Word.ws English Dictionary

art union

art union noun: an organisation formed for the purpose of educating the general public about art and supporting artists.

Noun

art union (plural art unions)

  1. An organisation formed for the purpose of educating the general public about art and supporting artists.
    • Art Unions are a substitute for State patronage.1974, Thomas Osborne Davis, Essays of Thomas Davis, page 140
    • Art unions often made lottery purchases at academy salons as well as at their own exhibitions; Friedrich's Evening on the Baltic, bought in Dresden by the Saxon Art Union in 1831, was an early example.1997, Robin Lenman, Artists and society in Germany, 1850-1914, page 151
  2. (Australia, New Zealand) A raffle run to raise money for a charity.
    • New bookkeeping regulations have been framed by the New South Wales Auditor-General's Department, at the request of the Attorney-General, to control the present loose state of affairs in regard to art unions.1923 April 5, Barrier Miner, Broken Hill, NSW
    • The Attorney-General (Mr. N F Macgroarty) yesterday described as absolutely inaccurate a statement that the Art Union Regulations provided for the Justice Department collecting a fee of 21 per cent of the gross receipts of art unions in excess of £100, this amount being allowed is an exemption...1932 March 19, The Brisbane Courier

Examples of art union in a sentence

  • Art unions, on the other hand, bought paintings directly from the artists in their studios, exhibited and sold them at their galleries, and distributed them by lottery.2008, April F. Masten, Art Work: Women Artists and Democracy in Mid-Nineteenth-Century New York, page 26:
  • The result was that the Government of the day had a spate of applications for permits to hold art unions.1956, New Zealand House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, page 278:
  • A person who conducts a trade promotion art union must ensure that a prize in the art union is delivered to the winner of the prize within 1 month of the drawing of the art union.1992, the ART UNIONS AND PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS REGULATION 1992, promulgated by the government of Queensland
  • What exactly is an art union I hear you ask?2011, Mater Prize Homes Website

Forms of art union

pluralart unions

Questions about art union

What does art union mean?
Art union means an organisation formed for the purpose of educating the general public about art and supporting artists.
How do you use art union in a sentence?
Art unions, on the other hand, bought paintings directly from the artists in their studios, exhibited and sold them at their galleries, and distributed them by lottery.
What part of speech is art union?
Art union is a noun.
What is the plural of art union?
The plural of art union is art unions.

Words near art union in the dictionary

  1. art students
  2. art therapies
  3. art therapy
  4. art track
  5. art tracks
  6. art union
  7. art unions
  8. art up
  9. art work
  10. art world
  11. art worlds

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: art union (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 art union.ogg.

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