It includes four years of anatomy and four years of life drawing. The mission of the Academy is to provide education and training in the history, traditions, principles and skills of drawing, painting and sculpture as a foundation for one's future development as a professional fine artist. The purpose of the NSS is to promote excellence in figurative sculpture throughout the United States, to which end its programs are directed. Scholarships and youth awards help young aspiring sculptors. NSS collects and maintains source materials of America's most important sculptors, past and present.
Archives are open to art historians, students and other interested researchers.
Videocassettes on various topics are available to universities and other organizations free of charge. Sculpture Review magazine, a quarterly publication, is entirely devoted to sculpture. NSS holds exhibitions open to all American sculptors which showcase the best in current figurative sculpture in the nation, as well as being represented in museum, corporate, and private collections around the world. It has occurred each consecutive year since then and is now co-sponsored by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the National Sculpture Society and the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts. The nationally known sculptor Walker Hancock set the criteria for the competition in 1978 and also judged the competition in 1992 at the Lyme Academy.