The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts is a tripartite institution. It is an honorary association of American artists with a museum and a school of fine arts. Founded in 1825 as the National Academy of Design by such leading artists as Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, and Thomas Cole to "promote the fine arts in America through instruction and exhibition," the Academy continues to play a critical role in preserving and fostering the visual arts in America. Through a program of exceptional exhibitions in the Museum and quality instruction in the School of Fine Arts, the Academy serves as a link to the art of our past, as well as a bridge to the art of our present and future.

National Academicians are professional artists who are elected to membership by their peers in one of four categories: painting, sculpture, graphic arts, and architecture. Members both past and present include many leading artists. Notable among them are Albert Bierstadt, Louise Bourgeois, Frederic E. Church, Chuck Close, Richard Diebenkorn, Thomas Eakins, Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Gehry, Horatio Greenough, Charles Gwathmey, Winslow Homer, Jasper Johns, Maya Lin, Tom Otterness, I. M. Pei, Robert Rauschenberg, Dorothea Rockburne, John Singer Sargent, Wayne Theibaud, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Andrew Wyeth.

The Academy houses one of the largest public American art collections in the country containing works from the 19th century to the present. Comprised of over 7,000 works in almost every artistic style, the collection includes portraiture from the Federal period, naturalistic landscapes of the Hudson River School, and the studies of light and atmosphere that inform Tonalism and American Impressionism. Modern and contemporary movements are also represented such as Fauvism, the Ashcan School, American Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Pop Art, Photorealism, Pattern and Decoration, Neo-Expressionism, and New Image Painting. Masterworks in these and other styles have come into the Academy collection mainly as gifts from newly elected National Academicians in compliance with membership requirements, thereby continually enriching the collection.

The fundamental mission of the Academy has never changed; the annual exhibitions have been held every year since 1826; the School of Fine Arts has functioned almost without interruption since that date; and, in recognition of the ever-changing character of American art, over 2,000 artists have been honored with election.