In the interest of public health the Academy is closing its galleries for the remainder of its originally scheduled run for the Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts.
Exhibiting artists were chosen from over 150 nominees submitted by the members of the Academy, America’s most prestigious honorary society of architects, artists, composers, and writers. The recipients of the Academy’s 2020 Art and Purchase Awards will be selected from this exhibition.
TOP ROW: Janiva Ellis, Keebler’s Revenge, 2018; Jessica Jackson Hutchins, My Friend the Poet, 2019; Trenton Doyle Hancock, Ferroneous & The Monk, 1999; Nicholas Galanin, Everything We’ve Ever Been, Everything We Are Right Now – Untitled (Black Figure), 2019; Mike Cloud, F of J, 2016.
BOTTOM ROW: Lonnie Holley, Busted Without Arms II, 2016; Rona Pondick, Magenta Swimming in Yellow, 2015-17; Sheila Hicks, Caid Nejjai, 1977; Henry Taylor, Portrait of Deana Lawson, 2014.
Exhibition Artists
DIANA AL-HADID ∙ AMY BENNETT ∙ MIKE CLOUD ∙ JANIVA ELLIS
BARBARA ESS ∙ ERIK FOSS ∙ NICHOLAS GALANIN ∙ ELLIOTT GREEN
TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK ∙ SHEILA HICKS ∙ LONNIE HOLLEY
RIDLEY HOWARD ∙ DAVID HUFFMAN ∙ JESSICA JACKSON HUTCHINS
ARTHUR JAFA ∙ YUN-FEI JI ∙ CHEYENNE JULIEN ∙ SIOBHAN LIDDELL
MEDRIE MACPHEE ∙ KARYN OLIVIER ∙ RONA PONDICK
NATHLIE PROVOSTY ∙ BETYE SAAR ∙ IBRAHIM SAID
ROGER SHIMOMURA ∙ HENRY TAYLOR
JOAN THORNE ∙ BRIAN WOOD
INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION OF VISUAL ARTS
Closed early in the interest of public health.
ART AWARDS AND PURCHASE PROGRAM
The Academy’s art awards and purchase programs recognize artists at various stages of their careers. This year, ten participating artists will receive art awards. Additionally, paintings, works on paper, and sculpture are eligible for purchase and placement in museum collections nationwide through the Hassam, Speicher, Betts, and Symons Funds and the Academy’s general endowment. Among the eighteen artists whose works were purchased and placed last year were Peter Brown (Denver Art Museum, CO, and Cranbrook Art Museum, MI), Judy Cooke (Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, OR), Hermine Ford (Weatherspoon Art Museum, NC), Jenny Lynn McNutt (Yale University Art Gallery, CT), Rose Nestler (Frye Art Museum, WA), Jess Perlitz (Boise Art Museum, ID), and Stephen Westfall (Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA). Since the purchase program’s founding in 1946, through the legacy of Childe Hassam, more than twelve hundred works have been purchased and donated to museums throughout the country. For further information, please click here.
THE ACADEMY
The American Academy of Arts and Letters was founded in 1898 as an honor society of the country’s leading architects, artists, composers, and writers. Early members include William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, Julia Ward Howe, Henry James, Edward MacDowell, Theodore Roosevelt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton. The Academy’s 250 members are elected for life and pay no dues.
In addition to electing new members as vacancies occur, the Academy seeks to foster and sustain an interest in Literature, Music, and the Fine Arts by administering over 70 awards and prizes, exhibiting art and manuscripts, funding performances of new works of musical theater, and purchasing artwork for donation to museums across the country.