Respected Art and Architecture Critic to Join Common Sense Society as Senior Fellow
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Common Sense Society (CSS), a leading international educational network, is pleased to welcome widely published architecture and art critic Catesby Leigh as senior fellow.
“Art and architecture play a unique role in fulfilling our deep, human need for beauty and a sense of home,” said CSS president and C.E.O. Marion Smith. “Today, we are witnessing a tragic departure from more humane forms, and the consequences are far more devastating than we realize. I was honored to work alongside Catesby at the National Civic Art Society and look forward to his contributions at Common Sense Society where promoting beauty and enduring art is central to our mission.”
“Civic art and architecture involve building more value—not just economic value but cultural and spiritual value—into the world we build,” said Catesby Leigh. “The idealization of form and structure in our monuments and buildings and the creation of harmonious urban spaces make us at home in the world while nurturing a civic symbolism appropriate to our quest for a more perfect union. I look forward to discussing beauty’s crucial role in the renewal of our civilization alongside my new colleagues at Common Sense Society.”
About Catesby Leigh
Mr. Catesby Leigh is a senior fellow at CSS and a past co-founder and research fellow of the National Civic Art Society. After graduating from Princeton, he spent most of the 1980s as a foreign correspondent for the Atlanta-based Cox Newspapers in South America. He grew increasingly interested in traditional architectural environments and was struck by their modernist counterparts’ failure to achieve comparable levels of physical or visual amenity. Leigh’s first architecture articles appeared in 1991, and since then he has contributed art and architecture criticism to a wide range of publications including City Journal, The Wall Street Journal, First Things, The American Conservative, and the Claremont Review of Books.
Notable Publications
- The American Conservative. “Debates Over Arlington’s Confederate Memorial”. September 8, 2023.
- The American Conservative. “Classical Architecture in the Capital”. June 16, 2023.
- City Journal. “Virginia’s Monuments War”. November 17, 2022.
- First Things. “Monumental Contrast”. October 2020.
- National Review. “Tintoretto’s Symbolic Imagination”. May 18, 2019.
- Wall Street Journal. “Architecture’s Classical Champion”. January 13, 2017.
- Claremont Review of Books. “Captured in Bronze”. March 8, 2016.
Notable Appearances
- National Civic Art Society. “Wethersfield, Manhattan, and the Humanist Prospect — A Lecture by Catesby Leigh”. August 18, 2018.
- James Wilson Institute. “Catesby Leigh ‘Classical Exceptionalism’”. May 1, 2015.
Common Sense Society (CSS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes liberty, prosperity, and beauty through education and civic engagement programs. The fellowships, curriculum resources, publications, cultural programs, and national campaigns of CSS illuminate the enduring ideas that have transformed the course of human history for the better. CSS does not accept funding from governments or political parties.
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For more information, contact Emily Soper at emily@commonsensesociety.org.