News

Josias Figueirido

"PAFA challenged me about was it meant to be a professional artist. PAFA gave me another level. PAFA gave me a professionalism that I didn’t have. It made me want to be competitive. It taught me that when I go to MOMA, when I go to the Whitney, I have to think about how to put my work here. I have…

Abigail Gray Swartz

When Abigail Gray Swartz’s illustration of a reimagined Rosie the Riveter graced the cover of The New Yorker in 2017, friends and family kept saying she had won the artist lottery.

PAFA Fact Sheet

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PAFA History

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Dream Garden

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Cast Collection

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Jason Loebs

Jason Loebs creates work that is decidedly non-traditional, yet it was PAFA’s commitment to observational art-making that drew him to the school.

Kate Kaman

Kate Kaman came to PAFA with a passion for figurative painting. Early on, she started making stretcher bars out of found railroad ties, and a sculptor was born.

Joel Stanulonuis

Shortly after completing completing his MFA, Stanulonis' drawing That Little Plane -- first exhibited at the 113th Annual Student Exhibition -- was featured on the cover of New American Paintings.

Katherine Wirick

Katherine Wirick’s artistic exploration of sequential narratives and graphic novels runs the gamut from family tragedy and political protest to historical drama and baseball.

Dufala Brothers

Steven Dufala and Billy Blaise Dufala are prolific multidisciplinary artists whose work defies categorization and extends from sculpture and drawing to theater, music and performance art.

Emily Erb

Emily Erb [MFA '12] was a 2017 recipient of the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Foundation Grant, which is awarded to emerging artists "who represent the highest artistic promise of the coming generation."

About PAFA

Founded in 1805, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is the United States’ first school and museum of fine arts. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, PAFA offers a world-class collection of American art, innovative exhibitions of historic and contemporary American art, and educational opportunities in the fine arts. The PAFA Museum aims to tell America's diverse story through art, expanding who has been included in the canon of art history through its collections, exhibitions, and public programs, while classes educate artists and appreciators with a deep understanding of traditions and the ability to challenge conventions. PAFA’s esteemed alumni include Mary Cassatt, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, William Glackens, Barkley L. Hendricks, Violet Oakley, Louis Kahn, David Lynch, and Henry Ossawa Tanner.