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BACKGROUND HISTORY:
The National Society of Arts and Letters was founded
in the summer of 1944 in Washington, D.C. by Mrs. Jesse W. Nicholson of
Chevy Chase and Mrs. A. E. Nielsen of Chicago. the Washington
Chapter, originally named the Chevy Chase Chapter, was founded by
Dorothy Nicholson Stabell in October of the same year.
The National Society of Arts and Letters (NSAL) is a
non-profit, volunteer organization of men and women who are
professionally engaged in the visual, literary and performing arts; who
have training or competence in a brand of the creative arts; or who have
demonstrated a commitment to assist young artists. Through local
chapter, NSAL has been supporting emerging talent for 62 years with
competitive National Career Awards in art, dance, drama, literature,
music, and musical theatre.
In the Spring of 2006, the Washington Chapter also
supported talented young American through scholarships at Duke Ellington
School of the Arts, the Dance Institute of Washington and the Suzanne
Farrell Ballet program at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing
arts.
In 2004, the chapter inaugurated the annual
Awards for Excellence in the Arts
Program. In 2006 the program recognized the artistic achievement
of more than 150 high school juniors from throughout the Washington
metropolitan area.
WASHINGTON, D.C. CHAPTER ORGANIZATION
Officers
Committees
Honorary Members
Past Presidents
Advisory Board
By-Laws
Administration
National Society of Arts and Letters - National
Organization:
The NSAL National Web Site is:
www.arts-nsal.org
The National Society of Arts and Letters is a not-for-profit
organization of men and women who are engaged professionally in the arts,
or who are actively sponsoring the work of young artists. Founded in 1944,
there are 30 chapters and over 1450 members throughout the United States.
Membership is by invitation.
The purpose of N.S.A.L. is to encourage and financially assist talented
young artists at the beginning of their careers. In accord with these
aims, annual competitions are held on the local and national levels in the
categories of music, literature, drama, dance and the visual arts, each on
a rotating basis. Substantial monetary awards are offered to the primary
winners.
To assist N.S.A.L., distinguished members of a National Advisory Council
give advice and support to its work.
Local competitions, professionally juried, are held at the chapter level
where awards, grants, showcasing and publicity are given to the winners.
Each chapter then sends its first prize winner to the N.S.A.L. National
Career Awards Competition held each spring during the annual meeting. The
National Career Awards, consisting of monetary awards, are given to the
winners of the National Competition to encourage and further their
professional careers. The judges are selected from professional,
nationally and internationally known artists in their respective fields.
The competitions provide opportunities for young talent to be heard and
seen by these acclaimed judges, by professional critics, managers,
producers and teachers, as well as patrons of the arts and members of the
media. The Society continues to assist and showcase past winners as well.
The organization encourages the highest artistic integrity while aiming to
promote a greater public interest in the arts.
Monies raised and awarded to the competitions at the chapter level in the
year 1993-1994 is in excess of $100,000. Over the years the National
Career Awards have exceeded $1,500,000.
National Advisory Council: Past and Present
The following is a list of persons who are serving or have served as
members of the National Advisory Council of the National Society of Arts
and Letters. The Society is grateful to them for their support of our
programs for young artists.
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Licia Albanese
Dame Judith Anderson
Dr. Wilfred Conwell Bain
Faith Baldwin
Dr. Frances Bartlett
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Ross Beacon
Saul Bellow
Rosamond Bernier
Livingston L. Biddle
Victor Borge
Dr. Preston Bradley
Louis Bromfield
Ernest Brooks
J. Carter Brown
John Burnett
John Ciardi
Madame Alma Clayburgh
Van Cliburn
Otis Calvin Coles
Nadine Conner
Mr. and Mrs. John Coover
Aaron Copland
Mr. and Mrs. Orlin Corey
Allyn Cox
Merce Cunningham
Jean Dalrymple
Alexandra Danilova
Adolph Deutsch
Placido Domingo
Jose Ferrer
Malcolm Frager
Frederick Franklin
Dr. Rudolph Ganz
Dr. Cliff Garrison
Greer Garson
Albert Earl Gilbert
David Gockley
Dr. S. Thomas Greenburg
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Julie Harris
Helen Hayes
Anthony Hecht
Charlton Heston
Jerome Hines
Celeste Holm
Dr. Ernest Holmes
Mark C. Honeywell
Hedda Hopper
Marilyn Home
Mrs. Leiand Atherton Irish
Robert Joffrey
Deborah Kerr
Walter F. Kerr
Mrs. Goodwin J. Knight
Nadilie Krassovska
Robert Kuhn
Marjorie Lawrence
Tom Lea, Jr.
Mrs. John A. Logan
Robert Ludlum
Patricia McBride
Eleanor Searle McCollum
William B. McComber
Thalia Mara
Peter Martins
Merrill C. Meigs
Yehudi Menuhin
Carl Christian Most
Patrice Munsel
Louise Nevelson
Isamu Noguchi
Rudolf Nureyev
Ruth Page
Willis Page
Luciano Pavarotti
Mrs. Samuel A. Peck
Judge Hezzie B. Pike
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Andre Previn
Vincent Price
Tony Randall
Robert Rauschenberg
Norman Rockwell
Ginger Rogers
John Russell
Nathaniel Saltonstall
Ann Schein
Daniel Schorr
Ben Shahn
Tom Shales
Ted Shawn
Lawrence Leighton Smith
Sir George Solti
Rise Stevens
The Honorable Roger L. Stevens
Irving Stone
Albert Spalding
Ludd Spivey
Nikita Talin
Maria Tallchief
Mrs. Julius Talmadge
Paul Taylor
Walter Terry
Helen Traubel
Tommy Tune
Gloria Vanderbilt
Edward Villella
Dr. Dudley Crafts Watson
Dr. Carl J. Weinhardt, Jr.
Dr. Herman B. Wells
Eudora Welty
Richard Wilbur
John Williams
Mrs. Herbert Witherspoon
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Gold Medal of Merit
The Gold Medal of Merit is the highest honor bestowed by The National
Society of Arts and Letters. It is given, after nomination and vote by the
Board of Directors, to those individuals whose lifetime achievements in
the arts embody the highest standards, and whose careers will stand as
role models for young artists.
Gold Medal recipients further supported the society by attending special
N.S.A.L. banquets held in their honor where area competition winners had
the privilege of performing for them and receiving their encouragement and
advice.
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Music
Kitty Carlisle Hart
Marilyn Horne
Mstislav Rostropovich - 1992
Andre Watts
Chancellor Herman Wells
Menahem Pressler (piano) - 2002
Drama
Dame Judith Anderson
Jean Dalrymple
Jose Ferrer - 1989
Joseph Papp
Jim Nabors - 2005
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Literature
John Toland
Wendell Berry - 2003
Dance
Agnes de Mille
George Balanchine
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Loti Falk Gaffney - 1990
Fernando Bujones - 2006
Ann Barzel - 2000
Daniel Lewis - 1995
Art
Al Hirschfeld
Louise Nevelson
Musical Theater
Stephen Flaherty - 2004
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National Career Award - First Place Winners:
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2007 - Winner in Art - Jenny Davis (DC Chpt.)
2006 Winner in Dance - Krista Ettlinger
2005 Winner in Comedy Acting - Robbie Collier Sublett
2004 Winner in Musical Theater - Megan Hilty
2003 Winner in Literature - Susanna Childress
2002 Winner in Piano - Andrea Baiocchi
2001Winner in Small Sculpture - Gary W. Mark
2000 Winner in Ballet - April Taylor
1999 Winner in Drama - Michael Aaron Linder
1998 Winner in Literature - Laura Kopchick
1997 Winner in Voice - Jeffrey Buchman
1996 Winner in Art: Ceramics - Leo Saul Berk
1995 Winner in Modern Dance - Galen L. Lambert
1994 Winner in Drama - Rob Johansen
1993 Winner in Literature -
Ben Madden
1992 Winners in Music -
Robert LaRue;
Felix Wang
1991 Winner in Art -
Julie Bradley
1990 Winner in Dance -
Stephanie Walz
1989 Winner in Drama -
Benjamin Livingston
1988 Winner in Literature -
Leigh Hancock
1987 Winner in Music -
Kimberly Allison Justus
1986 Winner in Art -
Marc Sanchez
1985 Winner in Dance -
Andrea Feier
1984 Winner in Drama -
Oliver Csizmas
1983 Winner in Poetry -
Kim Suzanne Bridgford
1982 Winner in Music -
Jonathan Shames |
1981 Winner in Art - Laura Ryan
1980 Winner in Dance -
Bonnie Moore
1979 Winner in Drama -
Gilbert McCauley
1978 Winner in Literature -
Ruth Harrison Thomas
1977 Winner in Music -
Gwendolyn Bradley
1976 Winner in Art -
Anne Elizabeth Parker
1975 Winner in Dance -
Peter Fonseca
1974 Winner in Drama -
Patricia Carney Conwell
1973 Winner in Music -
Gil Morgenstern
1972 Winner in Literature -
Timothy Peter Mason
1971 Winners in Art -
James Douglas Butler;
John Stanley Echlin
(14-18 age division)
1970 Winner in Dance -
Holly Hanson
1969 Winner in Drama - Diane Young
1968 Winner in Music -
Bruce Stuart Saylor
1967 Winner in Literature -
Arlene Heyman
1966 Winner in Art -
Steven Burt Nussdorf
1965 Winner in Dance -
Suzanne Rowland
1964 Winner in Drama -
Marianne McAndrew
1963 Winner in Music -
Daniel Walsh
1962 Winners in Literature -
Leonard Fred Scratch;
Robert W. Newman
1961 Winner in Art - Kay Hoffmann Schwartz
1960 Winners in Ballet -
Mimi Paul;
Charlotte Wiggins
1959 Winner in Drama -
Dale Benson
1958 Winner in Music -
Malcolm Frager
1954 Winner in Literature -
John Igo
1952 Winner in Art -
Sidney Shapiro
1951 Winner in Music -
Hazel Del Nordsieck
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