Education at Associated Artists of Pittsburgh

Education at Associated Artists of Pittsburgh

Providing educational programs and hands-on experience for both established and emerging artists, AAP contributes to the current vibrance as well as the future of visual arts in the Pittsburgh region.

Many AAP members are formal educators and even more educate informally every day. AAP members jury exhibitions, lead workshops and exhibit throughout the United States and Europe.

Virgil Cantini, former chair of the Department of Art at the University of Pittsburgh, Arthur Pulos, former chair and professor emeritus with the Department of Design at Syracuse University and Charles LeClair who held a 23-year tenure as Dean of Fine Arts at Temple University are examples of the leadership roles our members have served in the arts community.

Nationally known authors are members of the Associated. Thousands of students rely on William Libby's color theory, "Color and the Structural Sense". MIT Press published author Pulos' "American Design Ethic" in 1983. Philip Pearlstein has written numerous papers for the College Art Association on artists' legal rights. Internationally acclaimed Andy Warhol published "Interview" magazine. Several members are architects whose ideas shape Pittsburgh's enduring physical appearance and visual style. Sylvester Damianos, for instance, created one of the city's most architecturally stimulating galleries the Pittsburgh Plan for Art out of a bowling alley.

One of the local education efforts of which we are most proud is our Visual Arts Career Orientation Program (VACOP), a program brings high school students together with professional artists to work in professional settings to learn their craft. In addition, the AAP Education/Outreach Program nurtures emerging artists and creative thinking by bringing art workshops into economically disadvantaged neighborhoods for children ages 6 to twelve.