At a time when most women of her class and station were content to be ornamental figures, Alice Pike Barney was a one-woman advocate for the arts in Washington. Her mission was twofold: to be an artist and to bring the arts to the people of her adopted city. To that end she donated money to various artistic ventures, brought traveling troupes to Washington, hosted a salon at her studio on Sheridan Circle, painted, wrote plays, ballets and tableaux and built performance spaces, most notably the National Sylvan Theatre on the grounds of the Washington Monument.