Arts and Letters

For over a century, the American Academy of Arts and Letters has celebrated artists across disciplines through exhibitions, performances, readings, and awards. Today, we are expanding this work by opening our historic buildings to the public, commissioning new work, and creating opportunities for creative exchange across generations and genres.

For thoughtful exhibitions and arts programming to continue, we will need additional support beyond our endowment. Your gift will help artists create new work and expand the community and reach of Arts and Letters. Every contribution strengthens our work and ensures that artists' voices continue to inspire a wider public.

Individual gifts, bequests, and grants, many of which honor our members and their legacies in Architecture, Visual Art, Literature, and Music, have supported important programs, from contemporary art exhibitions and concerts to awards honoring both emerging and established artists. Our endowment was established in 1914 by member Archer M. Huntington, and we are proud to continue this tradition of artists honoring and supporting one another.

We gratefully acknowledge the following for their support of the American Academy of Arts and Letters through gifts and bequests:

The Centennial Portfolio is an editioned set of 50 original works on paper by members published to celebrate our centennial anniversary in 1998. The portfolio includes prints by artists, architects, writers, and composers, including collaborations between colleagues. Lithographs, etchings, screenprints, embossed prints, and woodcuts make up this richly varied collection.

The complete portfolio is newly available for purchase to support our arts programming. We have also released a limited number of editions for sale as individual prints, subject to availability. Details can be found here. For more information and sales inquiries, contact info@artsandletters.org.

Jane Freilicher, Orchid Plant, 1997, from Centennial Portfolio, 1998

Centennial Portfolio participating artists: Lennart Anderson, William Bailey, Will Barnet, Leonard Baskin, Jack Beeson, Varujan Boghosian, Paul Cadmus, Elliott Carter, John Chamberlain, Chuck Close, Henry N. Cobb, Lois Dodd, Marisol Escobar, Mary Frank, James Ingo Freed, Jane Freilicher, Frank Gehry, Allen Ginsberg, Michael Graves, Morton Gould, Cleve Gray, John Guare, Charles Gwathmey, Dimitri Hadzi, Hugh Hardy, Seamus Heaney, John Hollander, John M. Johansen, Jasper Johns, Wolf Kahn, Ibram Lassaw, Jacob Lawrence, David Levine, Jack Levine, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Lippold, Richard Meier, Kenneth Noland, Nathan Oliveira, Cynthia Ozick, Philip Pearlstein, Cesar Pelli, Anne Poor, Reynolds Price, Paul Resika, Milton Resnick, George Rickey, Larry Rivers, Ned Rorem, James Rosenquist, Robert Ryman, George Segal, Stephen Sondheim, Kenneth Snelson, William Thon, George Tooker, John Updike, Esteban Vicente, Kurt Vonnegut, Hugo Weisgall.