The Abrupt Closure of University of the Arts is Bad for Artists Everywhere
The sudden shuttering of a 148-year-old institution is a massive blow to the creative industry. The validity and future of career artists hang in the balance.
Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, my alma mater, announced its sudden closing on Friday, May 31, 2024. Initially reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, the school lost its accreditation for various administrative missteps. From the Inquirer: “The Middle States Commission on Higher Education, its accrediting agency, reported that the school notified the agency of its imminent closure on Wednesday, the same day it started a summer term.” One of the oldest and once-largest art colleges in the United States, the school’s closing marks a grim future for the arts.
In a low blow, most staff, faculty, and students discovered the situation on social media rather than from the school itself. Professor Julianna Foster, on staff since 2006, said: “It’s heartbreaking on so many levels. It was handled terribly.” Foster, one of my first instructors at the school, found out she was out of a job through the Inquirer article rather than from her employer.
Several hours after the news broke, the university finally made a statement on their website and social media:
Today is a heartbreaking day. University of the Arts will close as of Friday June 7, 2024. On Monday, June 3, 2024, we will host separate town hall meetings for students, faculty, and staff. We are committed to providing a space for your questions and concerns.
Judson Aaron, Chair of the Board of Trustees, added:
We have done everything in our power to address this crisis and avoid the worst possible outcome: an abrupt closure. Yet we have reached this deeply painful outcome, which we know affects our entire community.
The issues were reportedly financial, with decreasing enrollment and increasing operational costs. However, the school administration’s lack of transparency is a bigger offense to the arts community than the closure itself. It reeks of disrespect and condescension. The outcome seemed to be a surprise for all facets of the school’s staff, including Admissions:
“At 2:47 p.m. on Friday I got an email asking me to apply for graduation, and at 6:03 p.m. the Inquirer posted the story that my school was closing,” Natalie DeFruscio told The New York Times.
Even celebrities like Questlove have publicly expressed disbelief and frustration, stating that something needs to be done to save the community:
Questlove is right. The decline of Philadelphia art schools like UArts and PAFA, which also announced the end of its degree programs, is a symptom of a larger illness: the invalidation of art as a profession and a lack of support for artists.
I found myself a student at University of the Arts in 2006. Truthfully, I didn’t initially set out to become an artist at all, at least not professionally. I left high school with the idea that I’d become a psychologist, abandoning the idea when I fell in love with the notion of becoming a documentary filmmaker. I realized I shared a curiosity about humanity with other storytellers; rather than simply observing humanity, I wanted to actively share it with the world. After two years at Rutgers University, I transferred to UArts with a small portfolio and starry-eyed dreams.
After three semesters, I became a photography major, earning a BFA in 2010, and professionally practiced my craft until 2023, when I switched to writing as my primary means of expression. After attending UArts, I also adopted a reversed role as an instructor for the Continuing Studies and PreCollege programs, helping guide young artists and intrigued professionals into honing their craft.
My time as a professional working artist and my experience as a teacher provided me with clarity that explored two sides of the same coin — continued investment in the arts, whether financial or emotional, guides humanity forward in good times and in bad. This is not an original concept; the patrons of the Italian Renaissance were a major reason many European and American museums currently possess such amazing paintings and sculptures. The artists of this time could produce work full-time because of their benefactors. They placed a serious value on art production.
Though it manifests differently in the modern world, art touches every inch of our lives, and we all support the arts daily through product design, music, writing, and visual arts. Unfortunately, funding for arts education has been decreasing for years. In 2023, the New York Times reported that, despite the arts contributing over $1 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2021, budgets for school art programs continue to diminish. In favor of standardized test scores, American public school students are losing the ability to think critically and creatively.
In terms of higher education, a lack of funding results in an increased need to pass costs onto students, ultimately decreasing enrollment by making the education unaffordable. According to the Inquirer:
The last data [University of the Arts] has shared with municipal bondholders shows that total enrollment fell to 1,313 in the 2022–2023 school year from 1,914 in the 2018–2019 school year. The drop in freshman enrollment was more dramatic, to 182 from 426 over the same time period.
Across the spectrum of higher education, the biggest contributor to a decrease in school enrollment is not a lack of interest but the cost of tuition. UArts’ tuition for the 2024–2025 year school year was set at $55,920. This excludes living expenses. According to the Education Data Initiative, the average annual cost of a college education in the United States is $38,421.
Despite the school’s insistence that almost all students receive some financial assistance, there is a major discrepancy in what is sustainable for prospective artists. Students are less likely to pursue artistic dreams when the roadblocks become substantial. In its reporting on the closure, the New York Times noted:
Without deep endowments, art schools are typically unable to provide much financial aid. The University’s endowment was about $60 million, according to officials there. Yale’s was $40.7 billion in 2023, and that of the highly ranked California Institute of the Arts — known as CalArts — was $213.8 million as of 2022.
The inaccessibility of formal education is the largest barrier to growth across all fields. For artists, no one can succeed when art education is devalued on a large scale, and access is subsequently limited. With UArts tuition set 37% higher than the national average, external funds were needed to make up the difference, and the external funds did not come.
Like all universities, UArts constantly sought donations from alumni, but careers in the arts are not like those in medical, law, or business. Few artists become exceptionally wealthy from their craft; most simply want to sustain themselves and share their vision with the world. The current structure of American education funding is not set up for self-sustenance without alumni donations.
The National Endowment for the Arts was created in 1965 to acknowledge on a federal level that art is imperative to a sophisticated and enlightened society. There was a time when artists could thrive creatively and monetarily through grants; that time is dwindling. If arts education were respected properly, schools like UArts may have the support necessary to keep tuition low and the doors open.
There is the notion that arts education may not be necessary with widespread access to educational tools. It’s probably true that you can learn photography on YouTube and teach yourself painting by buying brushes and doing it yourself. Aside from the few who strictly adhere to traditional methods, I don’t think many artists would argue that point.
But the point is in the community.
There is value in openly contributing to a piece with classmates, receiving feedback and criticism in real time, and collaborating with others. This is possible outside of a classroom studio, but the structure of school allows for multiple levels of growth. Again: the point is the community.
I have long said that I learned more technical skills in my six-month internship and subsequent work as a photographer’s assistant than I learned in all four years of schooling at University of the Arts. I still believe that. The point is that I wouldn’t have had the connections to attend that internship were it not for my relationships from school.
My classmates and instructors at UArts led directly to the first clients for my business; honestly, very few of my professional endeavors cannot be traced back to University of the Arts. The communities I built, joined, and supported played key roles in my professional and personal development. There was a level of trust built in developing creatively together, and those four years at UArts have reverberated throughout my life in so many ways.
Others feel the same. Most of the social media posts I’ve seen from alumni and faculty speak with similar mourning for the loss of community, even while understanding that mismanagement plagued the school. According to Malik Murray, a former intern of mine:
I ain’t making no sad post about my alma mater shutting down. The writing was on the wall since we started there in 2016. But I met some lifelong friends there that I consider family and was taught by some of the best professors, so I’ll always be grateful.
Community-building is the greatest part of a college education. Through my connection to the University of the Arts, I have remained part of an international group of artists whom I’ve been privileged to watch prosper and expand the very essence of humanity on large and small scales. I believe that those who were disillusioned by their experiences would feel differently if support weren’t so limited.
Separately, arguments against the value of formal art education ring the death knell of professional creativity. The 2023 Hollywood strikes by actors and writers were largely about representation and protections in the face of artificial intelligence. There has been increasing fear of the continued undervaluing of creative production and what will happen when we chase away human creators for the sake of profit.
What is art but the expression of the human condition?
In the end, the biggest disappointment falls on the shoulders of the current and incoming students. Roughly one thousand young artists had set their intentions and focus, only to have the rug ripped from beneath them. Other schools in Philadelphia have extended offers for current and incoming students now without a home; Temple University, Drexel University, and Moore College of Art and Design are opening their doors for displaced UArts students.
But the disrespect is glaring. By being dishonest with its students, the university essentially told them that they didn’t matter enough to receive a fair warning that their path forward wasn’t clear. It placed an unjust burden on them. These young artists deserved better, as did the faculty and staff who would support them. If everyone knew that UArts was struggling financially, where were the rallying calls from within?
I feel for the current students who are uncertain about their future. I hope they aren’t too discouraged because the world needs them. We need their stories, perspectives, and feelings. We need artists who are so committed to their craft that they pursue it with all of their being. I want more painters who are painters and fewer who paint as a side hustle. I hope they channel their anger, frustration, and hurt into beautiful art that allows them to grow as individuals.
Art is universal. It’s human. It drives our purpose and allows us to express our curiosity. Art education is pivotal in retaining a class of working artists, which in turn is imperative to continuing to grow intellectually and spiritually as a society. It remains important that art be approached on multiple levels; the option to be certified with a degree in one’s craft from an institution of higher education should always remain open.
Unfortunately for University of the Arts, a bake sale or two would likely not have saved it from its financial issues; its problems ran deeper into its empty, mismanaged pockets.
However, a greater appreciation for the arts on local, state, and federal levels may have helped. The arts fill our lives with music, design, films, and writing. Art touches every aspect of our lives, whether we actively see it or not. It’s far past time that we properly supported the creative industry.
The dismissal and devaluing of formal arts education are detrimental to all of creativity. It is an unsubtle way of telling artists that what they’re doing isn’t real or important. We must ensure that children and teenagers receive support to create. As formal arts education fades and the means of support decrease, we must sustain our communities by supporting local artists in any way we can. I recently wrote about the continued need to support local art; this will always be necessary.
It may be bittersweet, but the video below has long been my beacon of hope for my place in the arts. It comes directly from a UArts function — their 2012 commencement. The speaker was the prolific author and storyteller Neil Gaiman, and his “Make Good Art” speech has been heard and championed by creatives worldwide.
I encourage all creative individuals to spend twenty minutes watching the video. It contains the most encouraging words of wisdom about art I’ve ever heard. As he states in his speech, follow the mountain. In good times and the other ones, creativity unites us and carries us forward.
To the now-former UArts students affected by the closure, this is a major stumble; the way forward may not seem very clear or easy. But there is a path, and I hope you find it. We’re rooting for you.
And now go, and make interesting mistakes. Make amazing mistakes. Make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.
