National Arts Club
Literary and artistic club in New York
The National Arts Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and members club at 15 Gramercy Park South in 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 people in the fine arts." The National Arts Club has several art galleries, and hosts a variety of public programs in all artistic areas, including theater, dance, fashion, literature, and music, and more. Although the club is private, all of its programming and exhibitions are free and open to the public.
History
Founding
A group of New York's preeminent artists and patrons, 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 a center of work and creativity. Significantly, the club would offer full membership for women at the onset, reflecting their accomplishments 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 important men and women in 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.
“National Arts Club” enters the record as literary and artistic club in New York. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what National, Arts and Club can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1103888. VIAF identifies the subject as 135712484. The Library of Congress control number is n84168429. Authority coordinates are 40.738, -73.987. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1898 and 1200.
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This entry incorporates text from “National Arts Club” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.