Pittsburgh Cultural TrustGo to the home page

The Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Annual Exhibition is one of the nation's longest-running juried exhibitions. Established to celebrate and highlight the diverse creative talents within the region, the first Annual Exhibition opened in 1910 at the Grand Old Opera House in downtown Pittsburgh. Over the years, the Annual has been hosted at esteemed art institutions such as the Carnegie Museum of Art, The Andy Warhol Museum, the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art, and The Westmoreland Museum of American Art. Moreover, throughout its history, the Annual Exhibition has showcased numerous Pittsburgh artists who have achieved both national and international acclaim, including Mary Cassatt, Henry Osawa Tanner, Andy Warhol, Philip Pearlstein, Mel Bochner, Henry Koerner, Aaronel deRoy Gruber, and Thaddeus Mosley.

The 110th Annual Exhibition will open in September 2024 in partnership with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. The 110th marks the organization’s return to downtown Pittsburgh – the home of the first ever Annual Exhibition in 1910.

Over one hundred years later, we are thrilled to celebrate our connection with the city and region and to explore the convergence of creative and athletic currents that contribute to a sense of place, identity, and community. We invite artists to reflect on the interplay between art and sports, activity and movement, rest and play, and how these currents may connect us (or not) to each other, to our cities, and to the broader region. We are seeking works in a diversity of styles and range of media and encourage artists from across the region to submit their work.

In this historic edition of the Annual Exhibition, we have selected jurors from Pittsburgh and Cleveland to reflect our commitment to expanding the reach and impact of our exhibition and to developing creative and artistic connections across the region.

The exhibition will be juried by Anastasia James, Director of Galleries & Public Art at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust; Allison Hope Smith Hernandez, artist and Assistant Director, Communications and Annual Giving in the Division of Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement at Kent State University; and Dr. Sarah Spinner Liska, non-profit leader and arts advocate. More information on the jurors can be found below.

Artists are invited to submit completed or proposed works. Artists selected for the exhibition will receive a stipend for their participation. The exhibition will open in early September 2024 and run through January 2025.

This application will be open to both AAP members and non-members via separate application links, which will be shared by email to members and the public link will be shared on social media and aapgh.org, and by email to our subscribers.

Applications open: April 1, 2024

Application deadline: April 30, 2024

For more information about the Annual and Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, visit aapgh.org.

Anastasia James (she/her) is the Director of Galleries & Public Art at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust where she oversees a constellation of galleries, public art sites, and related programming in downtown Pittsburgh’s 14-block Cultural District including Wood Street Galleries, a historic exhibition space dedicated to new media.

James was formerly Deputy Director of Art & Education at the Bechtler Museum where she oversaw all aspects of Curatorial, Programming, Community Engagement, Education, and Collections. Previously she was a Curator at the Lucas Museum of Art, Los Angeles, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco and the Queens Museum, New York. She has curated and managed over 75 noteworthy exhibitions featuring a diverse range of emerging, established, and international artists for institutions and galleries, James’ work has been profiled widely in periodicals including, The New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, ArtNews, Hyperallergic, Vogue, and The New Yorker and has been supported by major grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Henry Luce Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, and The Fine Foundation among others. In 2022, she was selected as an international mentor for the AAMC’s prestigious fellowship program. She is also the editor and author of a number of monographs including Billy Name: Photographs from Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory, Brigid Berlin: Polaroids, Cary Leibowitz: Musuem Show, and Timothy Greenfield Sanders: The Trans List. James holds a MA in Curatorial Studies from The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard).

Allison Hope Smith Hernandez (she/her) is an artist and non-profit administrator, specializing in exhibitions, communications, and database management. Smith Hernandez is a double alumnus of Kent State University –holding a BFA and MFA in studio art with a concentration in textiles– where she served as the Graduate Assistant to the Director of the School of Art Collection and Galleries and received a Student Senate Research Grant and Award for her MFA thesis exhibition.

In 2023 she was honored by the Ohio Museums Association as the 2022 Emerging Professional of the Year and from 2023 to 2024, served as Co-Chair of the Equity & Values Committee of the Ennials Alliance. Smith Hernandez is an exhibiting artist in the U.S. Department of State Art in Embassies program.

She is currently Assistant Director, Communications and Annual Giving in the Division of Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement at Kent State University. Her previous tenures include Operations & Digital Media Manager for FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, Gallery Manager at Transformer Station Museum, instructor and workshop coordinator at 4Cats Arts Studio, teaching artist with the Artful Living & Learning Program, and Museum Assistant at Massillon Museum.

Dr. Sarah Spinner Liska (she/her) is an arts leader, with extensive experience in organizational development and project management. Most recently, Sarah led exhibition planning for FRONT International, a region-wide triennial, working closely with museums, galleries, artists, and funders across Northeast Ohio. Sarah’s civic leadership has focused on expanding access and audience within the arts and museums field. She founded and chaired the North American Arts 'Ennials Alliance and chairs the Special Exhibitions Committee at the Maltz Museum and the Community Conversations series for the Yale Alumni Association of Cleveland. Sarah also serves on University Hospitals National Arts Leadership Council and as a trustee of The Sculpture Center. Sarah holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, where she received the Hans Gatzke Prize, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. She was awarded a Golieb Fellowship in Legal History at NYU Law School and holds a B.A. in the History of Art and French and an M.A. in Humanistic Studies from Johns Hopkins University. Sarah is admitted to practice law in Ohio and is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association.