Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART
ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,510,936 to it, the largest being THE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS ($360,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.3M
- Funders on record
- 25
- Grants received
- $1.5M
- Net assets
- $28M
What Association for Public Art does
Mission
The Association for Public Art (apa) collaborates with artists and communities to make public art accessible to all and create an enduring legacy for future generations. Dedicated to creating a museum without walls that inspires diverse audiences, the apa commissions, preserves, interprets and promotes public art in philadelphia. Since its establishment in 1872 as the nation's first private non-profit public art organization, the apa has been a model of public art creation, conservation, and community engagement that thrives on continuity distinguished by a commitment to permanent and temporary artworks. The apa supports the integration of public art and urban design through exemplary projects, programs, digital content, and advocacy efforts that connect people with public art.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Acquire and commission public art: the Association for Public Art (apa) is dedicated to creating opportunities for artists to respond to the issues of our time, while redefining public space and encouraging public engagement and interaction. A recipient of the national public art network award from the americans for the arts (afta), the apa is recognized for its innovative contributions, enduring commitment, and leadership in public art.fy 2025 highlights included an exhibition of edward h. Schwartz's collection of public art and architecture images at the photolounge, and the second year of "art on the parkway" featuring an open call, jury artist selection, and installation of nicolo gentile's "bar none" in maja park. Developments advanced regarding bringing paul ramirez jonas' "let freedom ring" to philadelphia, and on a strategic plan incorporating ideas for the future direction for the apa.the apa's award winning outdoor sculpture conservation maintenance program celebrated forty-three years of continuous operation for 30+ artworks around the city in fy 2025. Additional special conservation projects included the surface passivation of roxy paine's "symbiosis" (2011), a…
$274,347 spent26% of program spendingPreserve public art: the apa's collections management agenda for 2025 celebrated forty-three years of continuous operation, and included outdoor sculpture conservation, special conservation treatments, landscape conservation, donations and deaccessions, and the digitization of apa's historic archives.outdoor sculpture conservation: the apa's annual outdoor sculpture conservation maintenance program is the longest continuously operating outdoor sculpture conservation maintenance program in the nation. During fy 2025 over thirty bronze, metal, stone, mosaic, and wood sculptures of historic and artistic significance received treatment. The sculptures were inspected, cleaned, and stabilized to protect them from further deterioration. The apa's partners in this work include the fairmount park conservancy, city of philadelphia's public art office, philadelphia parks & recreation, university of pennsylvania, and numerous conservation professionals. In recent years the apa received the board of director's award for exceptional stewardship of historic properties from the philadelphia preservation alliance.special conservation treatments: as part of our stewardship and ongoing maintenance…
$486,885 spent46% of program spendingInterpret and promote public art: public art is available to people in the course of their daily lives, and apa's "museum without walls" is open all day and all night. By this very definition our audience is large and diverse and includes all age groups, as well as pedestrians, motorists, bicyclists and runners.interpretation: to interpret and promote public art, apa's museum without walls: audio program features participants from all walks of life, including artists, relatives, scholars, curators, historians, civic leaders and community members. This content-rich program was further developed in fy 2025, and now includes more than seventy-five stops (most with interpretive signage) and over 200 diverse voices. The program continues to expand with audio for new installations and historic works, as funding allows. Audio segments are produced in-house in collaboration with rowhouse productions, and are accessible on apa's website through an interactive map, the bloomberg connects arts and culture app, a dial-in audio system paired with a printed public art map, and as a slide show on youtube and vimeo. Public programs & events: the apa offers public programs in partnership with…
$295,665 spent28% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,056,897.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $28M to $23M (−19%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 3% · 2018 2% · 2019 3% · 2020 9% · 2021 1% · 2022 1% · 2023 1% · 2024 2% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
24% of ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Charlotte Cohen
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 8 funders to 5 funders, grant income fell $249k → $23k.
4 of 25 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
55% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 65% · 2018 90% · 2019 39% · 2020 38% · 2021 35% · 2022 91% · 2023 49% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
33% of ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
64% of ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $382k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART?
- ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,510,936 to it, the largest being THE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS ($360,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART have?
- IRS filings report 25 organizations giving $1,510,936 in grants to ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART?
- THE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS is the largest funder on record, with $360,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC ART find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Association for Public Art →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 25 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing