PHILADELPHIA, PA (January 22, 2026) – The Board of Trustees of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) today announced that, following a comprehensive, national search, it has unanimously selected its new President and CEO. Kristen Shepherd will join PAFA as of February 9, 2026, bringing a…

Threaded Currents
January 22–April 12, 2026

Heather Raquel Phillips. Nip, Tuck, Paint, Pluck, 2022. Pigment on bleached cotton yardage. Photo credit: Carlos Avendaño.

Philadelphia, PA—January 14, 2026—The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum…

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is proud to announce the appointment of Michelle Donnelly, PhD, as the Evelyn and Will Kaplan Curator of Twentieth Century Art and the John Rhoden Collection. Donnelly brings more than a decade of leadership in twentieth-century American art…

Philadelphia, PA — The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) presents Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo, a groundbreaking exhibition that, for the first time, brings together the work of three pioneering Japanese American artists whose lives and careers…

Philadelphia, PA — September 12, 2025 — The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is pleased to announce a new partnership with Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Beginning October 15, Tyler will lease space in PAFA’s Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building, expanding academic…

PHILADELPHIA, PA — September 2, 2025 — The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) proudly announces the Diamond Jubilee Celebration honoring the 75th Anniversary of the Women’s Committee, held on September 28, 2025. Since its founding in 1950 the Women’s Committee has played a transformative…

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA)’s Interim Museum Director, Harry Philbrick, has accepted the position of Director at the Newport Art Museum, effective September 2025. This new opportunity will allow Mr. Philbrick to return full-time to Rhode Island, where he grew up and currently…

Philadelphia, June 17, 2025 – Two of America’s most esteemed cultural institutions—the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA)—today announced A Nation of Artists, a historic collaboration with the private Middleton Family Collection that will unite…

William Villalongo: Myths and Migrations is on view at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) from May 15 to August 31, 2025. This mid-career survey highlights over 20 years of Villalongo’s work exploring themes of Black presence, identity, and cultural memory through richly layered…

PHILADELPHIA (Feb. 4, 2025) – The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), the first museum and school of fine arts in the United States, today announced Lea C. Stephenson as the next Kenneth R. Woodcock Curator of Historical American Art, effective Feb. 10, 2025. In this role, Stephenson will…

Join us for an enlightening lecture on printmaking by print scholar and PAFA Printmaking Professor Anthony (Tony) Rosati organized by the Brodsky Center at PAFA and funded through a generous grant from the International Fine Print Dealers Association Foundation (IFPDA).

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC…

By Alissa Falcone, November 6, 2024

"In Philadelphia Revealed: Unpacking the Attic, the newest exhibition from the Atwater Kent Collection at Drexel University, there are multiple Drexel University connections found in the more than 600 objects showing 350 years of Philadelphia history.

Some of those…