The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), the oldest art school in the United States, will be shuttering its degree-earning programs at the end of the 2024–2025 academic year. Founded in 1805, the Philadelphia institution is widely known for its traditional arts education program and historic contemporary art museum. After gaining university status in 1987, the school opened its two-year graduate program in 1991 and an undergraduate program in 2008, and has helped shape the careers of artists such as Mary Cassatt, David Lynch, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, and Thomas Eakins.
Following a January 9 special board meeting, the school’s leadership has resorted to shutting down its undergraduate and graduate programs, citing steadily rising operational costs, falling student enrollment exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and increasing expectations to expand its academic and professional programs.
As a result, the final graduating class will be in 2025, leaving 37 students currently enrolled at the school forced to transfer to other universities such as The University of the Arts, Moore College of Art and Design, Arcadia University, Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture, and Pennsylvania College of Art and Design. Despite their varying tuition costs, these institutions will waive transfer application fees for PAFA students as part of their agreement with the school.
Moreover, PAFA expects approximately 85% of its full-time faculty to continue to support students graduating in 2024 and 2025, as well as teach in other programs at the school. However, there will be “some staff who no longer will have roles after June 2024,” according to the January 10 announcement. It is unclear which faculty positions will be eliminated. The school said it will provide impacted employees with various services to support their transition into new jobs.
“In making these changes, PAFA joins other colleges in the greater Philadelphia area and elsewhere which have had to merge or close due to growing systemic obstacles confronting degree-granting programs,” the school’s president, Eric Pryor, wrote in a letter to PAFA community members.
PAFA confirmed to Hyperallergic that the school is currently running on a $3 million budget deficit. Ceasing its college education programs is expected to cut down costs by just over $1 million, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The school has stated that this decision will not affect its current Kindergarten through 12th-grade arts education, its certificate and continuing education programs, nor its art museum, billed as the first institution of its kind dedicated to contemporary American art in the world.
Kelsey Gavin, a Master of Fine Arts student with a concentration in alternative photography and stop-motion animation who is slated to graduate in the spring, told Hyperallergic that she is concerned about how the school’s decision to return to certificate programs will impact the institution’s accessibility for future students. Unlike degree-earning programs, many certificate courses will not qualify for federal loans.
“This [decision] locks a lot of people out of a fruitful education that may have been accessible otherwise, once again putting connections to the art world out of reach for those who can’t outright afford it,” Gavin said.
In response to this concern, a representative from the school told Hyperallergic that it plans to maintain accreditation for its certificate program through the National Association of Schools of Arts and Design under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965.
Aside from this concern, Gavin also said that she is troubled by how the school’s decision to end its degree-earning education programs has uprooted first and second-year students, who will now be forced to finish their degrees elsewhere.
“My biggest question for the school is how they found it ethical to offer freshman admission this fall when things looked as bad as they did,” Gavin continued. “I want to know how they were able to offer a freshman a full ride, promise that student four years, and then yank it away three months later?”
A second-year Bachelor of Fine Arts student, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of potential retaliation from the school, told Hyperallergic that they cried when they first read the announcement. Originally from Pennsylvania, the student had decided to enroll at PAFA over other schools they were accepted into, including Moore College of Art and Design and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, because PAFA’s program was close to home and seemed like the best option for the education they wanted to pursue.
“I want to get my degree in sculpture and, unfortunately, not a lot of art schools in the area have a great sculpture program,” the student told Hyperallergic, explaining that most students are upset with the announcement and “feel they’ve been wronged” by the school’s decision to accept new students amid its financial constraints.
“The facts are: PAFA screwed over their students,” the student said.
