Founder

Leonard Andrews and Andrew Wyeth — *Leonard Andrews with Andrew Wyeth photograph by Peter Ralston*

Leonard E. B. Andrews

Founder 1925-2009 He created, directed, and personally funded The National Arts Program® from its inception in 1983.

Born in Nacogdoches, Texas, Leonard E.B. Andrews was raised an only child during the depression. At 17 he joined the Army Air Corps’ aviation cadet program and served as an Air Force bomber pilot in World War II and the Korean War. He attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX between wars. After his Air Force service Andrews entered the banking business, becoming an authority on bank credit card programs. During the 1962-63 New York City newspaper strike when all six of the City’s daily papers were shut down, Andrews organized and published 500,000 full coverage papers daily. Following the strike, the New York Daily News asked him to write a six day a week column of his meditative verse which was his hobby. He wrote “Ponder This” as a syndicated column for seven years. He then spent four years in Wall Street working on mergers and acquisitions before starting his own legal publications firm in 1970, Andrews Publications, Inc. He published 30 national legal journals covering details of active national litigation. He later sold the publishing company and its related legal conference company.

Leonard collected art following his military service and amassed a nationally recognized collection, including Andrew Wyeth’s secret Helga Collection, which was then shown throughout the nation and Japan. His mother was an active artist during his life and raised him in an artistic atmosphere. It is there he became aware of the many personal and financial pitfalls and marketing problems of aspiring artists. With some close friends, he founded The National Arts Program® which today is the largest annual visual arts program in the nation’s history operating under the same unified Rules of Exhibit. Andrews lived on a small farm with a private art studio in Malvern, PA. He has created a legacy with The National Arts Program Foundation which continues to support visual art exhibitions across the country.