Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA)

aid: pafa
name: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA)
description: 'The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is the United States'' first museum and school of fine arts,
  founded in 1805 in Philadelphia by painter and scientist Charles Willson Peale, sculptor William Rush, and other artists
  and business leaders. PAFA operates as a 501(c)(3) cultural nonprofit at 118-128 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
  and occupies two connected historic buildings — the Frank Furness and George Hewitt-designed Furness-Hewitt Building (1876,
  designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975) and the Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building — joined by Lenfest Plaza. PAFA''s
  permanent collection focuses on 19th- and 20th-century American art and includes works tied to alumni and faculty such as
  Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins, Henry Ossawa Tanner, William Glackens, Barkley L. Hendricks, Violet Oakley, Cecilia Beaux,
  Louis Kahn, David Lynch, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, alongside the Linda Lee Alter Collection of Art by Women.

  Following a March 2025 announcement of a financial crisis driven by a reported roughly $3 million annual deficit and a sharp
  decline in enrollment, PAFA stopped granting its own BFA and MFA degrees beginning with the 2024-2025 academic year. As
  of 2026 the school''s active educational pathways are the three-year Fine Arts Certificate Program ("designed to prepare
  students for entry-level professional roles within the visual arts and related creative industries"), Continuing Education
  classes ("an inclusive studio arts offering for artists of all ages and skill levels, from beginners to advanced creatives")
  delivered in-person and online, Youth & Teen programs including Summer Art Camp and Summer Academy, and PAFA Shop Memberships
  providing self-guided access to professional-grade printmaking, papermaking, and sculpture studios. The museum continues
  to operate, with admission $25 adults / $23 seniors / $10 students / $5 youth / free for children 12 and under and members,
  and is presenting the once-in-a-generation exhibition "A Nation of Artists" (April 2026 - September 2027) in partnership
  with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Middleton Family Collection.

  PAFA is a cultural nonprofit, not a technology company. It publishes no developer portal, no OpenAPI specifications, no
  SDKs, no public REST or GraphQL APIs, no webhooks, no status page, and no engineering blog. There is no `github.com/pafa`
  institutional organization — the user account `github.com/pafa` is an unrelated personal account focused on ERP and WeChat
  tooling. The institution''s only programmatic third-party surface is its participation in the Bloomberg Connects free digital
  museum guide app, which presents PAFA''s collection and tours through Bloomberg Philanthropies'' shared mobile platform.
  Donations are routed through the third-party platform community.pafa.org/give and ticketing through standard museum e-commerce.'
kind: company
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source: []
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/pafa.png
tags:
- Art Education
- Art Museum
- Cultural Heritage
- Cultural Nonprofit
- Fine Arts
- Museum
- National Historic Landmark
- Nonprofit
- Philadelphia
- Visual Arts
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/pafa/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-05-23'
modified: '2026-05-23'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis: []
common:
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/pafa-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://www.pafa.org
- type: About
  url: https://www.pafa.org/about
  title: About PAFA — "Founded in 1805 as the first school and museum of fine arts in the United States"
- type: Museum
  url: https://www.pafa.org/museum
- type: School
  url: https://www.pafa.org/school
  title: School programs — Fine Arts Certificate, Continuing Education, Youth & Teen, PAFA Shop Memberships
- type: Exhibitions
  url: https://www.pafa.org/museum/exhibitions
- type: Collection
  url: https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection
  title: Permanent collection focused on American art; includes the Linda Lee Alter Collection of Art by Women
- type: Visit
  url: https://www.pafa.org/museum/visit
  title: Hours, admission ($25 adults / $23 seniors / $10 students / $5 youth / free for members and children 12 and under),
    location
- type: Store
  url: https://www.pafa.org/store
  title: PAFA Museum Store
- type: Membership
  url: https://www.pafa.org/members
- type: Donate
  url: https://community.pafa.org/give
  title: Donations are accepted via the community.pafa.org third-party giving platform
- type: PlannedGiving
  url: https://www.pafa.org/support/planned-giving
- type: Support
  url: https://www.pafa.org/support
- type: ContactEmail
  url: mailto:visitorservices@pafa.org
  title: Visitor services email
- type: ContactPhone
  url: tel:+12159727600
  title: Main phone — (215) 972-7600
- type: Address
  url: https://maps.google.com/?q=118-128+North+Broad+Street+Philadelphia+PA+19102
  title: 118-128 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
- type: MobileApp
  url: https://www.bloombergconnects.org
  title: Bloomberg Connects — PAFA's digital museum guide is delivered through Bloomberg Philanthropies' shared, free, multi-institution
    mobile app (the museum's only third-party programmatic distribution surface)
- type: Instagram
  url: https://www.instagram.com/pafacademy
  title: '@pafacademy on Instagram'
- type: Facebook
  url: https://www.facebook.com/PAFAcademy
- type: YouTube
  url: https://www.youtube.com/@PAFA
  title: PAFA's official YouTube channel
- type: Wikipedia
  url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Academy_of_the_Fine_Arts
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/pafa
  description: No institutional GitHub organization exists for the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The `github.com/pafa`
    handle is an unrelated personal user account (3 repos — erpim, ERP-News, and a forked wechat-format editor — focused on
    ERP and WeChat tooling) and is NOT operated by the museum/school.
- name: InstitutionFacts
  type: Features
  description: PAFA institutional fact sheet (verified May 2026).
  data:
  - fact: Founded
    value: '1805'
  - fact: Founders
    value: Charles Willson Peale, William Rush, and other artists and business leaders
  - fact: First Building Opened
    value: 1806 (Chestnut and 10th Streets)
  - fact: First Public Exhibition
    value: '1811'
  - fact: Current Main Building
    value: Furness-Hewitt Building (designed by Frank Furness and George Hewitt; opened 1876)
  - fact: National Historic Landmark Designation
    value: 1975 (Furness-Hewitt Building)
  - fact: Second Building
    value: Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building (connected to the Furness-Hewitt via Lenfest Plaza)
  - fact: Address
    value: 118-128 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
  - fact: Main Phone
    value: (215) 972-7600
  - fact: Visitor Services Email
    value: visitorservices@pafa.org
  - fact: Legal Status
    value: 501(c)(3) cultural nonprofit
  - fact: Distinction
    value: First museum and school of fine arts in the United States
  - fact: Degree Program Status
    value: Beginning with the 2024-2025 academic year PAFA stopped granting its own BFA and MFA degrees, citing a roughly
      $3 million annual deficit and sharp enrollment decline; bachelor's degrees offered through the University of Pennsylvania
      partnership continue
  - fact: Museum Status
    value: Open and active; presenting "A Nation of Artists" (April 2026 - September 2027)
- name: NotableAlumniAndFaculty
  type: Features
  description: A non-exhaustive list of nationally and internationally significant artists associated with PAFA as students
    or instructors, drawn from pafa.org and Wikipedia (verified May 2026).
  data:
  - name: Mary Cassatt
    role: Alumna
    note: American Impressionist painter
  - name: Thomas Eakins
    role: Faculty and Director
    note: Returned as volunteer 1876, joined faculty 1878, promoted to director 1882
  - name: Henry Ossawa Tanner
    role: Alumnus
    note: First African American artist to gain international acclaim
  - name: William Glackens
    role: Alumnus
    note: Ashcan School realist painter
  - name: Robert Henri
    role: Alumnus and Faculty
    note: Ashcan School founder
  - name: John Sloan
    role: Alumnus
    note: Ashcan School painter
  - name: Cecilia Beaux
    role: Faculty
    note: First female faculty member to instruct painting and drawing (1895)
  - name: Catherine Drinker
    role: Faculty
    note: First woman to teach at the academy (1878)
  - name: Violet Oakley
    role: Alumna
    note: Muralist; first American woman to receive a major mural commission
  - name: Barkley L. Hendricks
    role: Alumnus
    note: Portraitist of Black subjects
  - name: Njideka Akunyili Crosby
    role: Alumna
    note: Contemporary mixed-media painter, MacArthur Fellow
  - name: Louis Kahn
    role: Alumnus
    note: Architect (Salk Institute, Kimbell Art Museum)
  - name: David Lynch
    role: Alumnus
    note: Filmmaker (studied painting at PAFA)
- name: ActiveSchoolPrograms2026
  type: Features
  description: PAFA's active educational pathways as of May 2026, following the wind-down of its BFA and MFA degree-granting
    programs starting the 2024-2025 academic year. Quotes drawn verbatim from pafa.org/school.
  data:
  - program: Fine Arts Certificate Program
    format: Three-year career training (on-site)
    positioning: '"Designed to prepare students for entry-level professional roles within the visual arts and related creative
      industries."'
    url: https://www.pafa.org/school
  - program: Continuing Education
    format: In-person and online classes
    positioning: '"An inclusive studio arts offering for artists of all ages and skill levels, from beginners to advanced
      creatives."'
    url: https://www.pafa.org/school
  - program: Youth & Teen Programs
    format: Summer Art Camp, Summer Academy, field trips, family programming
    positioning: K-12 art education and pre-college engagement.
    url: https://www.pafa.org/school
  - program: PAFA Shop Memberships
    format: Self-guided studio access membership
    positioning: '"Affordable, self-guided access to professional-grade printmaking, papermaking, and sculpture studios."'
    url: https://www.pafa.org/school
- name: VisitAndPricing
  type: Features
  description: Public-facing museum visit terms (verified May 2026 from pafa.org/museum/visit).
  data:
  - field: Hours — Monday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday
    value: 10 AM - 5 PM
  - field: Hours — Friday
    value: 10 AM - 8 PM (extended)
  - field: Hours — Tuesday and Wednesday
    value: Closed
  - field: Admission — Adults (18+)
    value: $25
  - field: Admission — Seniors (65+)
    value: $23
  - field: Admission — Students
    value: $10
  - field: Admission — Youth (13-17)
    value: $5
  - field: Admission — Children (12 and under) and Members
    value: Free
  - field: Digital Guide
    value: PAFA's collection and tours are presented via the Bloomberg Connects mobile app
- name: CurrentAndUpcomingExhibitions
  type: Features
  description: Active and upcoming exhibitions at PAFA, verified May 2026 from pafa.org and pafa.org/museum.
  data:
  - exhibition: A Nation of Artists
    dates: April 2026 - September 2027
    note: '"A once-in-a-generation presentation celebrating 250 years of American creativity" featuring works from PAFA, the
      Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Middleton Family Collection.'
  - exhibition: Bodies and Souls
    dates: March 2026 - July 2026
  - exhibition: 'Student Works: From the 2025-2026 Academic Year'
    dates: May 2026 - June 2026
- name: APISurfaceAssessment
  type: Features
  description: API Evangelist assessment of PAFA's public API and developer surface as of May 23, 2026.
  data:
  - finding: Public developer portal
    status: None — no developer.pafa.org or equivalent
  - finding: Public OpenAPI / AsyncAPI specs
    status: None published
  - finding: Public REST or GraphQL APIs
    status: None — ticketing, donations, and account flows are private
  - finding: Donation platform
    status: Routed to the third-party platform community.pafa.org/give; no public API documented
  - finding: SDKs / CLI / webhooks
    status: None published
  - finding: GitHub organization
    status: No institutional org exists; the github.com/pafa user account is an unrelated personal handle focused on ERP and
      WeChat tooling
  - finding: Status page / changelog / release notes
    status: None public
  - finding: Sandbox / Console
    status: None
  - finding: Public RSS / engineering blog
    status: None — PAFA publishes museum news and exhibition releases only
  - finding: Third-party programmatic distribution
    status: Bloomberg Connects mobile app (Bloomberg Philanthropies' shared free multi-institution digital guide) is PAFA's
      only programmatic third-party distribution surface; API is owned and not exposed by Bloomberg Philanthropies
  - finding: Tier rationale
    status: Tier 3 — no-apis. Cultural nonprofit museum and school with no public developer surface. Documented here for completeness
      of the API Evangelist American-art / cultural-institution coverage and to record the institution's post-2024-2025 program
      restructuring, not as an API provider.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com