The organization’s founding in 1909 was endorsed by Theodore Roosevelt and spearheaded by Secretary of State Elihu Root and eminent art patrons and artists of the day.

[1][2] To date, the AFA has organized or circulated approximately 3,000 exhibitions that have been viewed by more than 10 million people in museums in every state, as well as in Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The organization’s founders further agreed to hold annual meetings and devote themselves to promoting the visual arts as a vital component of the nation’s cultural life.

[5] When Root proposed the creation of the AFA in 1909, the nation’s artistic wealth was largely concentrated in eastern cities and inaccessible to most citizens.

Although intended primarily for use in communities with limited library facilities, the files were often in demand by members in larger cities as well.

The first subject was “America After the Civil War: Whistler and Winslow Homer—Expatriate and Stay-at-Home.” Discontinued during World War II, the radio program was reestablished in the 1940s with the title “Living Art.”[8] In 1994, the AFA inaugurated the Directors Forum, a two-and-a-half-day annual conference for museum directors that featured panel discussions with some of the most distinguished professionals in the art world.

In 2003, the AFA instituted ArtTalks, a lecture series featuring prominent artists and other influential figures of the art world, among them, artists Janine Antoni, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, John Currin, Shirin Neshat, and Do-Ho Suh; New York Times critic Roberta Smith; New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik; and Sotheby's Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art Tobias Meyer.

[citation needed] Most recently, the AFA launched ArtViews, a series of panel discussions that address critical issues in the museum field.

[14] In 1976, the AFA organized the first curatorially selected international traveling film exhibition, A History of the American Avant-Garde Cinema.

After initial meetings in Francis Millet’s studio in Washington, D.C., in 1909 the AFA moved its headquarters into the Octagon Building at 1741 New York Avenue, N.W., renting space from the American Institute of Architects.

To further engage and inform museum visitors and art enthusiasts, the AFA produces innovative educational components and richly illustrated catalogues introducing original scholarship.