As America’s first art school and art museum, PAFA has a front-row seat to America’s art history and where art is headed to in this country.

“Our collection is an important collection of American art,” said museum director Brooke Davis Anderson. “Our history collides and parallels with the complicated history of this nation.”

Davis Anderson and other PAFA staff and faculty recently toured the museum with new students to better introduce them to the gems inside the Historic Landmark Building, and what visitors might be missing when they visit.

“Take some time, slow down, spend time with the surfaces, the compositions, the content, the construction of the work, there’s a lot to be gained from spending time in these galleries,” said David Brigham, who served as the museum director for several years before becoming CEO and President.

Brigham said most museum visitors often overlook small details, like labels. As he led a group of students through the galleries Brigham said museum labels reveal how old the artist was when the work was mind, giving context to their mindset, and if the artist has any affiliation with PAFA.

While a label gives you facts about a piece of art, PAFA curator Dr. Brittany Webb said the location of artwork could be a cue in deciphering the piece’s message. For Webb, placement of art is often an extension of the artist’s statement.

Mequitta Ahuja’s self-portrait A Real Allegory of Her Studio is currently hanging where Charles Wilson Peale’s iconic The Artist in His Museum and is the only self-portrait and contemporary painting in that gallery space. The curation of the gallery room is a meditation on representation.

“I see people come into this gallery and say, ‘Oh, it doesn’t really fit here.’ and that’s the point Ahuja is trying to make. Her work is disruptive on purpose and so it’s disrupting a kind of flow visually,” Webb said. “Ahuja is doing that in the work, so for us getting to do that in the galleries as curators is awesome.”

“You want audiences to connect with what the artist is thinking because the artist isn’t here to talk about their work to you all the time,” she said.

But sometimes you can be lucky and the artist is there in person to talk about how a piece came into being.

Painting professor Scott Noel has two paintings in the PAFA permanent collection. Expanding the Convention Center was a part of the summer exhibition Infinite Spaces, and Noel walked students through his art practice for that painting.

The painting is made up of three canvases because that’s what Noel had available to him when he was ready to start painting in Room 463 of PAFA’s Hamilton building. The large studio overlooks Broad Street and gave Noel a birds eye view of the construction project. While the painting depicts the Pennsylvania Convention Center under construction at three in the afternoon, Noel would begin painting each day at 8 am.

“One of the things that fascinated me with this construction project is there’s no subfloor. They’re just putting a concrete floor in the dirt,” he said. “So I’m watching this thing that almost feels like ancient Egypt happening, ancient Egypt construction and it’s so beautiful to me.”

With the galleries in the museum constantly changing, the museum team encourage students to visit often to see different works in the permanent collection, sketch a sculpture, or find inspiration for their next project.

“The PAFA museum is really one of the great assets for students here at PAFA here at pafa. We are here to serve you and the public,” Davis Anderson said. “You as students get the privilege of visiting this museum free and then also when you’re an alum. We hope that you’ll come in and out of the museum galleries frequently.”