Pacific Art League

The Pacific Art League employs roughly 35-40 instructors and as of 2017, has over 2,000 students enrolled per quarter.[2] Classes are on a quarterly system, and additionally they offer workshops and summer camps.[2] As of 2020, the current director of PAL is Lisa Coscino.[3]

The Palo Alto Art Club was founded in 1921.[1] The initial founders of the club were around 40 artists of upper class and many were connected to Stanford University.[4][5] In the beginning the club met at member's houses, later they met at the Palo Alto Library, and by 1926, they moved to 340 Melville Avenue.[5] In 1952, the group moved to 855 Cowper Street due to the popularity of classes.[5] Over time the club became more democratic and community-centered, it is now a nonprofit.[4]

In 1965, PAL purchased thebuilding and moved to its current location at 668 Ramona Street, in a historical Spanish Revival building designed by Birge Clark.[5][6] In 2014, the building had a $4 million renovation which included compliance with the American Disabilities Act and seismic retrofit.[1]

In 1984, the name changed from Palo Alto Art Club to the current, Pacific Art League.[7]

This is a list of notable artists that were members, teachers of the Pacific Art League and/or showed their art work in the exhibitions, listed by last name in alphabetical order.

• Greg Brown (1951–2014) Palo Alto-local muralist.[8]
• Arthur Bridgman Clark (1866–1949), the first head of the Art and Architecture Department at Stanford University, and first mayor of the town of Mayfield.[9][10]
• Birge Clark (1893–1989) Architect associated with Spanish Colonial Revival architecture.[5]
• Terry Acebo Davis (born 1953)
• Pedro Joseph de Lemos (1882–1954) an early member of PAL.
• Edward McNeil Farmer (1901–1969)[11][12]
• Mabel McKibben Farmer (1903–1974)[13][14]
• Helen Katharine Forbes (1891–1945)[15]
• Eva Joseph Goldsheid (1926–2016)
• Ralph Johonnot (1880–1940)[16]
• Tom Killion (born 1953) woodcut and linoleum printmaker.[17]
• Marianne Kolb (born 1958)
• Bonnie E. Malott (1886–1988)[11][18]
• Elizabeth Norton (1887–1985), bronze sculptor, printmaker and painter, she was one of the first founders of PAL.[5]
• Sigrid Lorenzen Rupp (1943–2004)[19]
• Ray Strong (1905–2006)[20]
• Cloyd Jonathan Sweigert (1897–1973) political cartoonist and California Impressionist painter.[21][22]
• John Edward Walker (1880–1940), California Impressionist painter.[23]
• Florice "Florence" P. Wideman (1893–1989)[11][24]
• Shirley Williamson (1875–1944), California Impressionist painter.[21][25]

• Allied Arts Guild

• Official website