Mission & History
A venerable and storied organization
New York Artists Equity Association was founded in 1947 to promote opportunities for artists and address economic issues affecting American artists.
Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence and Jacob Lawrence
Photo credit: Arnold Newman 1947
Equity Gallery was made possible by the generosity of American artists and early members Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence.
Artists Equity banquet in honor of Yasuo Kuniyoshi, 1948. (Mitzi Gallant Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution)
More than160 leading American artists of the 1940s founded the organization, including Will Barnet, Thomas Hart Benton, George Biddle, Paul Cadmus, Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, Leon Kroll, Jacob Lawrence, John Marin, Louise Nevelson, John Sloan and the first President Yasuo Kuniyoshi. These diverse artists were all clear on one point -- they had to band together to establish and protect artists' economic well-being.
Symposium held at the Museum of Modern Art, 1962. Left to right: Elias Newman, Chaim Gross, Mrs. Edward Hopper, Edward Hopper, Joseph Hirsch and Abram Lerner. (New York Artists Equity Association archives)
Originally a chapter of Artists Equity Association, the New York chapter split from the national organization in 1965 and opened its Broome Street Gallery later that year with help from a grant from the Robert Lehman Foundation.
Still Working for Artists
Today NYAE continues to support the professional aspirations of unrecognized and emerging artists, particularly those from underrepresented groups, by providing them with exhibition opportunities, educational programing, and a vibrant community of artists, collectors, curators, and art educators.
NYAE opened Equity Gallery on the Lower East Side of New York City in October 2015. Equity Gallery simultaneously serves as a gallery for artists to exhibit their work and as a community hub for staging professional workshops and innovative programming exploring critical issues of interest to artists and curators. As such, NYAE acts to counterbalance today’s increased focus on the art market by preserving an experiential space that privileges process over product and intent over style whereby artists and allied professionals may come together as trusted stewards charged with advancing visual culture.