Americas Society

The Americas Society is a nonprofit organization headquartered at 680 Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Founded by David Rockefeller in 1965, the institution is dedicated to education, debate, and dialogue on the Americas. Its mission is to increase public awareness and appreciation of the diverse cultural heritage of the Americas and the importance of the inter-American relationship. The Society promotes understanding of the economic, political, and social issues confronting Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada through programming that spans visual arts, music, literature, and policy discourse.

David Rockefeller established the Americas Society in 1965 as a platform for hemispheric engagement. In 1985, the organization absorbed the Center for Inter-American Relations, expanding its institutional reach and consolidating its role in inter-American cultural and policy exchange. The Society has since maintained a consistent focus on fostering dialogue across the Western Hemisphere, operating alongside its sister organization, the Council of the Americas, with which it collaborates on publications and policy initiatives.

The Americas Society does not maintain a traditional permanent art collection in the conventional museum sense. Rather, its cultural programming encompasses visual arts exhibitions, musical performances, literary events, and policy discussions. The institution produces the MetLife Music of the Americas concert series, which showcases the diversity of musical styles and genres from across the Americas. This programming model emphasizes temporary exhibitions and live events over accumulated holdings, reflecting the organization's broader mission of catalyzing exchange rather than preserving static collections.

The Americas Society occupies a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The structure was originally built as the Percy Rivington Pyne House before serving as the Soviet Mission to the United Nations. Together with its neighbors, the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute and the Italian Consulate General, the building forms one of the few remaining unified architectural ensembles on Park Avenue. This grouping of contiguous institutional structures preserves a distinctive streetscape characteristic of an earlier era of Manhattan's Upper East Side.

The Americas Society is located at 680 Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The organization continues to host interviews, speeches, podcasts, exhibitions, readings, and musical performances at its headquarters. It also reports on Congressional updates and local events. The MetLife Music of the Americas concert series is held on-site. As a nonprofit organization, the Americas Society remains active in its original location, maintaining its role as a venue for hemispheric cultural and policy engagement more than five decades after its founding.