Situation Report

FOR the professional artist in America, the chain of denial traditionally began with rejection by art schools, extended to the awarding of fellowships, and was completed by the indifference of prominent U.S. museums. Most institutions, forbidden by law or custom to keep race records, cannot offer firm figures, but here are their best estimates of the present situation.

SCHOOLS. New York's Art Students League today has about 200 black students in a student body of nearly 2,000; the Chicago Art Institute has 72 out of 650; and Los Angeles' Chouinard Art School 22 out of 365.

FELLOWSHIPS. The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded about 25 grants to blacks out of 186. Since 1952, about 35 blacks received Fulbright scholarships in the arts out of a total of 968. One bright spot was the Opportunity Fellowships granted in art by the John Hay Whitney Foundation, set up specifically to help disadvantaged students. Out of 74 awarded, 32 went to blacks.

PERMANENT MUSEUM COLLECTIONS. Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum owns ten black artists out of 1,200 Americans overall, the National Collection of Fine Arts eleven out of 1,599, the Museum of Modern Art twelve out of some 450, the Whitney Museum 15 out of 1,100. With no figures at hand, the National Gallery of Art in Washington could recall only three, and the Art Institute of Chicago only two.

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