Recently, I accepted the position of president of the National Academy of Museum and School of Fine Arts with a deep sense of humility. The distinguished list of past presidents over our 184-year history reads like the story of American art.
The National Academy is a tri-partite institution led by 335 artists and architects elected by their peers. It is also a museum housing an important collection of more than 7,500 works of art acquired since its inception in l825. Significantly, it also operates the National Academy School, one of the oldest continuously running art teaching institutions in the United States.
As the 33rd president, I am filling an interim position, following the resignation of Susan Shatter, who, as president for the last six years, was tireless in her devotion to the Academy. This has been one of the most difficult and challenging times in the history of our institution and one needs only to read today’s headlines to understand the reasons. The period we are about to face will be no less challenging, however, I am enthusiastic and indeed buoyed by how the leadership of this institution has stepped up to this challenge and has placed us on the path to greater fiscal responsibility and updated the Academy’s governance. | |  Richard Haas - President |
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A renewed effort to stabilize and exhibit our vast collection of paintings drawings, prints, architectural photographs and sculpture has been initiated. The Academy continues to remain in its elegant facility on 89th street and Fifth Avenue, where it has been since l940, and we are committed to enhancing these quarters in order to show the Academy’s collection to its greatest advantage. Future exhibitions will focus on works culled from the Academy’s wide-ranging collection, and will be based on such themes as the human figure, the metropolis, and other subject matter.
The National Academy’s Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Art will continue to alternate yearly between works by National Academy members and works by invited non-Academician artists and architects who are put forth by the membership. Works from these exhibitions will continue to be selected by the Ranger Fund to donate to other worthy art institutions, as it has done for over half a century.
Our institution conducts an ongoing program of lectures and panels, tours, and symposiums throughout the year on 19th century, 20th century, and contemporary art.
The National Academy School invites distinguished National Academician members, such as Phillip Pearlstein, Will Barnet, Wolf Kahn and others to conduct workshops, lectures, and critiques for our students over the year.
The Edwin Austin Abbey Mural Workshop Fellowship, which is a subsidiary of this institution, has co-sponsored two murals in public places in recent years.
As one can see, although small in size and number, this dedicated artist membership, advisors, and staff continue to enrich New York and the American cultural landscape at large, as it has done for nearly two centuries.
Richard Haas, PNA
President of the National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
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