Where other professionals were asked for tax deductible monetary contributions, the artist was expected to give his work freely.

To initially create a uniform policy for art donations, three local artists and one art advocate (the Schabackers and Sundbergs) formed a basic organization that would represent local professional visual artists. The organization, named the Northwestern Pennsylvania Art Association (NPAA), then decided it would base its membership on the national organization "Artist Equity" which required its members to be accepted to at least three national exhibits. The first committee chosen to draft the bylaws included: Dan Burke, John Deckard, Tony Ko, Andrew Sanders, Betty Schabacker, Carl Sundberg, and John Vanco.

Now in its 50th year, the NPAA organizes several annual exhibits for its 130+ members’ participation, annually donates college scholarship monies to local graduating high-school seniors, and generally promotes the visual arts in the tri-county community.