HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY'S ANNUAL EXHIBITION by Annette Blaugrund, Ph.D. Annual exhibitions are integral to the mission and the history of the National Academy. From the beginning, the primary purpose of the Academy was to foster the appreciation of American art through yearly exhibitions of contemporary paintings, sculpture, and works on paper, and to teach aspiring artists their trade. Professional artists who had achieved renown were elected National Academicians by their peers. They not only taught young artists, but also showed works side by side with them and other American artists in the juried annual exhibitions. In recent years, the number of Academicians has increased to over 350, necessitating a division of Academicians from other participants because of spatial constraints. The next Annual Exhibition will be the 182nd in an interrupted series begun in 1826. Modeled after the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the nascent National Academy set high standards, encouraged professionalism, worked with resident talent, made American art competitive with European art, and broadened the political and social milieu of native artists. When in 1826, the Academy instituted the yearly practice of solely exhibiting the recent work of living artists, it was unique in America. Other institutions exhibited old master paintings and casts of antique sculptures along with contemporary art. Contributing to the Annual Exhibition was considered both an obligation and a privilege for Academicians. Failure to contribute for two years without good reason resulted in demotion from Academician to Associate status. Open to all artists on a competitive basis, the exhibitions always included more nonmembers than members. Morse had hoped that the exhibitions would inform the taste of the American public, and as taste developed so would artistic standards; thus art and taste would both improve. The main impetus during the nineteenth century was to provide artists with regular venues in which to exhibit and sell their work. Yet, even now, the Annuals afford younger artists as well as Academicians, an exceptional forum for display and sales. The Academicians represent a large body of professional artists in the United States who express themselves primarily by painting in oil, acrylic, pastel and watercolor, through printmaking, and in sculpture. They share with a widespread audience their enthusiasm for traditional processes and procedures while also recognizing new techniques and styles. Today, the National Academy occupies a venerable place in the history of American art. It not only preserves the past but also represents the present, and, through its students, the future. It endeavors to present and promote American art through exhibitions, such as this one, through educational public programs, through a dynamic art school, and most important, through its more than four hundred artist members.