SCHOOL ART LEAGUE HANEY MEDAL

 

As was the Saint-Gaudens Medal, the Haney Medal for Fine Arts was endowed in perpetuity and named for James Parton Haney. Born on April 16, 1869 in New York City, he began his career in education in 1890, taught manual arts in the city's night schools and in time, became the first director of art in the high schools with a corps of fifty art teachers. In 1907 he had organized the art department of the NYU summer school for the training of art teachers.

On June 10, 1915 it was announced that recently deceased artist John W. Alexander (1855-1915) had gifted a bronze medal to the New York City Art League. It was to be awarded for proficiency in art in January and June at the close of the school year in each of the city's then 23 high schools. Shortly after the announcement, the names of the students awarded the 2¾" medal designed by sculptor and medalist John Flanagan were published in city newspapers. Haney was quoted as saying "The aid which this medal will render is invaluable." One journal published a photo.

John White Alexander was largely instrumental in the establishment of the School Art League in 1911. He was named its first president and James P. Haney was named first vice-president. One of the organization's objectives was to enhance the art education curriculum in public schools. Providing more talented students with a wider range of opportunities such as museum-sponsored lectures was one means; exposure to art schools for those interested in advanced training, another. Hermon MacNeil, who supported establishing free scholarships in industrial art for high school graduates, was appointed to a three-year term serving on the Society's Board of Managers. One year after Alexander's death, MacNeil was asked to design a plaque in his honor. He inscribed the piece Gifted with Sweeping Imagination and an Ever Ready Judgement Painter Creator Organizer Leader.

 
John White Alexander and Hermon MacNeil's plaque

In the post-war years the Haney Medal awards continued as they have been to the present day, but Haney, the art teacher and artist, was far more productive than anyone would imagine. Representative works are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum and other repositories of American Art. Additionally, ten or more of the books he has wrote can be found on Amazon simply by Googling his name.

Long forgotten, the impact that James Parton Haney had on art education specifically in the New York City area was substantial. I must admit that had not editor Wayne Homren mentioned his name, I would not have written this brief overview of his life. Haney died of pneumonia on March 8, 1923. Through his forceful and inspired leadership, he had instilled in a vast number of educators the love of the beautiful, the need of fine teaching and the value of art education for the youth. Hermon MacNeil would have agreed wholeheartedly.

 
Rowboats on Ogunquit – 1915 by James P. Haney

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
SCHOOL ART LEAGUE SAINT GAUDENS MEDAL (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n36a31.html)

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