DOI issue:
No. 102 (August, 1905)
DOI article:The art students league, New York
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26960#0240
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ART STUDENTS LEAGUE, SCHOLARSHIP. J. E. BURDICK
bers were called upon to make up a shortage of two
hundred dollars. This was subscribed in the nature
of a loan, but the members decided to make it the
nucleus of a reserve fund.
Such being the origin and development of the
school on its practical side, it was natural that when,
at the incorporation in 1878, a constitution was
drawn up, provision was made for preserving a
good measure of control to the students. The gov-
erning board accordingly, then and ever since, has
comprised enough students actually at work in the
school to make a majority. The Board of Control
thus represents first and foremost the needs and
practical ideas of the active students, while profiting
also by the experience and wider perspective of
graduates and instructors. A student of the League
becomes a citizen of a self supporting democracy of
artists.
The later progress of the institution will be more
fresh in the minds of our readers. Removals were
successively made to various quarters further up-
town until in 1889 the League, with the Society of
American Artists and the Architectural League
united in the formation of the American Fine Arts
Society and put up the handsome building in Fifty-
seventh Street, in which the League has since been
quartered. New classes have been formed from
time to time as they were needed.
During the last season two interesting new
were found necessary in less than a month. Before
the end of the first year, portrait and sketch classes
had been added. The movement thus begun has
never shown a break or serious setback. Capital
the school at its start, had none, and therein lay the
evidence of its vitality. It was not established in
full career from outside for anyone who might care
to avail himself of its advantages. It grew spon-
taneously among a group of young people who felt
the need of just such assistance and set about
achieving it for themselves. For maintenance and
current expenses its only resource was comprised
in the fees paid by members, which were set only
at a figure necessary to defray the cost of rent,
models and instruction. That basis has been
maintained ever since.
The details of the school's government were not
formally settled upon until incorporation took place
in 1878, twenty-seven months after the first start
had been made. In the meanwhile the financial
problem had come sharply to the front. The school
had begun in October. During the summer it was
closed, without, of course, being relieved from the
burden of rent. This and other initial expenses,
coupled with the low rate of income, made a deficit
a familiar spirit to the officers. Finally the mem-
ART STUDENTS LEAGUE: "A STEEP GRADE"
BY A. V. HYATT
XLI
ART STUDENTS LEAGUE, SCHOLARSHIP. J. E. BURDICK
bers were called upon to make up a shortage of two
hundred dollars. This was subscribed in the nature
of a loan, but the members decided to make it the
nucleus of a reserve fund.
Such being the origin and development of the
school on its practical side, it was natural that when,
at the incorporation in 1878, a constitution was
drawn up, provision was made for preserving a
good measure of control to the students. The gov-
erning board accordingly, then and ever since, has
comprised enough students actually at work in the
school to make a majority. The Board of Control
thus represents first and foremost the needs and
practical ideas of the active students, while profiting
also by the experience and wider perspective of
graduates and instructors. A student of the League
becomes a citizen of a self supporting democracy of
artists.
The later progress of the institution will be more
fresh in the minds of our readers. Removals were
successively made to various quarters further up-
town until in 1889 the League, with the Society of
American Artists and the Architectural League
united in the formation of the American Fine Arts
Society and put up the handsome building in Fifty-
seventh Street, in which the League has since been
quartered. New classes have been formed from
time to time as they were needed.
During the last season two interesting new
were found necessary in less than a month. Before
the end of the first year, portrait and sketch classes
had been added. The movement thus begun has
never shown a break or serious setback. Capital
the school at its start, had none, and therein lay the
evidence of its vitality. It was not established in
full career from outside for anyone who might care
to avail himself of its advantages. It grew spon-
taneously among a group of young people who felt
the need of just such assistance and set about
achieving it for themselves. For maintenance and
current expenses its only resource was comprised
in the fees paid by members, which were set only
at a figure necessary to defray the cost of rent,
models and instruction. That basis has been
maintained ever since.
The details of the school's government were not
formally settled upon until incorporation took place
in 1878, twenty-seven months after the first start
had been made. In the meanwhile the financial
problem had come sharply to the front. The school
had begun in October. During the summer it was
closed, without, of course, being relieved from the
burden of rent. This and other initial expenses,
coupled with the low rate of income, made a deficit
a familiar spirit to the officers. Finally the mem-
ART STUDENTS LEAGUE: "A STEEP GRADE"
BY A. V. HYATT
XLI