Chelsea Arts Club

The Chelsea Arts Club began in 1890 when a group of artists meeting in a sculptor's studio decided that what their neighborhood truly needed was not another exhibition, but a private club. The idea took hold so quickly that they abandoned their plans for a show and formed a committee on the spot. James Abbott McNeill Whistler, the famous painter, was a founding member and a key figure in establishing the club's early identity as a bohemian refuge. They spent their first decade in rooms on the King's Road before moving to their current home, a quiet house on Old Church Street, in 1902.