum in Harlem National Track and Field Hall of Fame Yeshiva University Museum Studio Museum in Harlem
Islands	Ellis Island Statue of Liberty Statue of Liberty Museum
Defunct	Chelsea Art Museum Dahesh Museum of Art Forbes Galleries Girl Scout Museum and Archives KGB Espionage Museum Met Breuer Museum of Biblical Art Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Museum of Primitive Art Rock&Roll Hall of Fame: NYC
Related	Museum Mile

Upper East Side (including Carnegie Hill, Lenox Hill, and Yorkville)

Manhattan, New York City

Buildings

59th–72nd Sts	19 East 64th Street 36 East 72nd Street 45 East 66th Street 131 East 66th Street 520 Park Avenue 535 Park Avenue 550 Park Avenue 620 Park Avenue 625 Park Avenue 655 Park Avenue 720 Park Avenue 730 Park Avenue 737 Park Avenue 740 Park Avenue 810 Fifth Avenue 820 Fifth Avenue 825 Fifth Avenue 834 Fifth Avenue 880 Fifth Avenue 907 Fifth Avenue Barbizon 63 Edward J. Berwind House Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House Harold Pratt House Henry Clay Frick House Herbert N. Straus House Imperial House Manhattan House Marshall Orme Wilson House Millan House Park Avenue Armory Park Avenue Houses Henry P. Davison House Oliver D. Filley House Percy R. Pyne House William Sloane House Park Cinq The Pierre Rowhouses at 322–344 East 69th Street Sara Delano Roosevelt Memorial House Trump Palace Condominiums Trump Park Avenue Trump Plaza United States Post Office–Lenox Hill Station
72nd–86th Sts	10 Gracie Square 20 East End Avenue 903 Park Avenue 927 Fifth Avenue 930 Fifth Avenue 960 Fifth Avenue 970 Park Avenue 980 Madison Avenue 995 Fifth Avenue 998 Fifth Avenue 1000 Park Avenue 1020 Fifth Avenue 1040 Fifth Avenue 1049 Fifth Avenue Belaire Apartments Benjamin N. Duke House Casa 74 The Charles Cherokee Apartments Clarence Whitman Mansion Consulate General of France, New York City East 73rd Street Historic District East 80th Street Houses Edward S. Harkness House The Forum at 343 East 74th Street Harry F. Sinclair House Henry T. Sloane House Houses at 157–165 East 78th Street Houses at 208–218 East 78th Street James B. Duke House Joseph Pulitzer House Lewis G. Morris House Nathaniel L. McCready House Oliver Gould Jennings House Payne Whitney House Raymond C. and Mildred Kramer House Stuyvesant Fish House William Starr Miller House Yorkville Bank Building
86th–96th Sts	Andrew Carnegie Mansion Carnegie Hill Tower Edith Fabbri House Felix M. Warburg House George F. Baker Jr. Houses Gracie Mansion Holmes Towers Isaacs Houses James A. Burden House John Henry Hammond House Lucy Drexel Dahlgren House Mrs. Graham Fair Vanderbilt House Municipal Asphalt Plant Ogden Codman House Otto H. Kahn House Willard D. Straight House William Goadby Loew House Yorkville Bank Building
Former	Arthur Curtiss James House C. Ledyard Blair House Elbridge T. Gerry Mansion George Blumenthal House George J. Gould House Henry Phipps House Hotel New Netherland Isaac Stern House James Speyer House Jay Gould House Lenox Library Mrs. William B. Astor House Ogden Mills House William A. Clark House William C. Whitney House William Salomon House William Ziegler House

Culture

Shops, restaurants	A La Vieille Russie Albertine Books Bemelmans Bar Brasserie Julien Café Boulud Caravaggio Carlyle Restaurant Daniel Dorrian's Red Hand Restaurant Galerie Chalette J.G. Melon JoJo King's Carriage House La Goulue Lusardi's Kappo Masa Restaurant Orwashers Bakery Sasabune Serendipity 3 Sushi of Gari Sushi Noz Sushi Seki Le Veau d'Or
Museums	Bernard Museum of Judaica Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Frick Collection Jewish Museum Metropolitan Museum of Art The Met Fifth Avenue Mount Vernon Hotel Museum Neue Galerie New York Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Theaters/performing arts	59E59 Theaters Bohemian National Hall East 74th Street Theater
Galleries	Acquavella Galleries Anita Shapolsky Gallery Di Donna Galleries Doyle New York Florian Papp Gagosian Gallery Jane Kahan Gallery Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery Kraushaar Galleries Venus Over Manhattan
Hotels	Bentley Hotel Carlyle Hotel Lowell Hotel The Mark Hotel Hotel Plaza Athénée
Social clubs	92nd Street Y Cosmopolitan Club Harmonie Club Knickerbocker Club Lotos Club Metropolitan Club
Former	Bodley Gallery Brasserie Julien Buck House NYC Cachaça The Colony Dangerfield's Elaine's Etats-Unis Magic Towne House Maxwell's Plum Met Breuer Quo Vadis Regine's Salon 94 The Sign of the Dove Stable Gallery

Green spaces/recreation
Carl Schurz Park Central Park John Jay Park

Education

Libraries	Frick Art Reference Library Frick Art Reference Library Photoarchive New York Society Library Robert Goldwater Library Thomas J. Watson Library Yorkville Library
Primary and secondary	Allen-Stevenson School Brearley School Birch Wathen Lenox School Buckley School Caedmon School* Chapin School Dalton School Eleanor Roosevelt High School Hewitt School Hunter College Elementary School Hunter College High School Julia Richman Education Complex Talent Unlimited High School Urban Academy Laboratory High School La Scuola d'Italia Guglielmo Marconi Loyola School Lycée Français de New York Marymount School of New York Nightingale-Bamford School PS 6 PS 158 Ramaz School Regis High School St. Jean Baptiste High School St. Vincent Ferrer High School Sephardic Academy of Manhattan Spence School The Town School Trevor Day School
Post-secondary	Hunter College Assembly Hall Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College Institute for the Study of the Ancient World Marymount Manhattan College New York School of Interior Design Rockefeller University Nurses Residence Welch Hall
Other institutions	Cornell School of Nursing Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance National Academy of Design

Religion

Churches, chapels	Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity Brick Presbyterian Church Central Presbyterian Church Christ Church United Methodist Church of the Epiphany Church of the Heavenly Rest Church of Our Lady of Peace Church of St. Ignatius Loyola Church of St. Vincent Ferrer Holy Trinity Church, St. Christopher House and Parsonage Jan Hus Presbyterian Church Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church Our Lady of Good Counsel Church Park Avenue Christian Church St. Catherine of Siena Church St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church St. James' Episcopal Church St. Jean Baptiste Roman Catholic Church St. Joseph Church St. Mary Church St. Monica Church St. Stephen of Hungary Church St. Thomas More Church Unitarian Church of All Souls Zion-St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church
Synagogues	Altneu Congregation Emanu-El of New York Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun Congregation Or Zarua Edmond J. Safra Synagogue Fifth Avenue Synagogue Park Avenue Synagogue Park East Synagogue Temple Beth-El Temple Israel of the City of New York Temple Shaaray Tefila
Other	New York Zendo Shobo-Ji

Health

Defunct	James Ewing Hospital Madison Avenue Hospital Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic Trafalgar Hospital

Transportation

Subway stations	Fifth Avenue/59th Street Lexington Avenue/59th Street Lexington Avenue/63rd Street Lexington Avenue/68th Street Lexington Avenue/77th Street Lexington Avenue/86th Street Lexington Avenue/96th Street Second Avenue/72nd Street Second Avenue/86th Street Second Avenue/96th Street
Streets	66th Street 72nd Street 74th Street 79th Street 85th Street 86th Street 89th Street 93rd Street 95th Street 96th Street FDR Drive East End Avenue York Avenue First Avenue Second Avenue Third Avenue Lexington Avenue Park Avenue Madison Avenue Fifth Avenue

Other
107th Infantry Memorial Richard Morris Hunt Memorial

Related topics
East 73rd Street Historic District Hardenbergh/Rhinelander Historic District Treadwell Farm Historic District Upper East Side Historic District

See also: Manhattan Community Board 8

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