 Opportunities for one-on-one sessions and individual critiques are also encouraged.Begun by a group of civic-minded women who wanted to encourage young talent in the arts, the National Society of Arts and Letters determined from its inception that the best way to accomplish that goal was to sponsor competitions and offer scholarships in the categories of art, music and literature.On October 21, 1944, they met at the home of the future first National President, Mollie Davis Nicholson, to found a group that specified it was non-partisan, non-political and non-profit-making.