Branded a Pariah, the National Academy Is Struggling to Survive
Dwarfed by the Guggenheim Museum’s commanding Frank Lloyd Wright building and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s stately Carnegie mansion, the National Academy Museum’s graceful but relatively diminutive town house on Fifth Avenue could be a metaphor for its squeezed condition.
The 183-year-old academy, a museum and school that played a pathbreaking role in fostering a New York art scene in the 19th century, is in serious trouble. Having sold two important Hudson River School paintings from its collection this month to pay bills, the institution was recently branded a pariah by the Association of Art Museum Directors. That group views such stopgap measures as a breach of basic principles, stipulating that museums can sell art only to finance new acquisitions.
The association urged its members to cut off all loans to the academy and forgo any collaborations.
Read entire article at NYT
The 183-year-old academy, a museum and school that played a pathbreaking role in fostering a New York art scene in the 19th century, is in serious trouble. Having sold two important Hudson River School paintings from its collection this month to pay bills, the institution was recently branded a pariah by the Association of Art Museum Directors. That group views such stopgap measures as a breach of basic principles, stipulating that museums can sell art only to finance new acquisitions.
The association urged its members to cut off all loans to the academy and forgo any collaborations.