The American Academy of Arts and Letters was founded in 1904 as a highly selective group of 50 members within a larger organization called the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Over the years the two groups functioned separately with different memberships, budgets, and boards of directors. In 1993 the two groups finally agreed to form a single group of 250 members under the name of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Members are chosen from the fields of literature, music, and the fine arts. Members must be native or naturalized citizens of the United States. They are elected for life and pay no dues. New members are elected only upon the death of other members.
This year nine new members were elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Only one of the new members is a woman.
Ann Hamilton is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Art at Ohio State University. She has been on the faculty at Ohio State since 2001. From 1985 to 1991, she taught on the faculty of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Hamilton is visual artist internationally recognized for the sensory surrounds of her large-scale multimedia installations. Born in Lima, Ohio, in 1956, Ann Hamilton received a bachelor of fine arts degree in textile design from the University of Kansas and a master of fine arts degree in sculpture from the Yale School of Art.