The Grand Central Art Galleries officially opened in New York on the sixth floor of Grand Central Terminal as the public exhibition and sales home of the Painters and Sculptors Gallery Association. Organized as an artist-backed cooperative associated with Walter Leighton Clark, John Singer Sargent, Edmund Greacen, and others, the galleries occupied about 14,000 square feet and were promoted as the largest sales gallery of art in the world. The opening exhibition, "Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures Contributed by the Founders of the Galleries," presented about 170 works. Paintings included contributions by Sargent, Charles W. Hawthorne, Cecilia Beaux, Wayman Adams, and Ernest Ipsen; sculpture included works by Daniel Chester French, Herbert Adams, Robert Aitken, Gutzon Borglum, and Frederic MacMonnies. The event drew thousands and helped formalize a national market-facing platform for American artists.
The galleries became a major American-art venue and later helped create the United States Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
