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Philadelphia is known for its pioneering art. The love affair between art and the City of Brotherly Love started even before the American Revolution. Around that time, the wealthy people of Philadelphia showed great love for art. The demand for paintings grew. Due to the rising demand for art, numerous artists relocated to the city including William Williams who first developed the technique of oil painting.

The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts was formed in 1805, the first art school in the US, in response to the growing clamor for artworks and as a sign of gratitude to the numerous art offerings of an art collector to the city. The art collector offered different works of art to Pennsylvania to recognize the city’s role in propagating art and developing artists.

A number of famous Philadelphia artists studied in the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts including some of the members of the popular all-female artist group called Philadelphia Ten. These ten female artists regularly did an exhibition in Philadelphia and in other US cities from 1917 to 1945. Other artists who studied in the Academy of Fine Arts spearheaded by Charles Wilson Peale and William Rush included Henry Ossawa Tanner and Thomas Eakins.

The biggest art museum in Philadelphia Museum of Art was established in 1876. The museum holds more than 225,000 pieces of art including important pieces made by Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso.

Philadelphia is known to have more public art and murals than any city in the US. Around 1950s, the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority included in their clause that at least one percent of construction would be allocated to the arts. The artists effort to generate funding for the arts led by Artists Equity Association helped the formulation of the very first Percent for Art ordinance in all of the US in 1959.