The Copley Society of art is America's oldest non-profit art association. It was founded in 1879
by the first graduating class of the
School of the Museum of Fine Arts and continues to play an important role in promoting its member artists and the visual arts in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. The Society is named after the renowned
John Singleton Copley. The gallery currently represents over 400 living artist members, ranging in experience from students to nationally recognized artists and in style from traditional and academic realists to contemporary and abstract painters, photographers, sculptors, and printmakers. Several of the artists working in the tradition of the
Boston School of painters exhibit at the Copley Society of Art, along with the
Guild Of Boston Artists a few doors down from the Copley Society of Art's
Newbury Street
Newbury Street is located in the Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. It runs roughly east–west, from the Boston Public Garden to Brookline Avenue. The road crosses many major arteries along its path, with an entran ...
location.
The gallery hosts between 15 and 20 exhibitions each year, including solo exhibitions, thematic group shows,
juried competitions, and fundraising events.
The most well known of these events is the annual "Fresh Paint" auction. Several artist members are chosen by the gallery to spend one day together painting outside in the city. The paintings are brought back to the gallery while still wet, placed directly into frames and mounted on the walls for sale through silent auction. The final night of the week-long event, A few selected pieces are included in a live auction. Although usual commission split for the gallery is 60 percent to the artist and 40 percent to the Copley Society, for this event the artists are required to donate 50 percent of the sale, and encouraged to donate up to 100 percent of the selling price to the non-profit organization.
The Copley Society has helped establish the careers of many of Boston's prominent full-time professional fine artists.
Notable artists
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Rick Fleury
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Candace Whittemore Lovely
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Dianne Panarelli-Miller
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Sergio Roffo
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Janis Saunders
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Charles Tersolo
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Sam Vokey
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Wheeler Williams
Wheeler Williams (November 30, 1897 – August 12, 1972) was an American sculptor, born in Chicago, Illinois.
Life and career
Williams studied sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He attended Yale, where he graduated ...
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John Wilson (sculptor) - Instructor
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Mikel Wintermantel
See also
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Grundmann Studios
Grundmann Studios (1893–1917) in Boston, Massachusetts, was a building on Clarendon Street in the Back Bay. It contained artist's workspaces and multipurpose function rooms Copley Hall and Allston Hall. Prior to 1893, it functioned as a s ...
, home of the society 1893-1917
References
External link
Culture of Boston
Clubs and societies in Boston
Arts organizations based in Massachusetts
Arts organizations established in the 1870s
1879 establishments in Massachusetts
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