President’s Message & PSA History

Dear New Members, Welcome to the Pasadena Society of Artists! Thank you so much for joining us as our new 2020 members. I am thrilled to welcome you and excited for the richness your perspective and work will add to our group. The Board and I hope to serve you in many ways and are eager to get to know you and your art! I, for one, am excited to view this new member exhibit and am grateful to Larry Rodgers and the exhibitions committee for organizing it. I know I really enjoyed being a part of the show when I was a new member.

Please make sure to acquaint yourself with the PSA website, especially the Board of Directors and Committee Chairs page, so you can connect with the right people for inclusion in member news, for social media opportunities, to get questions answered, etc. And, make sure to get your profile up on the site so we can learn more about you as well.

I personally hope you will make time to participate in our meetings, demo opportunities, and future exhibitions because we are better together. It’s great to have you with us. Please feel free to reach out to me at President@PasadenaSocietyofArtists.org.

Sincerely, Shaney Watters

A Short History of the Pasadena Society of Artists and the Membership Selection Process

The Pasadena Society of Artists came into being in early 1925. Benjamin C. Brown, the “dean of Pasadena painters,” sent out a notice to local painters to discuss the formation of a society for local artists. The consensus was that the Pasadena Society of Artists should be formed. Attending this meeting were Benjamin C. Brown, Edward B. Butler, Maud Daggett, Antoinette De Forest Merwin, Louis Hovey Sharp, F. Carl Smith, Orrin A. White, Wallace LeRoy De Wolff, and Frederick A. Zimmerman. Seven more artists then joined PSA to form the founding charter members. They were Herbert V. B. Acker, F. Tolles Chamberlin, Alson S. Clark, John “Jack” Frost, Jean Mannheim, Katherine B. Stetson and Marion Wachtel.

It has been suggested that PSA was formed out of the desire of the founders to exhibit their contemporary work, which was not acceptable in exhibitions of the California Art Club. The first Annual Juried Exhibition was presented in April 1925 at the Pasadena Art Institute located in Carmelita Park, now the site of the Norton Simon Art Museum. The PSA founders stated that “the standard will be high and only work of real merit will be accepted.” PSA continues to adhere to the guiding statement of the founders by accepting new members by juried submission.

The juried submission process has been an integral part of PSA membership from the very beginning. The Membership Chair asks five or more experienced members to form a jury. The jury then reviews all of the submitted artwork, statements, and biographies/resumes. As part of this review process, each individual member of the jury will note which submitting artists have qualified for membership based upon quality, execution and presentation of artwork, and professional activities and achievements. The Chair then calls the jury together to review and discuss each artist. These discussions can become very spirited at times! Once the final selections have been made, the artists are notified within two weeks of their acceptance into PSA.