National Academy of Design

The Nation­al Acad­e­my of Design pro­motes art and archi­tec­ture in Amer­i­ca through exhi­bi­tion, edu­ca­tion, and research. Found­ed in 1825, the Nation­al Acad­e­my is the lead­ing hon­orary soci­ety for visu­al artists and archi­tects in the Unit­ed States. They advo­cate for the arts as a tool for edu­ca­tion, cel­e­brate the role of artists and archi­tects in pub­lic life, and serve as a cat­a­lyst for cul­tur­al con­ver­sa­tions that pro­pel soci­ety for­ward. On Gov­er­nors Island, they’ll host Materia/​Material, a res­i­den­cy and exhi­bi­tions pro­gram in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Mate­ri­als for the Arts.

Over the span of six weeks, six artists – a group of Nation­al Aca­d­e­mi­cians and alum­ni of Mate­ri­als for the Arts’ artis­tic pro­grams – will work both inde­pen­dent­ly and col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly as res­i­dents of a his­toric house on the Island’s Nolan Park. Res­i­dents will have access to Mate­ri­als for the Arts’ 35,000-square-foot cre­ative reuse cen­ter, sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment of projects that engage both art and archi­tec­tur­al prac­tices con­cerned with sus­tain­abil­i­ty, ecol­o­gy, and inno­v­a­tive approach­es to reuse. The group of six par­tic­i­pat­ing artists and archi­tects includes Hugo Basti­das NA in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Eliz­a­beth Demaray, Jim Osman NA, Dianne Smith, Ed Smith NA, and Michael Kel­ly Williams.

The exhi­bi­tion that fol­lows, open­ing in mid-Sep­tem­ber in the same space, will show­case projects devel­oped dur­ing the res­i­den­cy along­side com­ple­men­tary works by artists and archi­tects from out­side the group of residents.

Upcom­ing Events

• Materia/​Material: Sep­tem­ber 17-Octo­ber 22