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HISTORY |
• AFA was founded in 1988. A local artist had a studio on Lackawanna Avenue
in Scranton. A number of fellow artists got together and began to think
about how beneficial it would be to create a network of artists in NEPA.
They felt there were a number of artists in the region but they didn’t know
each other very well. They decided that each person would invite five other
artists to a meeting in one month.
• The following month 30-40 artists got together in the studio. They decided
to form an organization for artists —to get to know each other and expand
the places for exhibitions by networking.
• In 1989, the name “Artists for Art” was chosen as the name of the
organization. They decided to become incorporated and pick officers. They
also defined a mission/purpose, which was threefold:
1. to present the work of regional visual artists to the community
2. to foster an appreciation of visual arts in general — that is, to raise
awareness of the visual arts
3. to provide services for local visual artists
• They took on various projects (i.e. raised $5,000 for the St. Frances of
Assisi Kitchen), participated in the WVIA auctions, showed work as a group in the
Lackawanna County Courthouse and various hospitals. They also coordinated
an art lecture series at the Scranton Children’s Library, which was very
successful. AFA also hosted a number of social events and parties, as well
as founded the Riverworks Show (coordinated by painter Lou Pontone), which
worked to revitalize the Lackawanna River, and included a River Day on the
Lackawanna and a series of traveling shows in five or six venues.
• The next step was a strategic planning session. The Lucen Center for the
Arts in Scranton had received a grant for strategic planning. Ty Welles got
to know the consultant who was leading it, and he agreed to meet with AFA’s
active members for a discussion on future plans. According to the strategic
planner, the worst thing AFA could do financially, etc. was to open a
gallery. After he left, AFA started looking for gallery space.
• Peter Cupple had bought a building on the 500 block of Lackawanna Avenue
to order to save it from demolition. He agreed to rent the first floor to
AFA, and AFA members worked very hard to fix the space up, which pulled the
group together. The newsletter, which was active from the beginning, also
served to pull the artists together and provide a means of communication.
• As a rule, AFA has had the following exhibition policies: 1) all members
could exhibit work in member shows; 2) they did not want to have a pure
co-op gallery, but had a gallery committee that decided what would go on the
walls—group or individual shows. At one point, to save the organization
financially, there was a 2 tiered system. Regular members paid the regular
fee and could exhibit in member shows, but gallery members paid more, and
could have one-, two- or three-person shows. AFA also participates in the
Regional Juried Show with Marywood, Keystone and the U. of Scranton, and
various theme shows—Earth Day, Next Generation, etc.
• There are other activities associated with AFA, such as events which have
been held here by other groups for a rental fee (Mulberry Poets), the
Backroom Gallery, workshops, the Life Drawing Group (which was around before
AFA but is now being held at the gallery). Most of these are break-even
operations, lacking administrative/operational fees.