(c. 1895) In 1870, the
Philadelphia Musical Academy (PMA) was created by Johann F. Himmelsbach, Rudolph Hennig, and Wenzel Kopta. Ownership of PMA went to
Richard Zeckwer in 1876. In 1876, the
Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art was founded as a museum, which became the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, and an art school, which went through various name changes and mergers before becoming the University of the Arts. Though never housed in the same building, the museum and the school were one institution. In 1877, the
Philadelphia Conservatory of Music was founded. In 1900 a Saturday School for children was added to the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art. In 1893, the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art purchased an early 19th-century neoclassical building at 320 South Broad Street, which had been designed in 1824 by
John Haviland for the
Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. In 1917 violinist and composer
Frederick E. Hahn's Hahn Conservatory of Music (founded 1902) merged into the PMA at which time Hahn was appointed both president and director of the school. Hahn remained director of the PMA until his death in 1942. In 1921, contralto
Marian Anderson applied to the Philadelphia Musical Academy but was turned away because she was "colored." In 1890 Mrs. Ida May Yeocum had also been turned away due to her race. In 1938, the museum changed its name to the
Philadelphia Museum of Art and the school became the
Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art. In 1964, the school became independent of the museum and renamed itself the
Philadelphia College of Art (PCA). In 1944, the Children's Dance Theatre, later known as the
Philadelphia Dance Academy, was established by
Nadia Chilkovsky Nahumck. In 1962, the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music and the Philadelphia Musical Academy merged; in 1976, the combined organization acquired the Dance Academy and renamed itself the
Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts. After establishing a School of Theater in 1983, the institution became the first performing arts college in Pennsylvania to offer a comprehensive range of majors in music, dance and theater. This institution later became the College of Performing Arts of the University of the Arts. In 1985, the Philadelphia College of Art and the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts merged to become the
Philadelphia Colleges of the Arts, and gained university status as the University of the Arts in 1987. In 1996, the university added a third academic division, the College of Media and Communication. In 2011, the College of Media and Communication merged with the College of Art and Design to become the College of Art, Media & Design. Then, there were just two colleges and two divisions: the College of Art, Media & Design; the College of Performing Arts; the Division of Liberal Arts; and the Division of Continuing Studies. The College of Art, Media and Design was accredited at the time by the
National Association of Schools of Art and Design. The
Philadelphia Art Alliance became a part of the university in 2017.
Financial and enrollment challenges In the late 2010s and 2020s, the university faced declining enrollment and a poor financial outlook. In the 2018–19 school year enrollment was at 1,914 falling to 1,149 by the start of the fall 2023 semester. The university was profitable for the 2021–22 fiscal year, but the next year it had a projected operating loss of $2.56 million, on a budget of about $50 million. From 2018 to 2022, the university led a capital campaign that allegedly raised $67.2 million, including $5.5 million for financial aid and $24 million for its endowment, which grew to $61.2 million. The school also received a $2.5 million grant from Pennsylvania for infrastructure projects. The exact amount received from those gift pledges is unknown. The
endowment money was not usable for day-to-day operations, which remained imperiled. Starting in 2019, the day-to-day university fund ended each academic year with only a single month of funding remaining. In 2023, the president behind the capital campaign, David Yager, retired. He was replaced by
Kerry Walk. In October 2023, Walk privately announced to the deans of the university that "she’d recently discovered serious financial problems that she’d been unaware of when she accepted the job". This was not communicated to students, faculty or alumni, and is the only known discussion of serious issues before the following May. Also on May 31, 2024 the accreditor noted that "the institution failed to inform the Commission of closure in a timely manner or to properly plan for closure with prior approval" and withdrew the university's accreditation as of the following day, June 1. On June 5, 2024, the board of trustees hired the consulting firm
Alvarez and Marsal to oversee the closure. The accreditor rendered their withdrawal of accreditation unappealable as of June 10, apart from a "limited extension of the accreditation cease date to July 19, 2024, for the sole purpose of awarding earned academic credentials, executing any appropriate course substitutions, and for processing course grades." The
Historical Society of Pennsylvania is now the home for a collection of archive materials from the UArts Libraries as well as a limited collection of student archives of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art / Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art. The UArts library collection is now owned by the Forman Arts Initiative.
Sale and redevelopment The university's premises were sold in late 2024 and early 2025 as part of its bankruptcy proceeedings. On February 24, 2025, Hamilton and Furness Halls became the fourth and fifth of nine buildings to be sold during the university's bankruptcy process. Scout Ltd., the development company known for transforming the
Edward W. Bok Technical High School, purchased the buildings for $12.25 million at an auction with plans to turn them into artist workshops and subsidized housing for artists. Sales were completed for three other buildings: Art Alliance, which was purchased by
Curtis Institute of Music; Terra Hall, which went to
Temple University; and the Arts Bank building, sold to Quadro Bay LLC. By July 7, 2025, Gershman Hall at Broad and Pine, originally the Young Men's and Women's Hebrew Association building, was sold to Lubert-Adler realty, completing liquidation of the university's premises. == Academics ==