Looking back, I now see that between us all we sowed a seed that afternoon destined to germinate and grow into a living plant, whose nurture was to become the controlling interest of my life and my husband’s. For the direct outcome of that innocent talk was the Art Association of Newport, an institution of which, since its founding, I have been the secretary and pulling horse, and he has been the power behind the throne. In the month of May, 1912, a group of artists living in Newport issued a circular letter proposing the incorporation of an Art Association, whose prime object should be the cultivation of artistic endeavor and interest among the citizens of Newport. The response was instant and cordial. A month later, the new association was organized with one hundred and forty-one charter members. Our first home was the old Hunt studio on Church Street, formerly used by William Morris Hunt, the painter, and by his brother, Richard Hunt, the architect. In her diary for 1865, my mother speaks of having given a lecture in the Hunt studio, to help the fund to send her beloved pastor, Charles Brooks, on a much-needed vacation to Europe. In this studio Henry James, his brother William, and John La Farge studied art under William Hunt. When he moved to Boston, Richard Hunt took over the studio, and here the plans for some of the famous architect’s noble buildings were drawn. After Mr. Hunt’s death, the studio passed out of the hands of the family and, when we took it over, it had fallen from its high estate, having served for some time as an upholsterer’s workshop. The place had an atmosphere about it, though, as if some influence of the extraordinary personalities of those two men of genius still lingered there. Though it was in a rather dilapidated condition when our artists took possession, they saw great possibilities in it and bravely set to work to restore it to its original status of an art center. In the little garden at the back, syringas, lilacs, and shade-loving flowers were planted. The two spacious ateliers on the ground floor and the large upper studio were transformed into excellent exhibition galleries. The paved courtyard, connecting the main building with the old stable in the rear, soon took on a picturesque air, and here on warm summer afternoons the artists and their friends gathered round the tea table and discussed the future of the young institution.