Founded in 1910, the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh is one of the oldest continuously operated art associations in the country.
The Chicago Society of Artists is even older, having been founded in 1888.
And though arts groups have been around since the Impressionists, neither Pittsburgh nor Chicago can claim to be the first in this country.
Indeed, that privilege most likely goes to New York's Salmagundi Art club, which originally began as the New York Sketch Club in 1871.
The club changed its name 100 years ago after Washington Irving published "The Salmagundi Papers."
The club has been the gathering place for artists including Childe Hassam, William Merrit Chase, Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth.
With world renowned artists Andy Warhol, Philip Pearlstein and Jonathan Borofsky having all been one-time members, the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh can lay claim to its own luminaries.
But all of that aside, what is the real significance of the community art club?
Through the organization of small art clubs, here and everywhere, members realize the true meaning of the democracy of art. But unfortunately, in today's driven society, membership in these clubs is oftentimes viewed more as an act of careerism than anything else.
With television, movies, auctions and galleries all promoting the successes of the "professional artist," not to mention the legions of colleges and universities that continually add fine arts programs to their curriculum for the sole purpose of adding to their bottom line, gone are the days when most artists view the making of their own art as a hobby.
Instead, most tend to focus on it as a lofty dream that will somehow lift them out of the doldrums of their everyday work-a-day world. But, the bottom line is that few artists make a living off of their art alone.
It seems the heyday of the art club in America, and, dare I say art as a hobby, was in the 1920s and '30s. That's when groups like the Business Men's Art Club of Chicago, which was started in 1920, boasted nearly 200 members, had handsome clubrooms on South Dearborn Street, and held art classes five nights a week.
Besides Chicago and New York, which had its own Business Men's Art Club and two club for doctors -- the Medical Arts Club and The Physicians' Art Club of New York -- businessmen had art clubs in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Denver, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, St. Louis and Los Angeles.
Together, they claimed a membership of more than 600 bankers, lawyers, salesmen and manufacturers who would rather paint pictures than play golf in their spare time.
Sure, there is hope that one day an artist may become famous, sell out a solo-exhibition, or live a life that only Picasso could have dared to dream of. But, the reality is that by focusing on such lofty career goals, we as artists are selling ourselves short. In essence, we are forgetting what making art is all about: expressing ourselves and connecting with our community at large.
That's why art clubs are a "win-win" proposition regardless of one's goals. They connect us to our community. And, in the end, they end up reflecting it.
