Change is afoot for the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), one of the nation’s great art schools, writes Peter Dobrin for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

At the start of the year, PAFA announced it would be phasing out its undergraduate and graduate degree program, marking one of a series of institutional changes the academy will be pursuing. 

Other new initiatives extend across the school, museum, and its two Broad Street buildings. They include the ongoing assessments of the museum’s collection with the possibility of deaccessioning, the transformation of the Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building into an “arts hub” that would be shared with several Philadelphia arts institutions, the renovation of the Furness-designed building, and the introduction of a new higher-education partner to join the University of Pennsylvania program in granting college degrees.

The prospective return of PAFA’s venerable certificate program is also currently being worked on.

“If we can shift to looking forward basically to what we want to be, I think people will realize that actually where we’re going is more rooted in the development of future artists than we are now,” said PAFA president and CEO Eric Pryor.

The numerous changes will reshape the kinds of students PAFA will attract.

Read more about the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and its potential future at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

_____