Established in 1872 in Philadelphia, the Association for Public Art (aPA), formerly Fairmount Park Art Association, is the first private, nonprofit public art organization dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning in the United States. The association commissions, preserves, promotes, and interprets public art in Philadelphia, and it has contributed to Philadelphia being maintaining of the nation's largest public art collections.

Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically accessible to the public; it is installed in public space in both outdoor and indoor settings. Public art seeks to embody public or universal concepts rather than commercial, partisan, or personal concepts or interests. Notably, public art is also the direct or indirect product of a public process of creation, procurement, and/or maintenance.