American Academy of Arts & Letters
633 West 155th Street
New York, NY 10032
(212) 368-5900
Academy@Artsandletters.org
Hours: Thursday-Sunday-1:00pm-4:00pm/Open During Exhibitions times only or by appointment (Mid-March-Mid-April; Mid-May-Mid-June)
Fee: Free
My review on TripAdvisor:
The front of the American Museum of Arts & Letters at 633 West 155th Street
I was finally able to visit the American Academy of Arts and Letters on the last day it was open for the year to the public. It was for the ‘Ceremonial Exhibition: Work by New Members and Recipients of Awards’, an exhibition on members art that was chosen specifically for the show. Most of the work was very contemporary and some a little political. It was interesting work by new artists that filled the small gallery rooms.
The front of the American Museum of Arts & Letters
One of the buildings was used for the contemporary art while the one across the courtyard was used for the more architectural pieces. The galleries are small but the art was impressive. What I liked when I talked with one of the women who worked there said to me that after the show, the pieces would be donated to galleries and museums all over the country. The galleries are only open four months out of the year and this was the last day of the exhibition so the work being shown will be gone.
I visited the museum in January 2025 and it had just reopened after a three year renovation after it had been closed since Pre-COVID and it is now fully open with a new exhibitions. All the galleries are brightly lit and displaying new exhibitions.
The entrance to the museum from the courtyard
Some of the pieces that really stood out when I visited in 2019 were by Judith Bernstein, a contemporary painter who seems to not like the current administration too much. The themes were on power and money and corruption in the administration. Her work really shows what she personally thinks of our President. Her ‘Trump Genie” was very clever and I can see this in a major museum in the future.
Judith Bernstein’s work
Other work in the main gallery in 2019 were by artists Stephen Westfall with ‘Solid Gone’, Hermine Ford with ‘Paris, France’ and Paul Mogensen with several ‘Untitled’ pieces. The contemporary works I was not sure what the meaning of them were but they were colorful.
The works of the artists of the front gallery
One of the pieces in the front gallery that really stood out was by artist Francesca Dimattio, ‘She-wolf’ which was a classic Greek character made of porcelain, enamel, paint and steel.
‘She-wolf’ by Francesca Dimattio
There were light installations in 2019 that were very interesting by artist James O. Clark. He had one piece, ‘Wunnerful, Wunnerful’, which is a work that just keeps being creating itself by bubbles and ink markers moving along a turntable that stops and starts.
There was a permanent exhibition of Charles Ives home in Connecticut that was transported and recreated here. His studio and works are featured here as well as his family life. There are copies of his works in the display cases and his career.
The museum in 2025 was fully open with the exhibition by artist Christine Kozlov, a contemporary Video artist whose works were being featured in the main gallery.
The main gallery of the Kristine Kozlov exhibition
In more than fifty artworks arrayed across four galleries at Arts and Letters, Christine Kozlov shows the breadth of Conceptual artist Christine Kozlov’s practice with a focus on works from the mid-1960s through the late 1970s. Nearly all of the works Kozlov contributed to public exhibitions during this period will be on view, many of which were created for landmark exhibitions of Conceptual art such as: One Month (1969), organized by Seth Siegelaub; Information (1970), curated by Kynaston McShine at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Arte de Sistemas organized by Jorge Glusberg / CAYC—Centro de Arte y Comunicación at the Museo De Arte Moderno (1971); and the Number Shows, a series of exhibitions curated by Lucy Lippard between 1969 and 1974 (American Museum of Arts & Letters website).
Part of the Kristine Kostov exhibition
Works by artist Christine Kozlov
The next exhibition that I viewed was by artist Wadada Leo Smith, which consisted of an exhibition based on colors and sounds. You could take the headsets around the gallery and tour and admire the work with the sounds of the musical groups.
The gallery with works by artist Wadada Leo Smith
Wadada Leo Smith (b. 1941, Leland, MS) is a composer-performer and Arts and Letters member. Formerly an educator at CalArts, he has influenced decades of musicians and artists, including Raven Chacon. In Kosmic Music, Smith’s first solo exhibition in New York, he shares over fifty years of Ankhrasmation (Museum website).
The “Sphere” works by artist Wadada Leo Smith
Ankhrasmation is a musical language Smith began exploring in 1965. Smith does not consider Ankhrasmation to be his creation but rather something he discovered. The name derives from Ankh, an ancient Egyptian symbol of life; Ras, an Ethiopian word for leader or father; and Ma, for mother. The distinctive language uses line, color, and shape to designate musical components such as tonal range and intensity of activity. For Smith, performing Ankhrasmation requires focused practice and “having that space in your heart and mind so that you can play from inspiration.” (Museum website).
The last exhibition I saw was in the gallery across the courtyard from the main museum was by artist Raven Chacon. You would walk in the main gallery to the sounds of birds both living and extinct. Just five minutes in the main gallery by myself and I felt like Tippi Hedren in the movie “The Birds”. There were all sorts of bird sounds with no birds around.
The instruments that the artist uses to achieve the sounds of the birds
When Raven Chacon (b. 1977, Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation) visited Arts and Letters for the first time, he paused in our North Gallery to clap his hands, then counted how long it took for the room to go silent. It took around six seconds—a long rate of decay. Standing in that echoing chamber, Chacon noted the building’s Beaux Arts design by Cass Gilbert, with its imported Spanish tile and cage-like glass ceiling that filters the sky. He became curious to learn the history of the land it sits on, once owned by John James Audubon, who purchased it in 1841 with funds from the sale of his illustrated Birds of America (Museum website).
Chacon is a composer and artist who frequently works with the materials and histories of a given site and who considers, as he puts it, “what has been silenced and what happens when it is not.” For the past year, he has worked on Aviary, his site-specific commission for the North Gallery, creating a soundscape that makes space and time for careful listening (Museum website).
Museum Mission:
(from the museum website)
The American Academy of Arts & Letters was founded in 1898 as an honor society of the country’s leading architects, artists, composers and writers. Charter members include William Merritt Chase, Kenyon Cox, Daniel Chester French, Childe Hassam, Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Vedder and Woodrow Wilson. The Academy’;’s 250 members are elected for life and pay no dues.
The main gallery of the museum
In addition to electing new members as vacancies occur, the Academy seeks to foster and sustain an interest in Literature, Music and the Fine Arts by administering over 70 awards and prizes, exhibiting art and manuscripts, funding performances of new works of musical theater and purchasing artwork for donation to museums across the country.
Collections:
(from the museum website)
The Academy’s collection, which are open to scholars by appointment, contain portraits and photographs of members, as well as paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and decorative art objects. The library has more than 25,000 books by or about members. The archives house correspondence with past members, press clippings, institutional records and original manuscripts of musical and literary works.
History:
(from the museum website)
The National Institute of Arts & Letters, the parent body of the Academy, was founded in 1898 for “the advancement of art and literature”. The Institute met for the first time in New York City in February 1899 and began electing members that fall. Architects, artists, writers and composers of notable achievement were eligible and membership was soon capped at 250. In 1913, President Taft signed an act of Congress incorporating the organization in the District of Columbia.
American Academy of Arts & Letters at twilight
In 1904, The Institution created the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a prestigious inner body of its own members that modeled itself on the Academie francaise. The first seven members of the Academy were William Dean Howells, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Edmund Clarence Stedman, John La Farge, Mark Twain, John Hay and Edward MacDowell. Those seven then chose eight more and so on, until the full complement of 30 and later 50 was reached. Only after being elected to the Institute, was a member eligible for elevation to the Academy. This bicameral system of membership continued until 1993, when the Institute dissolved itself and all 250 members were enrolled in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The Academy inaugurated its annual awards program in 1909 with the Gold Medal for Sculpture. Since then, over 70 awards and prizes have been endowed through gifts and bequests or established by the Academy’s board of directors in the fields of architecture, art, literature and music. There are conferred each year at the Ceremonial in May when new members are inducted and a distinguished speaker is invited to deliver the Blashfield Address.
In 2005, the Academy purchased the former headquarters of the American Numismatic Society, the neighboring building on Audubon Terrace. A Glass Link now connects the Academy’s existing galleries to newly renovated ones in the former Numismatic building. These new galleries house the permanently installed Charles Ives Studio.
(The Academy of Arts & Letters Website)
Visiting a Museum: The Unique, Unusual, Obscure and Historical 