Mission & History

The American Academy of Equine Art, Inc. is a non-profit, tax exempt organization founded in 1980 at the suggestion of Alexander Mackay-Smith and Dr. Joseph Rogers, board members of the Westmoreland Davis Foundation at Morven Park in Leesburg, Virginia. The idea was to assemble the finest equine artists in the country to exhibit together, share creative ideas, and, eventually, to establish a teaching organization - modeled after the Royal Academy in England.

World-renowned equine artists Jean Bowman and Else Tuckerman were consulted, and they suggested a core group of ten distinguished painters and sculptors who formed the American Academy of Equine Art, Inc. based in Middleburg, Virginia. The founding members were an impressive list of who's who in equine art: Jean Bowman, June Harrah, Henry Koehler, William Wallace Nall, Marilyn Newmark, Eve Prime, Princess Marie Louise Moncada, Richard Stone Reeves, Sam Savitt and Else Tuckerman. The Academy's first exhibition was held at the Museum of Hounds and Hunting at Morven Park, in the spring of 1980. Throughout the years, as more of our country's best equine artists joined the Academy, the annual exhibition moved to a variety of locations, including Massachusetts, Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky.

In 1992, the Academy entered into an agreement with the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky to hang two exhibitions per year in the William G. Kenton Gallery at the Park's International Museum of the Horse - a juried show in the fall and an invitational show in the spring. Today, the academy exhibitions are looked upon by collectors and dealers as a source for the best in contemporary equine art, as they feature artists from all parts of the United States as well as other countries. Many of the Academy's full and associate members are among the finest and most recognized equine painters and sculptors working today.

In 1991 the Academy also realized its original goal of becoming a teaching organization. Throughout the year the academy offers a series of drawing, painting and sculpting workshops at the Kentucky Horse Park and other locations.

MISSION STATEMENT

American Academy of Equine Art, Inc.
Frances Clay Conner, Executive Director
c/o Kentucky Horse Park
PO Box 1364
Georgetown, KY 40324
Tel: 859-281-6031 Fax 859-281-6043

AAEA President X. Sheila Barnes