become a member
Membership is achieved through an annual screening process. New Member Screening is open to any visual artist over the age of 18 who resides or maintains a studio within 150-mile radius of Pittsburgh.
Associated Artists works with an outside juror or jurors to review New Member Screening applications. The juror will be different every screening cycle and is announced prior to the screening. Please note that Associated Artists of Pittsburgh staff do not review the New Member Screening applications.
AAP's annual dues are $80, and membership runs on a fiscal year cycle: July 1 - June 30. All dues must be current in order to participate in exhibitions, educational programming, and professional development workshops.
Review Membership FAQs to learn more about membership and its benefits.
Associated Artists of Pittsburgh 2026 New Member Screening is Closed.
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Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and live or maintain a studio within a 150-mile radius of Pittsburgh. Students in degree seeking programs are welcome to apply. Please read all application requirements carefully. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
Applications are submitted through Slideroom.
Associated Artists and its staff do not review applications. Associated Artists works with an outside juror or jurors to review New Member applications. The juror will be different every screening cycle and is typically announced a few months prior to the screening.
2026 New Member Screening: January 16–February 16, 2026
Application Fee: $30
Apply through the link below:
https://aap.slideroom.com/#/permalink/program/87864 -
3-5 Images of Artwork
2-D and 3-D artwork accepted. Applicants must include the TITLE, MEDIUM, and DIMENSIONS, and PRICE (or NFS) for each image in the form.Artwork must be created in the last 3 years.
If selected, new members will be featured in the Annual New Member Exhibition, June 13–August 14, 2026, Artworks in the application must be exhibition-ready (no damage, with all appropriate hardware included) should be available for sale.. If the work is meant to be displayed in an unconventional manner, all necessary installation materials and instructions must be provided. Artist Commission from a sale is 60%
Again, all artwork submitted for consideration must be available for the duration of the exhibition should you be accepted. No artwork may be removed during the run of the exhibition.
Need tips on photographing your artwork? Check out our blog post with tips for photographing your work.
Artist Bio
Preferred length: 250 words.Artist Statement
Preferred length: 500 words.Artist Resumé or CV
Artist Website
(optional)
Submissions without the required information cannot be evaluated.
The following materials are restricted from entry: live or dead plant materials, organic materials such as food products that will decompose during the exhibition, any material that shows evidence of insect infestation or mold growth, and toxic or hazardous materials.
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AAP Members receive discounts from the following organizations:
ARTISTS IMAGE RESOURCE
Members enjoy 10% off screenprinting classes and artist services. Link for the classes and code discounts will be sent to members.CARNEGIE MUSEUMS OF PITTSBURGH
This includes the Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History, the Carnegie Science Center, and the Andy Warhol Museum.
Members enjoy a 10% discount on annual membership.
Once you pay your membership dues, AAP will email you a link to register online.PITTSBURGH CENTER FOR CREATIVE REUSE
Members enjoy a 10% discount upon presenting your membership card at checkout.PROTOHAVEN
Members enjoy 20% off membership.
Protohaven has a variety of monthly memberships to suit your making needs. Upon registration, provide your current membership card to receive your discount.MATTRESS FACTORY MUSEUM
Receive a 25% discount on any Mattress Factory membership with your AAP membership.
AAP Members have access to additional programming through the organization:
Professional Development Workshops, such as Taxes for Creatives, Proposal & Grant Writing Workshops, Artist Statement Workshops, Copyright Workshops, and more.
Educational and Teaching Opportunities through our VACOP program, Friends of Art, and Taking a Closer Look Program.
Opportunities to exhibit in 7-10 exhibitions each year. These include variety of juried and/or curated exhibitions. Both onsite and offsite exhibition opportunities available.
2026 New Member Jurors
Kimberly Diana Jacobs and David Stanger
Kimberly Diana Jacobs is a curator and arts professional with over a decade of experience shaping exhibitions in museums and galleries. Her expertise lies in art history, museum studies, and modern and contemporary art, with a focus on artists of African descent. She currently serves as Curator and Exhibition Manager at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center. Previously, she was Interim Director of the Clark Atlanta University Art Museum and Director and Curator of the William R. Harvey Museum of Art at Talladega College.
Kimberly’s work extends beyond institutional roles. She has contributed to panels, lectures, exhibitions, and performances at institutions including the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Saint Louis Art Museum, and Mississippi Museum of Art. In 2016, she was awarded the Catherine Hannah Behrend Fellowship by ArtTable at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and in 2013–14, she served as Romare Bearden Fellow at the Saint Louis Art Museum.
Her past curatorial projects include A Lesson in Black Excellence: Historically Black Colleges and Universities from Their Founding to the Future, which centered on HBCU art collections and archives for Google Arts & Culture; Terry Adkins: Renditions I–III at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in 2019; and All Things Being Equal, a group exhibition for the opening of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town in 2018; co-curator for Anything but Civil: Kara Walker’s Vision of the Old South at the Saint Louis Art Museum in 2014. In addition to her curatorial practice, Kimberly actively contributes to the broader arts community as a volunteer on the organizing committee for the James A. Porter Colloquium on African American Art and Art of the African Diaspora at Howard University.
A native of Jackson, Mississippi, she holds a BFA and MA in History from Jackson State University and pursued postgraduate studies in art history and museum studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.
David Stanger is a realist painter known for his thoughtful portraits, still lifes, and interiors. His paintings often feel quiet and intimate, yet carry a sense of mystery and deeper emotion. In recent works, ordinary scenes—like a room or a simple object—take on an uncanny quality, where familiar things seem to hold something more beneath the surface.
He earned a BFA from Syracuse University with Jerome Witkin, and continued his studies in Florence, Italy, before completing his MFA at MICA’s Hoffberger School of Painting under Grace Hartigan. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Mattress Factory, the Butler Institute of American Art, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Manifest Gallery, and the University of North Carolina at Asheville. His work has been recognized with honors, awards, and publications throughout his career, and is held in many private and public collections, including the Carnegie Museum of Art and the University of Pittsburgh.
Stanger has recently rejoined the board of AAP, having previously served from 2012–2018. A longstanding artist member, he first exhibited with the organization at the 87th Annual in 1997. After more than a decade teaching—and over twenty-five years in the arts—he stepped away from academia in 2024 to focus full time on his studio practice.
He lives and works in Pittsburgh and is represented by Winfield Gallery in Carmel, CA.
Past Jurors - New Member Screening
2025 Rachel Saul Rearick, Executive Director, Contemporary Craft , and Arianna Tejada, Curatorial Assistant, Amon Carter Museum of American Art
2024 Soude Dadras, Artist, Curator, and Arts Educator, & Alyssa Velazquez, Art Historian, Writer, and Curatorial Assistant at the Carnegie Museum of Art
2023 Natalie Sweet, Executive Director of the Brew House Association & Sara McCorriston, co-owner of Paradigm Gallery
2022 Tyler Shine, Assistant Curator of Art at The Andy Warhol Museum
2021 Olivia Guterson, Detriot-based creative & community organizer & Adrianna “Kaya” Clark, Atlanta-based photo artist
2020 Caitlin Teal Price, Tim Doud, & Linn Myer - co-founders of STABLE arts
2019 Carl Gunhouse, Jen Hitchings, Kirk Stoller, Kate Greenberg, Rob De Oude, & Tom Marquet, collaborative artists from Transmitter Gallery
2018 Eowyn Mays
2017 Sean Beauford, Pittsburgh-based writer & curator
2016 Vanessa German, American sculptor, painter, writer, activist, performer, and poet based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.