Rare Look Inside the Gertrude Whitney Studio: First Site of Whitney Museum

In 1907, Gilded Age sculptor and art patron Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney made a radical decision: instead of continuing to work inside her palatial mansion on Fifth Avenue, she would purchase a former 19th-century stable and convert it into her dedicated art studio. The action was ridiculed by New York's high society, summed up by the Topeka Daily Capital article headline, “Daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt Will Live in Dingy New York Alley.” But over the next 35 years, Whitney would expand the site to a complex of eight connected structures, turning it into a hub of art-making and exhibitions and eventually opening a full-fledged museum in 1931. It's time to explore the remnants of this original studio and Whitney legacy like never before.

Join the New York Adventure Club for a rare trip inside the original site of the Whitney Museum of American Art, today a National Historic Landmark.

Led by a member of the New York Studio School (NYSS), our exploration of this historic space will include:

• A discussion of the rollicking, influential life of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
• An introduction to the thriving bohemian culture of Greenwich Village in the early 20th century
• An overview of the near demolition of the building in 1967, and the early years of the School, with figures like Philip Guston, Mercedes Matter, Elaine de Kooning, and others
• A walkthrough of the former exhibition spaces of the original Whitney Museum, including the studio of sculptor Daniel Chester French — designer of the Lincoln Memorial statue
• Special access to the private cul-de-sac MacDougal Alley, located behind the NYSS
• A rare look inside the historic Whitney studio designed by Robert Winthrop Chanler