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The origin of the North Carolina Art Society can be traced to the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, a private organization formed in Raleigh in 1900 by a group of prominent citizens committed to the state's cultural heritage. During its first decades, the Literary and Historical Association gave impetus to various groups throughout the state, including a fledgling arts movement. The association was unsuccessful, however, in its early efforts to garner legislative support for projects involving art education and art appreciation. When the association pushed for creation of a state art commission in 1915, an indifferent legislature defeated all bills presented for this purpose. During the early part of the twentieth century, North Carolina's economy was still based primarily upon agriculture. Within this agrarian environment, the state's organized arts movement had one of its most influential champions in Dr. Clarence Poe, editor of the PROGRESSIVE FARMER. Dr. Poe had also called for creation of an art commission under state patronage, but sought support for art education from other avenues as well. In 1915, largely at Dr. Poe's behest, the State Agricultural Society agreed to purchase reproductions of famous pastoral scenes for placement throughout the state's public schools. In 1924 the Fine Arts Society came into being as a branch of the Literary and Historical Association. The chairman of the society's Executive Committee was Dr. Poe and its founding president was John J. Blair, of the State Department of Public Instruction. The two men brought vital leadership and financial support to the society's first efforts, along with other founding members including Katherine Pendleton Arrington, Robert B. House, and Mrs. Henry London. The constitution adopted by the Fine Arts Society contained the following purposes: to promote interest in establishing a state art museum in Raleigh; to secure by gift, loan, or purchase, objects of art constituting a permanent collection; to aid in the establishment of art museums and art libraries throughout the state; to aid in securing loan exhibitions and collections of paintings and objects of art for towns and communities in the state; and to secure speakers and lecturers of recognized ability in subjects pertaining to art appreciation. In 1925 the society sponsored an art exhibition that was the first of its kind. Held in the formal parlors of Meredith College, the exhibit featured paintings primarily from the Grand Central Art Galleries of New York. The following year, the society held its first annual meeting as a separate entity from the Literary and Historical Association. By 1927 Blair had persuaded Robert Fullenwider Phifer, a prominent New York industrialist and North Carolina native, to bequeath to the society a dual gift of his extensive private art collection and a substantial monetary endowment. In 1927 the society was chartered by the state under the new name of the North Carolina Art Society, Incorporated. In 1929 the General Assembly enacted a law providing for a sixteen-member Board of Directors of the Art Society, including four to be appointed by the governor and eight to be elected by the society. The remaining members served ex officio: the governor, state treasurer, state superintendent of public instruction, and the chairman of the Art Committee of the North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs. The preamble to the law stated that the Art Society and its members wished to be placed "under the patronage and control of the state to the end that persons who contemplate making gifts to it and for the establishment of a State art museum may be assured of the interest and concern of the State Government in these objects, and of the willingness of the State to cooperate in safeguarding the works of art...and in promoting their enjoyment...." Although the law required the state auditor to make an annual audit of the books of the Art Society, it included no provisions for state financial support. Instead, it authorized the society to use state public buildings for gallery space where feasible. In 1929 the board room in the Agriculture Building was made available as a temporary gallery, and a number of paintings from the Phifer bequest went on display. Financial conditions during the Great Depression forced the Art Society to postpone its dream of a permanent state art museum. With limited funds, the society began to promote artists residing within the state. In 1931 the North Carolina Association of Professional Artists formed and subsequently held successful exhibitions in Chapel Hill and later at the society's annual meeting in Raleigh. In later years, the society sponsored in alternating years the North Carolina Artists Exhibition, a tradition that has been maintained to the present. In 1935 the work of the Art Society was given additional impetus when the Works Progress Administration (WPA) designated Raleigh to receive funding through the Federal Art Project and to establish a Federal Art Center. The first of its type to be established in the nation, the center opened on Fayetteville Street, near the State Capitol, with a local artist in charge. The center, which later moved to Broughton High School, also enjoyed the backing of various clubs and civic groups. In 1939 the General Assembly recognized the success of these joint efforts and provided the Art Society with the State Art Gallery and office space on the second floor of the former Supreme Court Building. (That space was retained until the early 1950s when it was transferred to the fifth floor of the Education Building.) Both the gallery and art center at Broughton High School continued until 1943 under joint sponsorship of the Art Society and the WPA. During that period, the society lacked sufficient funds to pay staffing expenses, and the gallery was actually operated by staff supplied through the Federal Art Project. With federal aid to the State Art Gallery close to an end, the General Assembly of 1943 authorized the governor and Council of State to grant the Art Society an annual allotment of two thousand dollars from the state's contingency and emergency fund. During the same year, Governor J. Melville Broughton assembled a citizen's committee to discuss establishment of a permanent state art gallery. Among Broughton's gathering of citizens was Art Society enthusiast and board member, Robert Lee Humber. In 1947 Humber persuaded philanthropist Samuel H. Kress of New York to donate one million dollars to the state of North Carolina for the purchase of works of art, though contingent upon the state's commitment of an equal amount. Humber then sought to convince state legislators to vote favorably for this unprecedented appropriation. The bill narrowly passed on the last day of the legislative session. The 1947 law relating to the Art Society included the following specifications: a special fund to be administered by the society must contain one million dollars before the state would disburse the pledged amount from its General Fund; and those funds could be expended solely by a body to be named the State Art Commission to consist of five members appointed by the governor from the membership of the Art Society. After initial staggered terms were completed, members were to serve tenures of two years. Under the law, the Art Society was authorized to receive gifts and bequests from various other sources, including the federal government. It was granted power also to appraise, purchase, loan and exhibit works of art; and to assume responsibility for the care, custody, storage, and preservation of all works acquired or received by loan. During the next few years, the Art Society made limited progress toward expanding its art collection and establishing a museum. Samuel Kress was in declining health and would not commit to writing the promises he had made to Humber in 1947. While the foundation established by Kress committed to a program of supporting regional art museums throughout the United States, it routinely made gifts through works of art instead of cash. The foundation's offer to North Carolina remained firm: a million dollars worth of outstanding Italian Renaissance paintings, plus additional paintings and services in the years to come. For the state, however, this change in the form of the gift required an amendment to the 1947 law and gave rise to new controversy in the General Assemblies of 1949 and 1951. Many legislators wanted the million dollars previously committed for art to be returned to the General Fund and reallocated. In this legislative climate, Governor W. Scott Kerr on April 1951 urged the General Assembly to view the Kress offer as a rare opportunity that "the state could not afford to reject." The Governor then praised the legislature's 1947 appropriation as an investment in visual education, which would serve to "create a profound cultural appreciation of art among all our people...and produce a lasting influence upon their standards of value and spiritual life." That year the General Assembly voted to release the appropriation in question and the Kress Foundation confirmed its agreement. Governor Scott subsequently erected the State Art Commission provided for under the 1947 law. Working in consultation with noted art scholar, Dr. W. R. Valentiner, the commission identified for purchase almost two hundred works by artists from American, British, French, Spanish, Flemish, and Dutch schools. Valentiner would later serve as the museum's first director. In 1953 the legislature authorized conversion of the former State Highway Building on Morgan Street in downtown Raleigh into a museum and appropriated funds for its renovation, operation, and maintenance, along with salaries for an expanded staff. The North Carolina Museum of Art opened its doors in April 1956. In 1960 the Samuel H. Kress Foundation released to the museum seventy-one works of art, the foundation's largest and most significant gift to any regional museum, topped only by its gift to the National Gallery of Art. The General Assembly of 1961 formally established the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) as a state institution and agency and gave it a new governing body, the Board of Trustees. The legislature transferred to the Board of Trustees major functions previously performed by the Art Society and the State Art Commission, including the management of the museum, the purchase of art, and the development of programs. The fourteen-member board was to include four elected by the Board of Directors of the Art Society. The Art Society relinquished to the NCMA: its core art collection assembled from legislative appropriations and other gifts; a collection of works of North Carolina artists; the Phifer collection; and the Kress gift. The entire collection was valued at almost five million dollars. In separate legislation in 1961, the attorney general was relieved of serving on the board of directors of the Art Society. Following the transfer of governance to the NCMA, the Art Society continued, retaining the primary purpose inherent in its constitution of 1924--to promote the public's appreciation of art. In 1960 the society engaged for the first time an executive secretary and continued to enlarge its scope to include the following: providing art kits for schools and libraries in the state; promoting activities to stimulate interest in art at the grassroots level; providing jurors for the North Carolina Artists Exhibition; training volunteers to work in the museum; and sponsoring fund-raising events, including an annual Beaux Arts Benefit Ball and travel tours to museums and art centers throughout the United States and the world. The society has continued as the trustee for the Phifer fund. Through memberships, private gifts, memorial funds, and bequests, the society also has acquired works of art for the NCMA. By the Executive Organization Act of 1971, the Art Society and its Board of Directors, along with the NCMA, were transferred to the Department of Art, Culture and History, headed by a cabinet-level secretary appointed by the governor. Although subject to the oversight of the secretary, the Art Society and the NCMA retained their previous statutory powers. In the Executive Organization Act of 1973 the department was renamed the Department of Cultural Resources. In 1977 the General Assembly formally amended the General Statutes relating to the Art Society by deleting "State" from its official title. The revised law recognized the society's long-standing role as a membership arm of the museum, and as a means for citizens to support the museum through individual or corporate memberships, and through participation in the society's diverse programs. The society would continue its primary activities under the patronage of the state and be governed by a minimum of twenty-two directors. Of these, six were to be named by the governor for terms of three years, and a minimum of twelve were to be elected by the Art Society for terms determined by that body. The following would serve ex officio: the governor, state superintendent of public instruction, state treasurer, and director of the NCMA. In 1985 the General Assembly enacted legislation designating the secretary of the Department of Cultural Resources an ex officio member of the governing body of the Art Society. Groundbreaking ceremonies for a new art museum facility at Blue Ridge Road were conducted in September 1977, a dedication was given in May 1981, and a grand opening for the public was held in April 1983 in a building four times the size of the old one on Morgan Street. In 1981 the General Assembly reduced by one the number of members the Art Society could elect to the museum's Board of Trustees. However, in 1987 the General Assembly provided for the appointment of three additional members to that board, with provisions that the Art Society was to elect one of these members. REFERENCES: P.L., 1929, c. 314. S.L., 1943, c. 752. S.L., 1947, cc. 500, 1097. S.L., 1949, c. 1249. S.L., 1951, c. 1168. S.L., 1953, cc. 696, 1149, 1319. S.L., 1961, c. 731. S.L., 1967, c. 1142. S.L., 1971, c. 864, s. 19 (8)(9). S.L., 1973, c. 476, ss. 80-81. S.L., 1975, c. 386. S.L., 1977, c. 702. S.L., 1985, c. 316. S.L., 1987, c. 843. G.S. 143B-89 [1992]. Corbitt, David Leroy, ed. PUBLIC ADDRESSES, LETTERS, AND PAPERS OF JOSEPH MELVILLE BROUGHTON, GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA, 1941-1945. Raleigh: Council of State, 1950. Pp. 559-560. %7ESEE ALSO: Supreme Court Case, Spring 1952, Case No. 449, North Carolina State Art Society, Inc., North Carolina State Art Commission, Dr. Robert Lee Humber (chairman), et als v. Henry L. Bridges (state auditor). |
