Casual observers would be forgiven if they thought America’s oldest museum and art school had given up the ghost. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts announced in January that it was end your college programand a few months later closed its historic building.

The sudden and unexplained collapse of the University of the Arts along Broad Street only contributed to the impression that PAFA had also closed its doors. A June New York Times article on UArts reported that PAFA was disbanding, and that the piece traveled far before being corrected.

But while questions remain about the new certificate program PAFA plans to launch to replace its college degrees, the institution lives and the PAFA museum moves forward.

On the one hand, exhibitions in PAFA’s Samuel MV Hamilton building continued without interruption. “Making Strange: Sacred Imagery and the Self,” a small exhibition of works by Moe A. Brooker, Kara Walker, Anne Minich, Violet Oakley and others, opens November 14.

On the other hand, the museum has a new director.

“I started 49 hours ago, Monday morning at 9 o’clock, so I am a fountain of knowledge and wisdom,” Harry Philbrick said one recent morning.

Playful sarcasm aside, Philbrick comes to the job with prior knowledge. He started as interim director of the PAFA museum on October 1, but previously served as director from 2011 to 2016.

Its main tasks are the redevelopment of the permanent collectionplanning for which is well advanced for an opening in 2026, as well as the museum’s programming for the next two or three years.

“We currently have a small number of projects underway and, given the reductions that have been made, we have a very small staff. So my goal is to really try to keep the museum open and operational and the exhibits, but on a smaller scale until 2026, when I hope we can really increase the programming.

Philbrick, 66, plans to stay in the role only until 2026, when he expects to be replaced by “probably someone younger and longer term than me,” he said. declared. However, its influence during these twenty months promises to be crucial. President and CEO Eric G. Pryor ends his three-year term by the end of December, and Philbrick is part of a trio with operations director Lisa Biagas and academic director Sonia Basheva Mañjon who have already assumed leadership of the institution.

One of Philbrick’s first tasks is to find a successor to Anna O. Marley, who left his job as curator of historic American art in July to become director of curatorial affairs at the Toledo Museum of Art. (Marley was also responsible for PAFA’s curatorial affairs, but the new curator will not accept that title. Brooke Davis Anderson last held the title of museum director. She left in May 2021.)

Interviews for a new curator of American art have begun, said Philbrick, who came to PAFA after a stint as interim executive director of the Fabric Workshop and Museum.

Much of his work will be fundraising. It’s already reaching out to individuals and foundations, and given the post-pandemic challenges facing the arts sector and, “frankly, the trauma we’ve all experienced with the closure of UArts“, the first question donors ask is whether PAFA will survive, he said.

“And the answer is a resounding yes. We will survive. The board really took a hard look at the financial realities and made some tough decisions. We have clearly reduced our workforce compared to the past. Difficult decisions were therefore made. But these are decisions that were taken in order to create a sustainable context for the institution. Yes, we will survive and yes, we are making plans to do more than survive to actually thrive.

PAFA still projects an end to a series of operating deficits by 2028 or earlier. But Philbrick reiterated his hope that no artwork from the museum’s collection of more than 16,000 pieces would be given away for financial reasons – either to fund capital projects or for work on the Furness building, which is closed for good reason. HVAC work and is expected to reopen in spring 2026.

“No sale is envisaged at the moment,” he declared.

Philbrick says discussions about the revived certificate program are ongoing and that while ultimately the substance of that program does not depend on the museum side of the institution, “we remain active participants in that conversation.” . PAFA hopes to launch the certificate program in fall 2025.

“We are really committed to the idea of ​​the museum as a place of learning. And that ranges from UPenn graduate students coming here to do internships and do research, to summer camp programs, and everything in between.

What is essential is that creating art and seeing it happen in the same place and have a relationship with each other. It’s been like this for centuries.

“That’s really what brought me back to PAFA, the magic of this place, this combination of art of the highest caliber on display and art created side by side. And it’s an energy that no other institution has.