The American Federation of Arts (AFA) is a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

organization that creates art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops education programs. The organization’s founding in 1909 was endorsed by

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

and spearheaded by Secretary of State Elihu Root and eminent art patrons and artists of the day. The AFA’s mission is to enrich the public’s experience and understanding of the

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

, and this is accomplished through its exhibitions, catalogues, and public programs. To date, the AFA has organized or circulated approximately 3,000 exhibitions that have been viewed by more than 10 million people in museums in every state, as well as in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

History

Early history and publications

The AFA was founded on May 12, 1909. At a meeting on May 11, 1909, convened by the National Academy of Arts, Board of Regents—among whom were President

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...

, former president Theodore Roosevelt,

Cecilia Beaux Eliza Cecilia Beaux (May 1, 1855 – September 17, 1942) was an American artist and the first woman to teach art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Known for her elegant and sensitive portraits of friends, relatives, and Gilded Age p ...

, Robert Woods Bliss, William Merritt Chase, Robert W. DeForest,

Homer Saint-Gaudens Homer Shiff Saint-Gaudens (1880–1953) was the only child of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his wife Augusta (née Homer). He served as the director of the Art Museum of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute and was a fou ...

, Charles L. Hutchinson, Archer M. Huntington, Senator

Henry Cabot Lodge Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850November 9, 1924) was an American politician, historian, lawyer, and statesman from Massachusetts. A member of the History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served in the United States ...

, Leila Mechlin, Andrew W. Mellon, J. Pierpont Morgan, Francis D. Millet, Secretary of State Elihu Root, and Henry Walters, among others— Elihu Root called for the formation of an agency that would send “exhibitions of original works of art on tour to the hinterlands of the United States.” With the unanimous endorsement of Root’s motion by representatives from more than eighty American art institutions—among them, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, the

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art is a former art museum in Washington, D.C., that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Founded in 1869 by philanthropist William Wilson Corco ...

, and the American Academy in Rome—the AFA was founded on May 12, 1909. The organization’s founders further agreed to hold annual meetings and devote themselves to promoting the visual arts as a vital component of the nation’s cultural life. Hutchinson, who at the time was the President of the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, was elected the organization's first president. When Root proposed the creation of the AFA in 1909, the nation’s artistic wealth was largely concentrated in eastern cities and inaccessible to most citizens. The AFA and its traveling exhibitions were envisioned as a means of “bringing the museum to the people.” During its inaugural year, the AFA organized three traveling exhibitions, the first of which was ''Thirty-Eight Oil Paintings by Prominent American Artists'', and launched ''Art and Progress'' magazine (later renamed ''Magazine of Art''), an innovative vehicle for art scholarship that continued to be published until 1953. Mechlin, art critic at '' The Washington Star'', was the magazine’s founding editor and continued in the role through 1931. The ''Thirty-Eight Paintings'' exhibition was viewed by more than 5,600 people at the library before traveling to New Orleans, St. Paul, and New Ulm, Minnesota. The AFA also published the first edition of '' Who's Who in American Art'' (1935), as well as the '' American Art Annual'' (later known as the '' American Art Directory''). While it no longer publishes these directories and journals, the AFA retains a commitment to publishing new art historical research through the catalogues it produces in conjunction with its exhibitions.

Lobbying efforts

In 1910, the AFA promoted the creation of a National Commission of Fine Arts, which was subsequently established by an act of congress to advise the government on matters of art and design as they pertain to the nation’s capital. In 1913, the AFA launched a successful lobbying effort to remove tariffs on art entering the United States and a 1916 session with the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later Trucking industry in the United States, truc ...

to protest prohibitively high interstate taxes on traveling art. In 1920, the AFA was instrumental in organizing a lobbying campaign for the “development of a national gallery of art on a basis worthy of our great nation,” a goal eventually realized with the founding of the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

in 1941. Other government-tied AFA initiatives include arranging the first American representation in the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

in 1924 and thereafter until the 1970s.

Public programs

The AFA’s history includes a series of programs designed to facilitate greater access and appreciation of the visual arts, among them, the first nationally broadcast radio programs about art (1930s–1940s); the Picture of the Month Program (1954), offering original paintings at low rental fees to small art and educational organizations; the Museum Donor Program (1960s), distributing allowances to regional museums to purchase contemporary American art; ''The Art of Seeing'' (1965), a landmark series of educational films on visual perception; ''The Curriculum in Visual Education'' (1966), a collection of films and instructional materials designed to heighten the aesthetic awareness of children; the Rent-an-Artist Program (renamed the Visitor Artist Program) (1970s), placing artists in residency at museums around the country; ''A History of the American Avant-Garde Cinema'' (1976), the first curatorially selected international traveling film program; and ART ACCESS I and II (1989–98), a fee-subsidy program sponsored by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund making AFA exhibitions of American art more affordable for museums. In 1909, the AFA created the Package Library, which offered newspaper and magazine clippings on a variety of art subjects for loan to AFA members. Although intended primarily for use in communities with limited library facilities, the files were often in demand by members in larger cities as well. By 1942, the library included more than 1,000 envelopes covering topics from contemporary American painting to industrial art. In 1934, in collaboration with the General Federation of Women's Clubs and with support from the

Carnegie Corporation The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Since its founding, the Carnegie Corporation has endowed or othe ...

, the AFA launched the first nationally broadcast radio series on art, "Art in America 1600–1865," with René d'Harnoncourt as program director. The first subject was “America After the Civil War: Whistler and Winslow Homer—Expatriate and Stay-at-Home.” Discontinued during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the radio program was reestablished in the 1940s with the title “Living Art.” In 1994, the AFA inaugurated the Directors Forum, a two-and-a-half-day annual conference for museum directors that featured panel discussions with some of the most distinguished professionals in the art world. Beginning in 2005, the Directors Forum is now an annual program of the independent Art Museum Partnership. Building upon the success of that program, the AFA began, in 2001, a similar conference for art museum curators. The Curators Forum later evolved into the independent Association of Art Museum Curators in 2001. In 2003, the AFA instituted ArtTalks, a lecture series featuring prominent artists and other influential figures of the art world, among them, artists

Janine Antoni Janine Antoni (born January 19, 1964) is a Bahamian–born American artist, who creates contemporary work in performance art, sculpture, and photography. Antoni's work focuses on process and the transitions between the making and finished product, ...

Christo and Jeanne-Claude Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks a ...

, John Currin, Shirin Neshat, and

Do-Ho Suh Do Ho Suh (; born 1962) is a South Korean artist who works primarily in sculpture, Installation art, installation, and drawing. Suh is well known for re-creating architectural structures and objects using fabric in what the artist describes as an ...

; ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' critic Roberta Smith; '' New Yorker'' writer

Adam Gopnik Adam Gopnik (born August 24, 1956) is an American writer and essayist, who was raised in Montreal, Canada. He is best known as a staff writer for ''The New Yorker,'' to which he has contributed nonfiction, fiction, memoir, and criticism since 19 ...

; and

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art Tobias Meyer. Most recently, the AFA launched ArtViews, a series of panel discussions that address critical issues in the museum field. Its first edition held in 2011 was titled "Shifting Challenges in the Protection of Archaeological Heritage" and was organized in conjunction with the Institute of Fine Arts and th
Association of Art Museum Directors
More recent subjects have included: "Art Museum Funding at the Crossroads" (2012), "Art Museum Blockbusters: Myths, Facts, and their Future (2013), "Digital Space/Physical Space, Mapping the 21st Century Museum" (2015), "The Future of Art Museum Leadership" (2016), and "Museums Now: Relevance and Representation" (2017).

Film and video

Through the development of touring film and video exhibitions, publications, and an eventual collection of 139 documentaries on the arts and avant-garde films and videos, the AFA developed a groundbreaking film and video program that focused on the work of independent contemporary media artists in this country and abroad. Released beginning in 1949, the organization’s publications on the subject include the pamphlet ''Guide to Films on Art'' (1949); ''Films on Art'' (1952), a comprehensive guide that listed and reviewed more than 450 films on art subjects; ''New American Filmmakers'' (1971), a catalogue of independent films produced in cooperation with the Whitney Museum; ''A History of the American Avant-Garde Cinema'' (1976); ''Films on Art: A Source Book'' (1977), the second edition of the 1952 volume ''Films on Art''; and ''Before Hollywood: Turn-of-the-Century Film from American Archives'' (1987). In 1959, the AFA co-sponsored the first art film festival in the U.S.—''Films on Art Festival'', in Woodstock, New York, with the Woodstock Artists Association, the

College Art Association The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understan ...

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

, and the

. In 1969, the AFA established ''Circulating Films on Art'', thus becoming the first organization of its kind to circulate such films for rent. In 1971, the AFA began circulating 200 films from the Whitney’s New American Filmmakers series, expanding the collaboration in 1979 with the circulation of films from the

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was held in 1973. It is considered ...

and again in 1983 with the addition of video to the Biennial. In 1976, the AFA organized the first curatorially selected international traveling film exhibition, ''A History of the American Avant-Garde Cinema''. In addition to its traveling video selections from the Whitney, in 1983, the AFA began organizing independent traveling video exhibitions, the first of which included ''American Documentary Video: Subject to Change''; ''New Video: Japan''; and ''Revisiting Romance: New Feminist Video''. In 1993, the AFA transferred its collection of prize-winning American and European films and videotapes to the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

’s Circulating Film and Video program, and in 1996, upon the dissolution of its Media Arts Department, transferred its inventory of film and video exhibitions to the Film and Video Department of the Museum of Modern Art.

Offices and mergers

After initial meetings in Francis Millet’s studio in Washington, D.C., in 1909 the AFA moved its headquarters into the Octagon Building at 1741 New York Avenue, N.W., renting space from the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

. The National League of Handicraft Societies merged with the AFA in 1912, and constituent societies were made AFA members. In 1913, the AFA opened its first New York office in the Fine Arts Building at 215 West 57th Street. The office later moved to the

and then to 40 East 49th Street. Beginning in 1952, the AFA relocated its headquarters, moving from Washington, D.C. to New York, renting offices at 1083 Fifth Avenue. In 1987, the AFA’s merger with the Art Museum Association of America (AMAA) brought together the two oldest nonprofit art museum organizations in America, creating a larger national organization that could offer a comprehensive set of services without duplication. Retaining the name American Federation of Arts, the new organization maintained offices in both New York and San Francisco, and former AMAA Director Myrna Smoot became director. The San Francisco office was dedicated to the AFA’s Museum Services Department. Also based in the West Coast was the AFA’s administration of the Getty’s Museum Management Institution (MMI), a training program for museum directors held at Berkeley. Now known as the Getty Leadership Institute, it is a program of the Getty Trust and operates out of

Claremont Graduate University The Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is a private, all-graduate research university in Claremont, California, United States. Founded in 1925, CGU is a member of the Claremont Colleges consortium which includes five undergraduate and two grad ...

. In 1990, the AFA closed its West Coast office and moved the Museum Services Department to its New York headquarters. In 2007, the AFA sold its townhouse at 41 East 65th Street and moved to its current location at 305 East 47th Street.

Notable members

* Una B. Herrick, American educator, the first Dean of Women at Montana State College.

Exhibitions

AFA exhibitions encompass a wide range of mediums, artists, historical periods, and cultural traditions—from Roman portraiture and Native American artifacts to American impressionism and contemporary art and sculpture. The AFA also collaborates with distinguished institutions around the world to tour important aspects of their collections. To further engage and inform museum visitors and art enthusiasts, the AFA produces innovative educational components and richly illustrated catalogues introducing original scholarship. Exhibition highlights, 1950s–present * ''Sport in Art'' (began touring 1955) * ''Cuban Painting Today'' (1956) * ''Art and the Found Object'' (1958) * ''Ten Negro Artists from the United States'' (1966) * ''Pop and Op'' (1966) * ''Rejective Art'' (1967-8; curated by

Lucy Lippard Lucy Rowland Lippard (born April 14, 1937) is an American writer, art critic, activist, and curator. Lippard was among the first writers to argue for the " dematerialization" at work in conceptual art and was an early champion of feminist art. ...

, including works by Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Robert Morris,

Robert Smithson Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist known for sculpture and land art who often used drawing and photography in relation to the spatial arts. His work has been internationally exhibited in galleries and mu ...

Donald Judd Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism.Tate Modern websit"Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Donald Judd" Retrieved on February 19, 2009. In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for ...

, and

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

, among others) * ''Soft and Apparently Soft Sculpture'' (1968; including works by

Louise Bourgeois Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (; 25 December 191131 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a varie ...

Hans Haacke Hans Haacke (born August 12, 1936) is a German-born artist who lives and works in New York City. Haacke is considered a "leading exponent" of institutional critique, and is considered to be the most harsh and consistent critic of museums among t ...

Eva Hesse Eva Hesse (January 11, 1936 – May 29, 1970) was a German-born American sculptor known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. She is one of the artists who ushered in the postminimal art movement in the 196 ...

, Yayoi Kusama,

Claes Oldenburg Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor best known for his public art installations, typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions ...

, and Richard Serra, among others) * ''Please Be Seated: The Evolution of the Chair, 2000 B.C.–2000 A.D.'' (1968) * ''The Realist Revival'' (1972; including works by Jack Beal, Robert Bechtle, Richard Estes, Janet Fish, and Philip Pearlstein, among others) * ''Masterworks from the Museum of Primitive Art'' (1974) * ''

Alberto Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, Drafter, draftsman and Printmaking, printmaker, who was one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. His work was particularly influenced ...

: Sculptor and Draftsman'' (1977) * ''Objects of Bright Pride: Northwest Coast Indian Art from The American Museum of Natural History'' (1978 and again in 1988) * ''The Painter and the Printer:

Robert Motherwell Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an American Abstract Expressionism, abstract expressionist Painting, painter, printmaker, and editor of ''The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology''. He was one of the youngest of th ...

’s Graphics'' (1980) * ''The Other Side: European Avant-Garde Cinema, 1960–1980: A Film Exhibition'' (1983) * '' Te Maori: Maori art from New Zealand Collections'' (1984) * ''

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko ( ; Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz until 1940; September 25, 1903February 25, 1970) was an American abstract art, abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular reg ...

: Works on Paper'' (1984) * ''The Drawings of Stuart Davis: The Amazing Continuity'' (1992) * ''Neo-Dada: Redefining Art, 1958–62'' (1994) * ''In the Spirit of Resistance: African-American Modernists and the Mexican Muralist School/En espíritu de la resistancia: Los modernistas africanoamericanos y la Escuela Muralista Mexicana'' (1996) * '' Arthur Wesley Dow and American Arts and Crafts'' (1999) * '' Wolfgang Laib: A Retrospective'' (2000) * ''American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age'' (2000; including works by

Norman Bel Geddes Norman Bel Geddes (born Norman Melancton Geddes; April 27, 1893 – May 8, 1958) was an American theatrical and industrial designer, described in 2012 by the New York Times as "a brilliant craftsman and draftsman, a master of style, the 20t ...

, Donald Deskey, Raymond Loewy, Lurelle Guild,

Eliel Saarinen Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1873 – July 1, 1950) was a Finnish and American Architecture, architect known for his work with Art Nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century. He was also the father of famed architect Ee ...

, and

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

, among others) * ''Eternal Egypt: Masterworks from the British Museum'' (2001) * ''Uncommon Legacies: Native American Art from the Peabody Essex Museum'' (2002) * ''

Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French people, French Impressionism, Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, Print ...

and the Dance'' (2002) * ''The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India'' (2002) * ''Debating American Modernism: Stieglitz, Duchamp, and the New York Avant-Garde'' (2003) * ''An International Legacy: Selections from the

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art is an art museum in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The museum was originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was formerly located ...

'' (2003; including works by Carl Andre, Elizabeth Murray,

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced Abstract art, abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, photographs and Glass art, glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important con ...

, Cindy Sherman,

Gilbert & George Gilbert Prousch, sometimes referred to as Gilbert Proesch (born 17 September 1943), and George Passmore (born 8 January 1942) are artists who work together as the collaborative art duo Gilbert & George. They are known for their formal appearance ...

, Rachel Whiteread,

Nam June Paik Nam June Paik (; July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a South Korean artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video art. He is credited with the first use (1974) of the term "electronic super highway" ...

Bill Viola William John Viola Jr. ( , ; January 25, 1951 – July 12, 2024) was an American video artist whose artistic expression depended upon electronic, sound, and image technology in new media. His works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human ...

, and

Tony Oursler Tony Oursler (born 1957) is an American multimedia and installation artist married to Jacqueline Humphries. He completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California, in 1979. His art covers a range of med ...

, among others) * '' Lorna Simpson'' (2006) * ''Color as Field: American Painting, 1950–1975'' (2007; including works by Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Larry Poons, and

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (May 12, 1936 – May 4, 2024) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career befor ...

, among others) * '' Roman Art from the Louvre'' (2007) * ''Symbols of Power:

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

and the Art of the

Empire Style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 duri ...

, 1800–1815'' (2007) * ''

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters * Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for tur ...

to Cézanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales'' (2009) Curator: Lisa Small. * ''

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

as Printmaker'' (2009) * ''Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture'' (2015) * ''Women Artists in Paris, 1850-1900'' aka ''Her Paris: Women Artists in the Age of Impressionism'' (2017) *''Victorian Radicals: From the Pre-Raphaelites to the Arts & Crafts Movement'' (2018)

Cultural Leadership Award

Each year, the American Federation of Arts presents a Cultural Leadership Award to individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to supporting art and museums, both nationally and internationally. The Cultural Leadership Award is formally presented to the honorees at the AFA’s annual gala, which is attended by an elite group of leaders from society, business, and the cultural world. Proceeds from the gala help underwrite the AFA’s traveling exhibitions. Past Cultural Leadership Award recipients: * 2018 – Eli and Edythe Broad, collectors and philanthropists *2017 – Charles and Valerie Diker, collectors and philanthropists; William Wegman, artist * 2016 – Wangechi Mutu, artist; Alice Walton, philanthropist * 2015 – Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz, collectors and philanthropists; Wade Guyton, artist; Arnold Lehman, Director Emeritus of the Brooklyn Museum * 2014 – Spencer Finch, artist; Milton Esterow, former editor and publisher of ArtNews magazine * 2013 – Eugene V. Thaw, philanthropist; Kehinde Wiley, artist * 2012 – Sarah Sze, artist * 2011 –

Marina Abramović Marina Abramović ( sr-Cyrl, Марина Абрамовић, ; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, the relationship between the performer and audience, the limit ...

, performance artist; Earl A. Powell III, Director,

, Washington, DC * 2008 – Elizabeth Rohatyn, founder of FRAME (French Regional & American Museum Exchange) * 2007 – His Excellency Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and Tourism Development and Investment Company; Thomas Krens, Director, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Frank O. Gehry, architect * 2006 – Donna and Cargill MacMillan Jr., philanthropists * 2004 – John Bryan, former CEO and chairman, Sara Lee; Shirin Neshat, artist; James Wood, outgoing Director and President, The Art Institute of Chicago * 2003 – Susan Weber Soros, Founder and Director, Bard Graduate Center for Studies of Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture;

, artist * 2002 – Anne d'Harnoncourt, Director,

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

; Maya Lin, architect * 2001 – Ellsworth Kelly, artist; Stephanie French, AFA Trustee and Vice President, Corporate Contributions,

Altria Altria Group, Inc. (previously known as Philip Morris Companies, Inc. until 2003) is an American corporation and one of the world's largest producers and marketers of tobacco, cigarettes, and medical products in the treatment of illnesses ca ...

; John Walsh, outgoing Director, J. Paul Getty Museum * 2000 – Jan Cowles, AFA Trustee; Serena Rattazzi, outgoing AFA Director * 1999 – AFA's 90th Birthday Party - Jan Mayer, President, AFA Board of Trustees * 1998 – Iris Cantor, philanthropist * 1996 – Lee Hills, AFA Trustee and Chairman Emeritus,

Knight Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. It was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, allowing the latter to become the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States at the time ...

* 1995 – Betty Blake, AFA Trustee;

Roy Neuberger Roy Rothschild Neuberger (July 21, 1903 – December 24, 2010) was an American financier who contributed money to raise public awareness of modern art through his acquisition of pieces he deemed worthy. He was a co-founder of the investment firm ...

, AFA Trustee and Founder,

Neuberger Berman Neuberger Berman Group LLC is an American private, independent, employee-owned investment management firm. The firm manages equities, fixed income, private equity and hedge fund portfolios for global institutional investors, advisors and high-ne ...

* 1994 – Richard Oldenburg, former AFA Trustee and outgoing Director,

* 1993 – Evan H. Turner, outgoing Director, The Cleveland Museum of Art * 1992 – J. Carter Brown, outgoing Director,

* 1989 – "Perfectly Pop" 80th Anniversary – George Weissman, Chairman of the Board,

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

Museum membership

The AFA has maintained
membership program
since its inception in 1909. AFA's approximat
60
members range from small regional museums, such as the Buddy Holly Center of

Lubbock, Texas Lubbock ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Lubbock County. With a population of 272,086 in 2024, Lubbock is the 10th-most populous city in Texas and the 84th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the ...

, to university galleries such as

Colby College Museum of Art The Colby College Museum of Art is an art museum on the campus of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1959 and now comprising five wings, nearly 8,000 works and more than 38,000 square feet of exhibition space, the Colby College Museu ...

and Yale University Art Gallery, to larger institutions, among them, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 5,000 years of history with nearly 80,000 works from six continents. Follo ...

, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

History

Early history and publications

Lobbying efforts

Public programs

Film and video

Offices and mergers

Notable members

Exhibitions

Cultural Leadership Award

Museum membership

References

External links