Philly City Hall to display artwork by former UArts students and staff (2024)

UArts closure: What you need to know

• Philadelphia’s University of the Arts recently announced its sudden closure
• The abrupt closure has sparked widespread criticism from students, faculty and staff, who have pushed for answers from the university
• UArts president Kerry Walk resigned shortly before the university’s last day
• The future remains unclear for UArts students, some of whom are watching the school collapse from abroad
• Here’s what might happen to the school’s $61 million endowment and historic buildings

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Councilmember Rue Landau says a planned City Hall exhibition of artwork by former students and faculty of the University of the Arts will “send a message” to those who decided to abruptly close the downtown art school last June.

“People are very angry about what happened in the University Arts, rightfully so,” Landau said. “This will allow them to say, ‘You harmed us and we’re mad. But look what we’re doing now. We are in City Hall and we’re going to be in other places. Shame on you.’”

Landau and Creative Philadelphia, the new name of the city’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, headed by Val Gay, have begun soliciting the UArts community to submit works that will be displayed on two floors of City Hall, likely in November. The exhibit will be called “Transcending Uncertainty: Art Endures at Home in Philadelphia.” Interested artists can use this online submission form.

The idea for the exhibition grew out of a hearing held in City Council chambers Aug. 8, when people impacted by the sudden closure of UArts had a chance to testify on record. People described disruptions to their education, career, housing and finances.

“The hearing was heartbreaking. We all had tears in our eyes,” said Landau, whose mother studied painting at UArts’ predecessor, the Philadelphia Colleges of the Arts.

“To know how many generations of folks who have graduated from there, been able to make a living with their trade, or to hone their crafts,” she said, “to have that come to a halt, to have people’s education and their employment just end immediately, is just outrageous.”

For many years, Creative Philadelphia has regularly installed artwork through its Art in City Hall program. The UArts exhibition is expected to be large, spanning hallways on the first and fifth floors and in a newly renovated first-floor gallery space.

The sudden closure of UArts has been the subject of a hearing at the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and an ongoing review by the state attorney general. Landau said some members of City Council have begun talking about forming a task force to find out what happened, as well as “a couple other ideas that are still brewing.”

“The problem is that the University of the Arts closed so abruptly and harmed people so quickly, what you need to do to help on the other side doesn’t usually come immediately,” she said.

Last year, when Landau was still a candidate for the council at-large seat, she was one of the very few candidates who responded to a questionnaire about the arts, issued by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and artblog. At the time, Landau indicated she would find dedicated funding streams for the arts and review the city’s funding distribution process.

As a council member, Landau hired a staff arts liaison, artist Lauren Rinaldi, and is asking local artists to exhibit work in her office on a regularly rotating basis.

Landau is also soliciting information from Philadelphia’s greater arts community with an online survey asking about the challenges of maintaining an art practice, including questions about income, housing, childcare and health insurance.

The anonymous survey can be accessed through the Instagram page of Landau’s office. It has garnered over 250 responses in its first 10 days and will remain open until Sept. 6.

The results will be used to identify needs in the arts community and find ways to offer support. The results will be shared by Landau and Gay.

“She is brainstorming ways we can bring folks together to make sure that we have a really vibrant arts community that are collaborating together,” Landau said of Gay.

The region’s art community is regularly surveyed by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and the city’s Cultural Fund. In 2021, Councilmembers Isaiah Thomas and Katherine Gilmore Richardson formed a task force to determine the funding needs of the arts community during the COVID pandemic.