United Scenic Artists was organized to protect craft standards, working conditions and wages for the entertainment and decorative arts industries.

The members of Local USA 829 are Artists and Designers working in film, theatre, opera, ballet, television, industrial shows, commercials and exhibitions.

On June 21, 1918, at their regular meeting at Geneva Hall in New York City, the Scenic Artists voted to accept a charter as United Scenic Artists of America (hence the USAA still seen in the union's logo) being Local 829, an autonomous local of the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paper Hangers of America.

In 1983, a group of West Coast designers chose to affiliate with United Scenic Artists, and the Union opened a Los Angeles Regional office to serve them.

Finally, on April 27 of 1999, after decades of suffering from a debilitating lack of common interest with the IBPAT, the membership of United Scenic Artists Local 829 voted by an overwhelming majority to re-affiliate with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and to disaffiliate from the IBPAT.