History

The Associated Artists of Pittsburgh (AAP) is the oldest, continuously-exhibiting, visual arts organization in the country. Founded in 1910, AAP has spent over 100 years as a driving force in Pittsburgh’s dynamic cultural life. Its mission today, as then, is to provide a vital and challenging environment for artists to exhibit new work in the widest possible range of media. Governed by a volunteer Board of Directors and managed by a staff of three, AAP serves over 550 members in Pittsburgh and the surrounding region.

The highlight of AAP’s calendar is the Annual Exhibition. Held at visual arts institutions across the region, such as the Carnegie Museum of Art and The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, this exhibition is open to all. The only continuous annual juried show in the region, the AAP Annual has been host to many renowned artists including Mary Cassatt, Henry Osawa Tanner, Philip Pearlstein, Balcomb Green, Andy Warhol, Henry Koerner, and Aaronel deRoy Gruber. The 109th Annual Exhibition opened July 2023 at the Miller ICA at Carnegie Mellon University, and the 110th Annual Exhibition will open in September 2024 in Downtown Pittsburgh in partnership with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

In 1916, Pittsburgh businessman John L. Porter asked 99 friends to donate $10 a year for 5 years to buy artwork from AAP’s Annuals. Those artworks would be gifted to the public schools of Pittsburgh and would be known as the Gift of Art. The vision of these first donors, calling themselves the 100 Friends of Pittsburgh Art, spans over 100 years of artists from the region.

In 1945, AAP became one of the original founding guilds to establish the Arts and Crafts Center, where it maintained a gallery and office. In 1988, it moved to its own building at 937 Liberty Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh. After selling that building in 2003, AAP established an endowment and returned to the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.  For its 100th anniversary, AAP hosted over 70 exhibitions across a multitude of spaces in the region throughout the year, including the Westmoreland Museum of Art, Fallingwater, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, and many more. The offices are now located at Ice House Studios in Lawrenceville, where AAP also has an exhibition space.

In addition to providing exhibition and mentoring opportunity for its artists, AAP is proud to offer a special educational outreach program, the Visual Arts Career Orientation Program (VACOP), for Allegheny County children. Now in its 32nd year, the hands-on program allows students to work with professional artists in their studios, to learn new methods of producing art while sharing ideas with their AAP instructors. The program is overseen by our Education Coordinator, Claira Heitzenrater.

For further reading on AAP’s history, please see the brief timeline below in addition to: “The First 75 years,” 1910-1985, by Mary Brignano, “Seventy-Five Years of Pittsburgh Art: Its Influence,” curated by Anita F. Morganstern, and “Popular Salon of the People,” written by Dr. Vicky A. Clark and made possible through the National Endowments for the Arts. Artist records are now available at the library of the John Heinz History Center.

Presidents of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh

1910
1911-1913
1914
1915-1916
1917
1918-1921
1922-1938
1939-1940
1941-1942
1943-1944
1945-1946
1947
1948-1949
1950-1951
1952
1953-1954
1954-1955
1955-1957
1957-1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968-1969
1970-1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978-1979
1980
1981
1982-1983
1984-1985
1986-1987
1988-1990
1991-1992
1993
1994
1995
1996-1998
1999
2000-2001
2002-2003
2004-2006
2007
2014-2016
2016-2022