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American Federation of Arts
The American Federation of Arts (AFA) is a nonprofit organization that creates art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops education programs. The organization's founding in 1909 was endorsed by Theodore Roosevelt and spearheaded by Secretary of State Elihu Root and eminent art patrons and artists of the day. The AFA's mission is to enrich the public's experience and understanding of the visual arts, and this is accomplished through its exhibitions, catalogues, and public programs. To date, the AFA has organized or circulated approximately 3,000 exhibitions that have been viewed by more than 10 million people in museums in every state, as well as in Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The AFA was founded on May 12, 1909.
At a meeting on May 11, 1909, convened by the National Academy of Art Board of Regents—among whom were President William Howard Taft, former president Theodore Roosevelt, Cecilia Beaux, Robert Woods Bliss, William Merritt Chase, Robert W. DeForest, Homer Saint-Gaudens, Charles L. Hutchinson, Archer M. Huntington, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Leila Mechlin, Andrew W. Mellon, J. Pierpont Morgan, Francis D. Millet, Secretary of State Elihu Root, and Henry Walters, among others— Elihu Root called for the formation of an agency that would send “exhibitions of original works of art on tour to the hinterlands of the United States.” With the unanimous endorsement of Root's motion by representatives from more than eighty American art institutions—among them, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the American Academy in Rome—the AFA was founded on May 12, 1909. The organization's founders further agreed to hold annual meetings and devote themselves to promoting the visual arts as a vital component of the nation's cultural life. Hutchinson, who at the time was the President of the Art Institute of Chicago, was elected the organization's first president.
When Root proposed the creation of the AFA in 1909, the nation's artistic wealth was largely concentrated in eastern cities and inaccessible to most citizens. The AFA and its traveling exhibitions were envisioned as a means of “bringing the museum to the people.” During its inaugural year, the AFA organized three traveling exhibitions, the first of which was Thirty-Eight Oil Paintings by Prominent American Artists, and launched Art and Progress magazine (later renamed Magazine of Art), an innovative vehicle for art scholarship that continued to be published until 1953. Mechlin, art critic at The Washington Star, was the magazine's founding editor and continued in the role through 1931. The Thirty-Eight Paintings exhibition was viewed by more than 5,600 people at the library before traveling to New Orleans, St. Paul, and New Ulm, Minnesota.
The AFA also published the first edition of Who's Who in American Art (1935), as well as the American Art Annual (later known as the American Art Directory). While it no longer publishes these directories and journals, the AFA retains a commitment to publishing new art historical research through the catalogues it produces in conjunction with its exhibitions.[citation needed]
In 1910, the AFA promoted the creation of a National Commission of Fine Arts, which was subsequently established by an act of congress to advise the government on matters of art and design as they pertain to the nation's capital. In 1913, the AFA launched a successful lobbying effort to remove tariffs on art entering the United States and a 1916 session with the Interstate Commerce Commission to protest prohibitively high interstate taxes on traveling art.[citation needed]
In 1920, the AFA was instrumental in organizing a lobbying campaign for the “development of a national gallery of art on a basis worthy of our great nation,” a goal eventually realized with the founding of the National Gallery of Art in 1941. Other government-tied AFA initiatives include arranging the first American representation in the Venice Biennale in 1924 and thereafter until the 1970s.[citation needed]
The AFA's history includes a series of programs designed to facilitate greater access and appreciation of the visual arts, among them, the first nationally broadcast radio programs about art (1930s–1940s); the Picture of the Month Program (1954), offering original paintings at low rental fees to small art and educational organizations; the Museum Donor Program (1960s), distributing allowances to regional museums to purchase contemporary American art; The Art of Seeing (1965), a landmark series of educational films on visual perception; The Curriculum in Visual Education (1966), a collection of films and instructional materials designed to heighten the aesthetic awareness of children; the Rent-an-Artist Program (renamed the Visitor Artist Program) (1970s), placing artists in residency at museums around the country; A History of the American Avant-Garde Cinema (1976), the first curatorially selected international traveling film program; and ART ACCESS I and II (1989–98), a fee-subsidy program sponsored by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund making AFA exhibitions of American art more affordable for museums.[citation needed]
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American Federation of Arts
The American Federation of Arts (AFA) is a nonprofit organization that creates art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops education programs. The organization's founding in 1909 was endorsed by Theodore Roosevelt and spearheaded by Secretary of State Elihu Root and eminent art patrons and artists of the day. The AFA's mission is to enrich the public's experience and understanding of the visual arts, and this is accomplished through its exhibitions, catalogues, and public programs. To date, the AFA has organized or circulated approximately 3,000 exhibitions that have been viewed by more than 10 million people in museums in every state, as well as in Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The AFA was founded on May 12, 1909.
At a meeting on May 11, 1909, convened by the National Academy of Art Board of Regents—among whom were President William Howard Taft, former president Theodore Roosevelt, Cecilia Beaux, Robert Woods Bliss, William Merritt Chase, Robert W. DeForest, Homer Saint-Gaudens, Charles L. Hutchinson, Archer M. Huntington, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Leila Mechlin, Andrew W. Mellon, J. Pierpont Morgan, Francis D. Millet, Secretary of State Elihu Root, and Henry Walters, among others— Elihu Root called for the formation of an agency that would send “exhibitions of original works of art on tour to the hinterlands of the United States.” With the unanimous endorsement of Root's motion by representatives from more than eighty American art institutions—among them, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the American Academy in Rome—the AFA was founded on May 12, 1909. The organization's founders further agreed to hold annual meetings and devote themselves to promoting the visual arts as a vital component of the nation's cultural life. Hutchinson, who at the time was the President of the Art Institute of Chicago, was elected the organization's first president.
When Root proposed the creation of the AFA in 1909, the nation's artistic wealth was largely concentrated in eastern cities and inaccessible to most citizens. The AFA and its traveling exhibitions were envisioned as a means of “bringing the museum to the people.” During its inaugural year, the AFA organized three traveling exhibitions, the first of which was Thirty-Eight Oil Paintings by Prominent American Artists, and launched Art and Progress magazine (later renamed Magazine of Art), an innovative vehicle for art scholarship that continued to be published until 1953. Mechlin, art critic at The Washington Star, was the magazine's founding editor and continued in the role through 1931. The Thirty-Eight Paintings exhibition was viewed by more than 5,600 people at the library before traveling to New Orleans, St. Paul, and New Ulm, Minnesota.
The AFA also published the first edition of Who's Who in American Art (1935), as well as the American Art Annual (later known as the American Art Directory). While it no longer publishes these directories and journals, the AFA retains a commitment to publishing new art historical research through the catalogues it produces in conjunction with its exhibitions.[citation needed]
In 1910, the AFA promoted the creation of a National Commission of Fine Arts, which was subsequently established by an act of congress to advise the government on matters of art and design as they pertain to the nation's capital. In 1913, the AFA launched a successful lobbying effort to remove tariffs on art entering the United States and a 1916 session with the Interstate Commerce Commission to protest prohibitively high interstate taxes on traveling art.[citation needed]
In 1920, the AFA was instrumental in organizing a lobbying campaign for the “development of a national gallery of art on a basis worthy of our great nation,” a goal eventually realized with the founding of the National Gallery of Art in 1941. Other government-tied AFA initiatives include arranging the first American representation in the Venice Biennale in 1924 and thereafter until the 1970s.[citation needed]
The AFA's history includes a series of programs designed to facilitate greater access and appreciation of the visual arts, among them, the first nationally broadcast radio programs about art (1930s–1940s); the Picture of the Month Program (1954), offering original paintings at low rental fees to small art and educational organizations; the Museum Donor Program (1960s), distributing allowances to regional museums to purchase contemporary American art; The Art of Seeing (1965), a landmark series of educational films on visual perception; The Curriculum in Visual Education (1966), a collection of films and instructional materials designed to heighten the aesthetic awareness of children; the Rent-an-Artist Program (renamed the Visitor Artist Program) (1970s), placing artists in residency at museums around the country; A History of the American Avant-Garde Cinema (1976), the first curatorially selected international traveling film program; and ART ACCESS I and II (1989–98), a fee-subsidy program sponsored by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund making AFA exhibitions of American art more affordable for museums.[citation needed]