The Pittsburgh Public School art collection consists of approximately 400 paintings, prints, photography and other two-dimensional artwork donated by Friends of Art of Pittsburgh Public Schools. The collection is located in elementary, middle, and secondary school buildings as well as administrative offices throughout the city.
Each year since 1916, the Friends of Art of Art of Pittsburgh Public Schools, previously known as 100 Friends of Pittsburgh Art, has purchased three to six artworks from the annual exhibition of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh for the schools. Today this unique, collection represents a remarkable visual and social history of Pittsburgh. Its illustrates, as does no other sampling of artifacts, a record of accomplishment among the best of Pittsburgh's artists, many of whom are nationally known.
When the first annual exhibition of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh was held, not one piece of art was sold. John L. Porter convinced 100 art patrons and artists to subscribe $10.00 per year for 5 years to purchase paintings from the show, then present them to the city schools. The goal for this project was and continues to be "to create an incentive for local artists, to provide the schools with evidence of what is being accomplished in their midst by persevering people and to give the school buildings a cultured and decorated appearance, at once instructive and interesting."
Laura Magee
School Support Specialist
Art Project in the Original Grant Proposal
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