Salmagundi Club

The Salmagundi Club, also known as the Salmagundi Art Club, was founded in 1871 in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, in the United States. It is currently located at 47 Fifth Avenue. As of 2005,cite web |url= http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/5aa/5aa199.htm |title= Salmagundi Club: An American Institution |author= |work= Description of Dubuque [http://www.dbqart.com/ Museum of Art] exhibition, part of a two and a half year national tour of museums in eleven cities. Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc |date= 2005 |quote= In 1917, with the support of its members, a Fifth Avenue brownstone was purchased and became their permanent home. … and in 1957 was cited for its architectural distinction by both the Society of Architectural Historians and the Municipal Art Society. It is a fitting home for the oldest art club in America. ] the Salmagundi Club has over six hundred members.

For nearly 140 years, the Salmagundi Club has served as a center for fine arts and artists, conducting art exhibitions, art classes, demonstrations, and art auctions, and hosting many other events. It is also a sponsor of the United States Coast Guard Art Program (CODAP).cite web |url= http://www.salmagundi.org/affiliates.htm |title= Affiliations |work= Salmagundi Club website ]

History

Originally called the New York Sketch Class,cite web |url= http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/5aa/5aa290.htm |title= A Fertile Fellowship: The Rich History of the Salmagundi Club |author= Anne Cohen DePietro |work= Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., San Clemente, California and the Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New York |date= 2005 |quote= ] and later called the New York Sketch Club,cite web |url= http://www.thevillager.com/vilager_26/130yearsoldvillage.html |title= 130-year-old Village arts club still flourishing |author= Mara McGinnis |work= The Villager, Vol. 73, No. 26 |date= Oct 29 -Nov 04, 2003 |quote= ] the Salmagundi Club had its beginnings at the eastern edge of Greenwich Village in sculptor Jonathan Scott Hartley's Broadway studio, where a group of artists, students and friends at the National Academy of Design, which at the time was located at Fourth Avenue and 23rd Street,cite web |url= http://www.nationalacademy.org/ |title= National Academy School of Fine Arts History |work= National Academy of Design website |quote= Lemuel Wilmarth was appointed the first full-time instructor in January 1870, by which time the school was located at Fourth Avenue and 23rd Street. Under Wilmarth's leadership, the number of classes and the enrollment increased, and new techniques, such as the quick-sketch, were introduced in response to changing esthetic criteria. ] gathered weekly on Saturday evenings.

The club formally changed its name to The Salmagundi Sketch Club in January 1877. The name has variously been attributed to salmagundi, a stew which the group has served from its earliest years, and to Washington Irving's "Salmagundi Papers."cite web |url= http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GV/GV008SalmagundiClub.htm |title= Salmagundi Club Landmark |author= Tom Fletcher, with thanks to the Museum of the City of New York |work= New York Architecture Images, exterior and interior |quote= ] cite web |url= http://www.nndb.com/people/815/000031722/ |title= Washington Irving |work= NNDB |quote= … a satirical miscellany entitled "Salmagundi, or the Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff [pseudonym of Washington Irving] and Others," written in conjunction with his brother William and J. K. Paulding. ]

Growing rapidly, and housed in many temporary locations, the club was at 14 West 12th Street for some years. From 1917, the home of the Salmagundi Club has been an 1853 brownstone at 47 Fifth Avenue between East 11th and East 12th Streets. The building is designated an historical landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Members of the Salmagundi Club have included Ralph Blakelock, James Wells Champney, William Merritt Chase, Frederick Stuart Church, Charles Dana Gibson, William Hart, Childe Hassam, George Inness, Jr., John LaFarge, Ernest Lawson, John Francis Murphy, Howard Pyle, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Edward Charles Volkert, Stanford White, Samizu Matsuki, and N.C. Wyeth.

Honorary members have included Paul Cadmus, Schuyler Chapin, Winston Churchill, Buckminister Fuller, Al Hirschfeld, and Thomas Hoving.

References

External links

* [http://www.salmagundi.org/ Official website of The Salmagundi Club.]