Founded by art lovers, patrons and artists; goals was to "development of plastic arts (painting, sculpture, architecture, etc.) among the Jews." The Charter was approved on 22 November 1915. The constituent Assembly took place on 29 November of the same year the building of the Jewish almshouse them. M. A. Ginsburg 5-й line of Vasilievsky island.
The meeting elected the Board, which included prominent public and political figures and representatives of art: lawyer, member of the cadets of M. M. Vinaver (Chairman), sculptor I. Ya (Deputy Chairman), artists M. L. Maimon, I. I. Brodsky, architect M. G. Gevirtz, editor of the Russo-еврейской press L. A. North, attorney M. I. Sheftel, critic M. G. Sirkin, public figures R. S. Varshaver, L. S. Livshits, I. S. Bass.
At the first Board meeting it was decided to create an art section, a constituent Assembly which took place on 11 January 1916. The Board includes: I. Ya (Chairman), I. I. Brodsky (comrade President), M. F. Bloch (Secretary), N. Altman, B. I. Anisfeld, A. B. Lachowski, M. L. Maimon and others. The section participated K. A. Veselov, K. I. Gorbatov, I. A.'s Cabin, M. L. Dillon, S. M. Zaidenberg, M. S. Ioffe, A. A. Manevich, B. Yu Sandomierz, M. Z. Chagall.
Members of the section did not belong to a single creative direction and is a member of various art associations. Section to organizing the exhibitions and competitions, art publications, the organization of lectures on art, contributed to the opening of schools and drawing classes.
In 1916 a competition was held for a logo graphic company where 1-й have received the award N. Altman. In the same year under the auspices of EOP held a contest for the emblem of the Society for Jewish folk music: 1-я award — I. M. Chaika, 2-я — S. F. simkhovich. was organized three exhibitions: in April 1916 in Petrograd in April 1917 and July — August 1918 in Moscow.
The last exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue in two languages. heard reports sarcina M. G. "Jews and the arts", I. Ya. Ginzburg "Antokolsky and plastic art" and others.
March 19, 1916 was founded the Moscow branch of the society in the same year set up offices in Kharkov and Kiev.
By January 1917 the society consisted of 240 members, ofthem — 82 member of the art section.
In the spring of 1917, the society joined the Union of artists.
At the end of 1918 the members EAP participated in the creation of the Jewish section of Narkompros. A number of members of the society (L. M. Lisitskiy, I. M. Chaika, M. I. Epstein) participated in the creation of "Cultures-Лиги" and 1-й Jewish art exhibition of sculpture, graphics and drawing in Kiev (1920).