The American Academy of Arts and Letters is an honorary society of America's most notable artists, writers, and composers. Founded in 1904 as an off-shoot of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, which had been founded six years earlier, the Academy merged with the Institute in 1976. Membership is limited to 250 native or naturalized U.S. citizens, of which 50 are elected to the Academy for exceptional achievements in art, literature, or music. The Academy-Institute also has an honorary membership of 75 foreign artists, writers, and composers. Annual prizes offered by the Academy-Institute include the Brunner Memorial Award in Architecture and the Gold Medal for excellence in the arts. The members of the Academy confer the Howells Medal, given every five years for a work of American fiction, and the Award of Merit Medal, given in five categories of the arts to a person not affiliated with the Academy. Membership in the Academy is considered the highest formal recognition of artistic merit in the United States. The Academy-Institute is located in New York, NY, and has a museum and a library, and holds exhibitions of works of art, manuscripts, books, and scores. It also purchases paintings by American artists for distribution to museums.
Last updated: June 02, 2004.
