A.I.R. Gallery (Artists in Residence) is the longest running all female artists cooperative gallery in the United States. It was founded in 1972 with the objective of providing a professional and permanent exhibition space for women artists during a time in which the works shown at commercial galleries in New York City were almost exclusively by male artists. A.I.R. is a not-for-profit, self-underwritten arts organization, with a board of directors made up of its New York based artists. The gallery was originally located in SoHo at 97 Wooster Street, and was located on 111 Front Street in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn from 2008 until 2015. In May 2015 the gallery moved to its current location in DUMBO at 155 Plymouth Street.

A.I.R. is a non-profit organization that aims to show the diversity and artistic talent of women and non-binary artists, to teach, to challenge stereotypes of female artists, and to subvert the historically male-dominated commercial gallery scene, with the overall hope to serve as an example for other artists who wish to realize their own art cooperative endeavors.

Founded in 1972, A.I.R. is the longest running non-profit, artist-run gallery for women in the country. According to art critic Lee Ann Norman "A.I.R. is not the first female-focused collective gallery...[but] perhaps been the most influential, inspiring the creation of several other women-focused, artist-run collective spaces across the country including Womanspace in Los Angeles (1973–1974), Artemisia in Chicago (1973–2003), WARM in Minneapolis (1976–1991), and even SOHO20 in Manhattan (1973 – present), among others."

The announcement for the gallery's first exhibition elaborates its founding concept best, stating, "A.I.R. does not sell art; it changes attitudes about art by women. A.I.R. offers women artists a space to show work as innovative, transitory and free of market trends as the artists' conceptions demands." Based on the feminist principles of economic cooperation and decision by consensus, A.I.R. continues to offer an alternative venue for women that protects the creative process and the individual voice of the artist.

Barbara Zucker and Susan Williams, two artists and friends, confronted the challenges of finding a dealer and decided to look for other women artists to start a co-op. Feminism at that time had barely penetrated the New York Art scene and a 1970 Whitney Museum protest drew attention to the less than 5 percent female representation. Directed by activist art critic Lucy Lippard, the two, together with Dotty Attie and Mary Grigoriadis, visited 55 studios to select and invite women artists to form a co-op.

At the first meeting on March 17, 1972, in Williams' loft, women artists met, among them were Maude Boltz, Linda Vi Vona, Nancy Spero, Louise Bourgeois, Howardena Pindell, Ree Morton, Harmony Hammond, Cynthia Carlson and Sari Dienes. For the artists themselves, their work and exhibition goals were all about quality. Still, having to deal with feminist politics was in the center, which meant fighting prejudices and fears that the showings would be considered second-rate. After the opening, one man said grudgingly, "Okay you did it; you found 20 good women artists. But that's it."

The gallery was structured to be both an exhibition space for art by women and a radical, progressive, and even subversive, not-for-profit institution. Its cooperative nature and its democratic structure have meant that the members vote on all decisions and participate in monthly meetings to plan exhibitions, programs, and the overall direction of the gallery. Each artist pays membership dues and thus has ownership over the organization itself and their own career. In this way, the structure of A.I.R. differs from that of dealer-driven galleries. Incoming artists are chosen through a rigorous peer review process that includes reviewing the works of applicants, lengthy discussions and a studio visit by current members. Each artist has to curate her own show, which allows for experimentation and risks that are not always possible in commercial settings. The group soon acknowledged the importance of building a heritage; collaborations and international group shows, in parts curated by their members, were established. The fellowship program in its earliest years provided sponsorship on a case-by-case basis as funds were available.

The gallery's archive is held at Fales Library at NYU.