Associated Artists of Pittsburgh

96th Annual Exhibition!

Some of the finest work of Pittsburgh regional artists will be on display at Carnegie Museum of Art from October 27, 2006 through January 15, 2007 as the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh (AAP) hosts its 96th Annual Exhibition. An introductory reception free and open to the public was held at the museum from 6:30-9 p.m. on Thursday, October 26th.

The AAP Annual was jurored by Douglas Fogle, curator of contemporary art at Carnegie Museum of Art and curator for the 55th Carnegie International scheduled for 2008. He noted that, "Juried exhibitions are always an enormous challenge. This year I was asked to look at more that 700 works by nearly 300 artists."

AAP exhibition chair Kathleen Zimbicki and co-chair Joyce Werwie Perry said that the number of pieces submitted for this year's show far exceeded the number in recent years. A total of 740 works were submitted by 293 artists. Fogle selected 87 works by 73 artists for the exhibition.

The art submitted represented a wide range of mediums including oil, watercolor, sculpture, ceramics, mixed media, photography, video and quilting, among others. According to Fogle, "The works I chose represent a wide cross-section of media and employ equally divergent methods of engaging the audience."

AAP Annual Longest Running in U.S.

The AAP annual, which has been hosted every year since 1910, is the longest running annual exhibition in the United States. The first annual was affectionately titled, "The Popular Salon of the People" because of the support and encouragement the member artists received from the Pittsburgh community. Exhibiting artists have included Mary Cassatt, Andy Warhol, John Kane, Philip Pearlstein and Malcolm Parcell, among many others.

"It is important for a city foster a sense of community encouragement at the level of the individual artist," says Fogle in his juror's statement. "This has been the mission of AAP from its inception, and its annual exhibition has provided a forum for its members to express their creativity in a public setting." He further notes that, "What has become even clearer to me is the critical role the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh has played in this (the Pittsburgh) art scene for nearly 100 years."

AAP today consists of almost 500 artist members who live within a 150-mile radius of Pittsburgh and are creators of all media of the visual arts. The purpose of the association has remained the same throughout the years - "to foster a love of the fine arts and to inculcate a true appreciation of what Pittsburgh artists do for the advancement of art."

AAP is located at 6300 Fifth Avenue at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts where it is an independent professional arts organization. For more information, readers can visit the Carnegie Museum of Art website at www.cmoa.org.

Note: Carnegie Museum of Art is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from noon - 5:00 p.m. It is closed on Mondays and legal holidays. Entry is free for Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh members, $10 for adults, $7 for seniors and $6 for students and children.