Since its founding in 1872 as the nation’s first private nonprofit organization dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning, the Association for Public Art (aPA) commissions, preserves, promotes, and interprets public art in Philadelphia. The aPA works with artists, communities, and civic leaders to make encounters with art a part of everyday life, and created a Museum Without Walls™ that is free and accessible to everyone. The aPA is a central resource and contributor to Philadelphia’s enduring reputation as an important place to view and experience the evolution of public art.