PAFA The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

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Fall is for art-making. 🍂🎨 Summer's over and it's Fall now, so let's embrace it and take an art class, whether it's some...
09/09/2026

Fall is for art-making. 🍂🎨 Summer's over and it's Fall now, so let's embrace it and take an art class, whether it's something new or something familiar.

We have something for everyone.

Learn from professional artists in these hands-on studio courses starting in October:

Figure Modeling: The Torso with Morgan Dummitt
🔗 https://buff.ly/WWTHMn7
Woodcut Printmaking with Rebecca Gilbert
🔗 https://buff.ly/dEI6hHz
Papermaking: Sheetforming to Sculpture with Clay Tenhula
🔗 https://buff.ly/88P973J
Introduction to Stone Lithography with Rae Helms
🔗 https://buff.ly/li0kv3g
Watercolor Plunge with Tony Rosati
🔗 https://buff.ly/4BsRnas

Whether you're interested in sculpture, printmaking, papermaking, watercolor, figure studies, or expanding your studio practice, PAFA's art classes offer opportunities to develop new skills, work with specialized equipment, and connect with Philadelphia's creative community.

Browse Full Catalog 🔗 https://buff.ly/Jsc6CIS

We have fun at Family Art Day. 🖍️ ✂️ Seriously.Every month, families join us for an afternoon of artmaking, creativity, ...
09/08/2026

We have fun at Family Art Day. 🖍️ ✂️ Seriously.

Every month, families join us for an afternoon of artmaking, creativity, and exploration. This Sunday, September 13, we'll be creating collage self-portraits inspired by A Nation of Artists, using drawing, cutting, layering, and mixed materials to make portraits that are uniquely our own.

🖼️ Free Museum admission included
✂️ Artmaking begins at 1 PM
🎟️ Advance registration required
🔗 https://buff.ly/ZAlQwLk

📅 September 13 | 1-3 PM
📍 PAFA Museum, Furness Building

Come make something special with us.

09/07/2026

: Reginald Marsh in Focus 🛠️🏙️ Cities are built on invisible labor. In "End of 14th Street Crosstown Line" (1936), Reginald Marsh depicts workers tearing up the trolley tracks that once powered New York City's transit system.

By placing these laborers alongside picketers protesting a retail store's refusal to unionize, Marsh highlights the many forms of work and activism that shaped city life during the 1930s.

See End of 14th Street Crosstown Line in "A Nation of Artists" and consider how artworks can capture not only the events of a particular moment, but also the social realities that shaped it.
🖼️ Reginald Marsh, End of 14th Street Crosstown Line, 1936, egg tempera on composition board, 24 × 36 1/8 in. (60.96 × 91.76 cm.), , Henry D. Gilpin Fund, Accession No. 1942.7. © Estate of Reginald Marsh / Art Students League, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

🎨 Before Odysseus returned to Penelope, he had to say goodbye to Nausicaa. A ship waits in the harbor as Odysseus prep...
09/06/2026

🎨 Before Odysseus returned to Penelope, he had to say goodbye to Nausicaa. A ship waits in the harbor as Odysseus prepares to leave the island of Scheria.

In Homer's Odyssey, this scene follows Odysseus's rescue by Princess Nausicaa after a shipwreck. Having found refuge among the Phaeacians, he is finally given safe passage home to Ithaca, bringing his long journey one step closer to its end.

Romare Bearden reimagined this episode in Odysseus Leaves Nausicaa (1979), part of his Odysseus Suite of screenprints based on compositions from his earlier Black Odyssey series. Influenced by jazz, Bearden used bold blocks of color and rhythmic arrangements of shapes to tell ancient stories in a modern visual language. By depicting Homer's epic with Black figures, he connected the classical tale to broader themes of migration, displacement, resilience, and the search for home.

The story continues beyond this moment. As Odysseus departs the land of the Phaeacians, Penelope still awaits his return in Ithaca, bringing one of literature's most enduring journeys closer to its conclusion.
🖼️ Odysseus Leaves Nausicaa, 1979, by Romare Bearden (1911-1988). Silkscreen. Gift of Dr. Constance E. Clayton in loving memory of her mother, Mrs. Williabell Clayton. 2019.3.4 © Romare Bearden Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Sources: PAFA Museum Collection; Romare Bearden Foundation; National Gallery of Art; Princeton University Art Museum.

09/04/2026

In PAFA Museum's Historic Landmark Building, the Furness Building, curators Leah Triplett and Lea Stephenson explore echoes between paintings made over a hundred years apart by the Chinese-born American Hung Liu (1948–2021) and American Charles Sprague Pearce (1851–1914), currently on view in a special exhibition celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States.

"A Nation of Artists," which tells the story of American art across geography and time periods, features more than 1,000 works from the permanent collection and also marks the reopening of the building.
🖼️ Hung Liu, Visage II, 2004, oil on canvas, 51 1/2 x 48 inches, , Art by Women Colletion, Gift of Linda Lee Alter © Hung Liu Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
🖼️ Charles Sprague Pearce, c. 1883, oil on canvas, 41 5/8 x 30 inches, , Gift of Joseph E. Temple

Take the leap, don't look back 🎨 Looking for dedicated studio space, constructive feedback, and a community of fellow ar...
09/04/2026

Take the leap, don't look back 🎨 Looking for dedicated studio space, constructive feedback, and a community of fellow artists?

Taking the Leap to Start or Advance Your Studio Practice combines a private studio in PAFA's Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building with bi-monthly critiques, field trips, archives visits, drawing sessions, and mentorship from artist-instructor Roger Chavez and visiting critics.

Whether you're building momentum in your practice, preparing for a studio-centered program, or simply seeking the time and space to create, this 15-week experience is designed to help you stay motivated and connected.

🖌️ Private studio space
🖌️ Critiques and instruction
🖌️ Field trips and special visits
🖌️ Artistic community

Registration is open for Fall 2026.

🔗 https://buff.ly/trySbTd

09/03/2026

When is an artwork finished? 🖌️

Art museums and schools often place a lot of emphasis on the finished work. The polished painting goes on the wall. The completed assignment earns the grade. You don’t expect to walk into an art museum and see unfinished works. You don’t expect to pass art school without finishing your projects.

But what about the unfinished?

Does an unfinished work count for nothing?

To Be Continued... explores the process of making and what happens before a work is considered finished. Featuring unfinished paintings, studies, sketches, and works that challenge traditional ideas of what constitutes a completed artwork, the exhibition invites us to consider experimentation, revision, and incompletion not as failures, but as essential parts of the artistic process. Even for the most renowned artists, every finished masterpiece exists alongside countless works left unresolved, abandoned, or perpetually in progress.

Featuring works by Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Arthur B. Carles, Eastman Johnson, Alex Katz, and Violet Oakley.

To Be Continued...
August 27, 2026–March 8, 2027
Frances M. Maguire Gallery
Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building

Why are more people turning to plein air painting?Recent reporting from Smithsonian Magazine and ARTnews suggests that a...
09/02/2026

Why are more people turning to plein air painting?

Recent reporting from Smithsonian Magazine and ARTnews suggests that artists are increasingly embracing plein air painting and other traditional art practices as a response to our digital world. Painting outdoors offers a slower, more immersive experience that encourages observation, patience, and connection to the natural world.

One psychologist described the appeal this way: making art by hand "moves someone from spectator to participant." In an age when technology can deliver a result instantly, traditional artmaking gives us the experience back.

The French term plein air means "open air," and for generations artists have stepped outside to capture a moment with paint rather than pixels.

This fall, take your practice outdoors with a PAFA Continuing Education plein air class. Slow down, look closely, and discover what happens when you paint directly from life.

🎨 Explore upcoming classes 🔗 https://buff.ly/5LRMU0A
Sources: Claire Turrell, "Why Gen Z Is Learning to Paint Like 19th-Century Artists," Smithsonian Magazine, August 18, 2026; George Nelson, "Gen Z and Millennials are Rejecting AI for Plein Air: Morning Links for August 19, 2026," ARTnews, August 19, 2026.

❤️ Because of members like you, PAFA continues to tell America's diverse story through art, creating meaningful experien...
09/02/2026

❤️ Because of members like you, PAFA continues to tell America's diverse story through art, creating meaningful experiences with our collections, exhibitions, and public programs.

As a thank-you, we're excited to introduce two new PAFA Museum Member benefits this fall:

🖼️ Members-Only Tours
Beginning in September, PAFA Museum Members can enjoy exclusive docent-led tours offered monthly, exploring unique themes, artists, and stories throughout the museum.
https://buff.ly/Uyybz3D

☕ Your First Cup Is on Us
Starting September 3, PAFA Museum Members can get a complimentary drip coffee at Top Hat Coffee Lounge during their visit. Just show your member card and enjoy!

Whether you're discovering a new exhibition or revisiting your favorite artwork, we're making your museum experience even more rewarding.

Thank you for being part of our community.
🖼️ Hugh Henry Breckenridge, Philadelphia, by 1917; Mark Rothko, Untitled (Maroon Over Red), 1968; Albert Bierstadt, Niagara, 1869

09/01/2026

DO YOU LIKE…

Fire? 🔥
Pouring molten bronze?
Bending and sculpting metal to your will?
Fusing metal together using a tungsten electrode? ⚡
Making something out of nothing with your hands?

Find yourself in the foundry.

Get hands-on with the foundry process at PAFA with Pavel Efremoff. Learn wax modeling and casting, ceramic shell techniques, bronze pouring, metal chasing, TIG welding, patination, and mold-making, including how to create molds for bronze casting and make objects in multiples.

☀️ Introduction to Foundry and Mold-Making
Thursdays, 12:30–4 PM
🔗 https://buff.ly/oLENbEW

🌙 Foundry: Introduction/All Levels
Thursdays, 6–9:30 PM
🔗 https://buff.ly/PauyZRW

Both are 12-week, 42-hour condensed courses starting September 10, and all levels are welcome.

All levels welcome.

Register by September 3.

Address

128 N Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA
19102

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 8pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 10am - 5pm

Telephone

(215) 972-7600

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