National Academy of Design

Co-founded by painter/inventor Samuel Morse, the National Academy of Design art-school complex includes a permanent collection of paintings and sculptures housed in yet another stunning Beaux Arts mansion, designed by Ogden Codman and featuring a marble foyer and spiral staircase. In a distressing sign of the financially difficult times, the National Academy was recently branded a pariah by the Association of Art Museum Directors after it sold off two important Hudson River School paintings for a total of about $15 million in order pay off bills. So be sure to get a trip in if you’re interested, as now, with little support in the museum world, its future is even murkier than it was before.