The American Academy of Arts and Letters Opens Up to New Art

This article is part of the Fine Arts & Exhibits special section on the art world stretching boundaries with new artists, new audiences and new technology.

The American Academy of Arts and Letters, a century-old honor society, sits like a fortress in Upper Manhattan. Housed in a neo-Italian Renaissance complex, it rarely opened its sculpted bronze doors to the general public. Over the years, honorees as varied as Mark Twain, Frank Lloyd Wright, Georgia O’Keeffe, Joan Didion, Robert Caro, Duke Ellington and Stephen Sondheim passed through them.

But everyone else? Not so much.

That is about to change. The doors are being flung open to the general public and the magnificent Beaux-Arts interior — the buildings were designed by McKim, Mead & White and Cass Gilbert, architects of some of New York City’s most famous landmarks — is being earmarked as a venue for visual and performing artists, and events that combine the two. It’s as if Manhattan’s downtown contemporary art scene is being lured uptown to Washington Heights and to a setting from the Gilded Age.

“We want to make use of the space that was given to us,” said Cody Upton, executive director of the academy. “This would be for music, for readings, for art, for cross-discipline projects and as a place to see contemporary art. Grand spaces like this don’t exist, and we want to make it available for the public to see and experience it. We are very lucky to have these buildings and feel obligated to use and share them with the wider city.”

The academy is an example of how an underused — and large — space is being reimagined and reinvigorated. For over a century, it has served as the home of an honor society with 300 prominent Americans in four disciplines: art, music, literature and architecture. Every year, the academy gave out awards and financial grants to nonmembers in those disciplines and would occasionally put on exhibitions with limited public hours and little attention.

With dwindling attendance to its events and no real focus to its activities, it had become increasingly inward-looking, Upton said. But, about five years ago, the academy realized that it needed to evolve to stay relevant. And now it is embarking on that endeavor. Academy officials believe they have a lot to offer with over 10,000 square feet of space for galleries spread over three buildings, a 730-seat auditorium with impeccable acoustics and a broad plaza in front for outdoor events.