a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering education in American art through advocacy, publication and research

About TFAO

Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO) conducts the following programs:

Operations:

• Digitizing analog content with copyright permissions
• Expansion and maintenance of its digital library, catalogs and publications
• Guidance to arts organizations in using the Internet for education
• Other programs relating to TFAO's mission where appropriate

Research:

• Analysis of methods, ranking systems, and human assets deployment regarding selection and digital processing of out of copyright, out of print / in copyright, and in print / in copyright materials (in the context of obtaining permissions from copyright holders)
• Development of new resources for education of individuals in specialty areas
• Liaison with other non profit organizations for systematic approach to funding selected educational services
• Study of current and upcoming digitization initiatives to facilitate optimal allocation of internal resources and to avoid redundancy
• Analysis and documentation of internal systems to enable organizations in other fields of interest to learn form TFAO's experience

Advocacy:

• Conservation of art collections
• Establishment of art museums
• Exhibition and touring of private art collections
• Educational programming

All programs are provided free of charge.

Mission statement:

The character of affairs of Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc. is for charitable purposes including fostering education and nurturing understanding of American visual arts among student and adult populations through publications, guidance and counseling of nonprofit arts organizations and related activities.

Summary of accomplishments and history

TFAO's website is the world's most visited site devoted to American art and the most informative online resource concerning American representational art. Every day, thousands of individuals including students, scholars, teachers and others view educational and informational materials on TFAO's site, which is structured as a digital library. For more information on visitation, please see rankings and usage data.

In 2003 TFAO acquired an online publication devoted to education and understanding of American representational art founded in 1997 named Resource Library Magazine. In 2004 TFAO changed the name of the publication to Resource Library, which remains the current name. The publication, since inception provided without charge as a public service, contains 1,300+ articles and essays written by hundreds of named authors, plus thousands of other texts, all providing educational and informational content to students, scholars, teachers and others. Published materials related to exhibitions frequently contain texts from exhibition brochures or catalogues, magazine or journal articles, gallery guides, wall panels, labels, audio tour scripts, checklists and news releases, plus related images. Resource Library also provides free publicity to hundreds of American nonprofit art venues including museums, the source of almost all of Resource Library's content. Click here to view an estimate of TFAO's total quantity of image and text files. Some text files contain many thousands of words.

TFAO also publishes:

• Catalogues
• National Calendar of Exhibitions
• Reports and Studies

TFAO has also provided other services noted in its website.

In recent years it has become increasingly difficult for many university students to justify a major in art history from an economic point of view. Since familiarity with the liberal arts is beneficial for a well-rounded education, TFAO provides an alternate in-depth resource which may be accessed at leisure during an individual's lifetime. For individuals who are able to study American art history in a formal university setting, TFAO provides an encyclopedic resource.

Privacy of users

Privacy of users is important to TFAO. User tracking cookies are not installed by TFAO on its website. A benefit of this policy is that users access pages very quickly.

Financial information, volunteer time contribution and other information

To review related information please click here.

Organization:

Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc. is recognized as a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization by the Internal Revenue Service. The Articles of Incorporation of Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc. were approved by the Arizona Corporation Commissioner on August 5, 2003 as an Arizona nonprofit corporation.

Contact information:

If you wish to volunteer or have other inquiries, please send email to:

rev. 4/12/12

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Copyright 2003-2012 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights reserved.