The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the society have included such renowned poets as Witter Bynner , Robert Frost , Langston Hughes , Edna St. Vincent Millay , Marianne Moore , and Wallace Stevens .
31-642: In 1910, the Poetry Society of America held its first official meeting in the National Arts Club in Manhattan , which is still home to the organization today. Jessie Belle Rittenhouse , a founding member and Secretary of the PSA, documented the founding of the Poetry Society of America in her autobiography My House of Life writing "It was not, however, to be an organization in the formal sense of
62-603: A Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. In 1915 the Society began conferring awards honoring innovation and mastery of the form by emerging and established American poets. Beginning in 2003, the Society began sponsoring an annual chapbook contest, awarding four fellowships to poets who have not yet published a full-length poetry collection. These fellowships include: In addition to the Frost Medal, Shelley Award, and Four Quartets Prize,
93-404: A broader understanding of the arts, in categories like Architecture, Archeology, Painting, Writing, Performance Arts and more. The club hosts a rotating series of public art exhibitions in its galleries. Works by Pablo Picasso , Joan Míro , Ilya and Emilia Kabakov , Lissa Rivera, Andy Warhol , Keith Haring , and many other renowned artists have been featured in the space. In December 2020,
124-489: A center of work and creativity. Significantly, the club would offer full membership for women at the onset, reflecting their accomplishment in the arts. While the group was working out an organizational plan, Charles DeKay , the literary and art critic of the New York Times for 18 years, returned from a diplomatic post abroad. An inspired organizer and entrepreneur, he sent letters to men and women of importance in
155-454: A charter member, J. Pierpont Morgan joined the Club early in its development and later was made an Honorary Vice President. Among the artists of the period, earlier charter members, or those joined in the early days of the club were Frederic Remington , William Merritt Chase , Robert Henri , and George Bellows . The club's first home was a brownstone on West 34th Street. Commerce, meanwhile,
186-445: A few controversies arising from some of its shows. In 1905, the club displayed a sculpture of Aphrodite that purported to be from ancient Rome. Critics were quick to deride the statue as a fake, placing it as a work that came from a much later era. In 1922, "Nude Girl with a Shawl" (now known as "Nude with White Shawl"), a painting by George Bellows , offended the audience of the time, who considered it immoral. The early 21st century
217-532: A hundred members of the gentler sex." The club now has about 2,000 members who come from both the art world or are supporters of the arts. Members work in committees to organize events and exhibits that are available for free to the general public. One of the unusual benefits of membership it that the club allows members access to a Gramercy Park key . The National Arts Club has reciprocities with clubs in other cities such as Lisbon, London and Spain, where members can go stay when they are traveling abroad. Here's
248-502: A landmarked Victorian Gothic Revival brownstone at 15 Gramercy Park, next door to The Players , a club with similar interests. The Tilden House was designated a New York City landmark in 1966, and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976. It is located in the Gramercy Park Historic District . The new clubhouse, which opened its doors in 1906, was initially designed with a billiard room and
279-646: A parlor on the ground floor, and reading rooms and smoking rooms on the 1st floor. The 2nd floor was purely focused on team rooms for female members. During the 2006 restoration of the Tilden mansion's stoop, the Brazilian New York City artist Sergio Rossetti Morosini has now sculpted a bust of Michelangelo above the front door on the building's façade. As of 2019, the club holds a permanent collection of 660 works of art including paintings, sculptures, and other works on paper. Artists represented in
310-488: A variety of public programs in all artistic areas including theater, literature and music. Although the club is private, many of its events are free and open to the public. A group of friends, all of them involved in architecture, art, or civic affairs, discussed the possibility of a new kind of club that would embrace all the arts. The establishment of the Club came at a time when American artists were increasingly turning to their own nation rather than exclusively to Europe as
341-516: Is proud of its early recognition of new media art forms, like photography, film and digital media, and counts Alfred Stieglitz as one of its early members. Musicians Victor Herbert and Walter Damrosch were members, as were architects Stanford White , George B. Post , and Downing Vaux . George B. Post served as the first President of the National Arts Club. The membership of the National Arts Club has included three Presidents of
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#1732783016422372-1011: The New York Philharmonic , Frederica von Stade , Benny Goodman , Isaac Stern , James Levine , Plácido Domingo , Itzhak Perlman , Paddy Moloney , Byron Janis , Ilse Bing , Manuel Alvarez Bravo , John Szarkowski , Inge Morath , George Kalinsky , R. Buckminster Fuller , I.M. Pei , Daniel Libeskind , Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill , Robert A. Stern , Eleanor Roosevelt , Salvador Dalí , Chen Chi , Louise Nevelson , Stewart Klonis and The Art Students League , Louise Bourgeois , Robert Rauschenberg , Will Barnet , Christo , Roy Lichtenstein , Dale Chihuly , Chuck Close , James Turrell , James Moody , Ed Ruscha , Spike Lee , Whoopi Goldberg , Richard Dreyfuss , John Turturro , Lynn Redgrave , Olympia Dukakis , Ang Lee , Lin-Manuel Miranda , Claire Bloom , Ellen Burstyn , Patricia Field , Jack O'Brien , Paul Auster , William Ivey Long , Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson , and Anna Sui . Over
403-533: The Club presented Voices of the Soho Renaissance, the first exhibition of artwork born out of the calls for social justice which transformed New York City's Soho neighborhood, following the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The show was followed by What Happened This Summer: ART2HEART , a second exhibition exploring the topic. Since its inception, the club has offered a number of art classes, some open specifically to members and others open to
434-571: The National Arts Club: From its very early days, the club differed from other social clubs. At its founding, the New York Times remarked: "This club differs from the others in several ways, especially in the fact that it has a very serious purpose, namely to encourage the arts side of American manufactures. On its social side, it presents an innovation in club life. It offers equal privileges to women, and has already over
465-591: The New York Municipal Society's Certificate of Merit, and in 2000 a proclamation from the Council of the City of New York that honored the program for its "invaluable contribution to the people of New York City." The Poetry Society was instrumental in the establishment of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry . In 1917, after the first Pulitzer prizes were awarded, Society member Edward J. Wheeler petitioned
496-522: The New York area as well as in metropolitan areas across the country. The response was so enthusiastic that the club was able to apply to Albany for its charter in 1898. With the application went a list of the officers, Board of Trustees, and members totaling more than 1200. The list included such collectors as Henry Frick , William T. Evans , Benjamin Altman, Jules Bache and Henry Walters . Though not
527-520: The Poetry Society confers other awards: National Arts Club The National Arts Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and members club on Gramercy Park , Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 1898 by Charles DeKay , an art and literary critic of the New York Times , to "stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts". The National Arts Club has several art galleries, and hosts
558-598: The Poetry Society launched Poetry in Motion along with the New York City MTA in the New York City subway system, a program which has since placed poetry in the transit systems of over 20 cities throughout the country such as: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Portland, and Salt Lake City. The program has been honored with numerous awards including a Design for Transportation Merit Award,
589-559: The President of Columbia University to include poetry as an award category. After receiving a reply from the President that there had been no funds allocated to award a prize in poetry, Wheeler secured $ 500 on behalf of the Society from a New York City art patron in order to establish the prize. The Poetry Society continued to provide this support until 1922 when Columbia University as well as the Pulitzer Board, voted to regularize
620-853: The United States : Theodore Roosevelt , Woodrow Wilson and Dwight Eisenhower along with Senator William A. Clark . Since the early 1900s, the club has awarded its prestigious Medal of Honor to exemplary leaders in their artistic fields. Recipients of the award include WH Auden , Anthony Burgess , Eudora Welty , Tennessee Williams , Norman Mailer , Saul Bellow , Allen Ginsberg , John Updike , Marguerite Yourcenar , Iris Murdoch , Philip Roth , Salman Rushdie , Arthur Miller , Margaret Atwood , Toni Morrison , Nadine Gordimer , Tom Wolfe , Chinua Achebe , Don DeLillo , Joyce Carol Oates , Martin Amis , Salman Rushdie , John Ashbery , Leonard Bernstein , Alice Tully , Avery Fisher , Amyas Ames and
651-682: The club frequently loans works from the collection to scholarly exhibitions presented by institutions and galleries such as the Florence Griswold Museum ; the Thomas Walsh Gallery, Fairfield University ; the Trout Gallery, Dickinson College ; the Society of Illustrators , New York; and Berry-Hill Galleries, New York. The club produces over 150 free public events per year, allowing the general public to get
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#1732783016422682-489: The club's treasurer, was asked to find the club a new home. He found that 14 and 15 Gramercy Park South, the former home of Samuel Tilden , was on the market. Legend has it that he was so afraid that some other buyer would also find it that he put down some money of his own to bind the bargain. In 1906, the club acquired the Samuel J. Tilden House . Throughout the 20th century, the club was primarily noted for its exhibits, with
713-687: The collection include Daniel Putnam Brinley , Charles Courtney Curran , Daniel Garber , Philip Leslie Hale , Gari Melchers , William McGregor Paxton , Robert Spencer , Harry Willson Watrous , Robert Vonnoh , Everett Longley Warner , Robert Henri , Homer Boss, F. Luis Mora , Eugene Speicher , Jerry Farnsworth , Lamarr Dodd , Birge Harrison , Paul Cornoyer , Malvina Hoffman , Anna Hyatt Huntington , Lee Lawrie , Paul Manship , Victor Brenner , Will Barnet , Chen Chi , Peter Cox, Gary Erbe, Diana Kan, Everett Raymond Kinstler , Greg Wyatt , Carlos Quintana, Kendall Shaw , and Lois Dodd . In keeping with its goal of supporting research in American art,
744-532: The general public. Classes include drawing, pastel, cooking, and writing classes, often taught by club members who are professionals on the topic. Beginning in 1906, the National Arts Club started awarding the "NAC Medal of Honor" to recognize individuals who had made unique contribution to the arts field. The medal is awarded on a yearly basis and has recognized people in Fashion, acting, literature, music, and architecture. Several smaller groups have existed within
775-784: The list of clubs they have agreements with: The National Arts Club is one of the few private clubs that has admitted women as full and equal members since its inception. Among the distinguished painters who have been members are Robert Henri , Leon Dabo , Edward Charles Volkert , Frederic Remington , William Merritt Chase , Richard C. Pionk , Chen Chi , Larry Rivers , Louise Upton Brumback , Cecilia Beaux , Will Barnet , Everett Raymond Kinstler , and Michael Cheval. Sculptors have been represented by Augustus Saint-Gaudens , Daniel Chester French , Anna Hyatt Huntington and Paul Manship . Many renowned literary figures, including Robert William Service in 1910, W. H. Auden , Mark Twain and Frank McCourt have been members. The National Arts Club
806-427: The risk of seeming ungrateful to our hosts—that it was much too big an idea to be narrowed down to a social function, into which it would inevitably deteriorate, and if the Society were developed at all, it ought to be along national lines, and should meet in a public rather than a private place." Within the first few years, poets such as Amy Lowell , Ezra Pound and W. B. Yeats regularly attended meetings. In 1992
837-418: The word, but founded upon the salon idea, a place where poets would gather to read and discuss their work and that of their contemporaries, the group to be united largely through the hospitality of our hosts at whose apartments it was proposed we should continue to meet...When, after much enthusiastic speech-making, a committee was appointed to retire and discuss the details, I had no hesitancy in saying—though at
868-461: The years, The National Arts Club has been used for several prominent film and television productions (see partial list below). The location has also been featured in numerous prominent photo shoots, TV interviews, and fashion shows, including Steven Klein photographing Kim Kardashian for Interview Magazine . Arts shown at the National Arts Club has been the topic of many books. Henry Frick Too Many Requests If you report this error to
899-556: Was marked by financial crisis and a decade-long feud between the club's long-running president and its board that eventually led to the president's expulsion and settlement of state charges against him by the New York State Attorney General 's Office. In 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic , the club renovated parts of its building to allow for the opening of new galleries. The initial clubhouse
930-531: Was moving up from downtown, and the neighborhood of brownstones was changing. Because it accepted both men and women, the club was a rousing success and its tight quarters on 34th street could barely keep up with the demand for new membership. Walter Leighton Clark , patron and founder of the Grand Central Art Galleries , became a life member in 1907, and was joined by others in his artistic, business and social circles. Spencer Trask ,
961-478: Was noted for its tea rooms and the fact that it allowed both men and women to commingle. However, with a growing membership, the club was forced to find a new home. It initially purchased a building next door to the original clubhouse but, in 1906, the club found an opportunity to move into a new space: the Samuel Tilden Mansion. Since 1906 the organization has occupied the Samuel J. Tilden House ,