The University of the Arts abruptly closed its door last June – leaving even the most senior faculty members shocked, frustrated and jobless.
Following UArts’ closure in June 2024, faculty helped students land at various different colleges and universities. A failed proposed merger plan between UArts and Temple University led UArts to file for bankruptcy in September. The school and its assets have since been put up for auction to repay creditors. Three buildings were recently sold in auctions: The Philadelphia Art Alliance building, The Art Bank building and Terra Hall. Six properties are left to sell: Anderson Hall, Furness Hall, Gershman Hall, Hamilton Hall, Juniper Hall and Spruce Hall. The bankruptcy deliberations are still unfolding in court.
Now that is has been nearly seven months since the university’s closure, and a lot has developed with building sales and developments, where are some of the UArts staff members? The short answer is, it varies. But many staff members agree on one thing — the closure was traumatic and surprising. Billy Penn reached out to a variety of them to find out how they had fared after the shocking closure.
Donna Faye Burchfield
WAS Former UArts Dean of School of Dance
NOW Director of BFA & Low-Residency MFA in Dance at Bennington College
Donna Faye has an extensive background in dance and higher education. She started at UArts in 2010. She said she was immediately interested in the city and its charm.
“I visited Philadelphia in the spring,” she said. “I was captivated by the school right away. I mean, it was instant. It was kind of like that thing of love at first sight.”
Burchfield was initially the Director of the School of Dance – but, she said, under president David Yager in 2020, directors of schools were transitioned into deans. She helped with various bachelor and masters of fine arts programs at the School of Dance – many of which were unique in their offerings.
She said she was spending time with a friend last June when a notification came up about UArts’ closure on her friend’s phone. She immediately found her own, which had many notifications from people trying to reach her. She was shocked.
“I don’t even know if shock is the right word,” she said. “It was unfathomable, like you couldn’t conjure it up – the feeling that you would have in your mind.”
Burchfield said she was devastated for her students and fellow staff members. She emphasized the importance of the location of UArts and all that it offered.
“A lot of people who had come to work at the school of dance, at University of the Arts, they had traveled to Philadelphia to make it their home to teach at the School of Dance,” she said. “Or, Philadelphia had always been their home. They had grown up in dance. They had grown up at UArts. I mean, we had professors that had been there for 35 years, who had been undergraduate students at University of the Arts. So the sort of intersecting histories and labor that went into building that school is profound,” she said.
Burchfield said she was also worried for fellow faculty members. She said jobs in this industry don’t often come up.
“Getting a job at a college or a university in dance in 2024 or 2025, if you look at jobs in higher education, you’re going to see two or three dance jobs a year,” she said. “You’re not going to see 25; you’re not even going to see 10.”
Burchfield now works at Bennington (Vt.) College as the Director of the BFA & Low-Residency MFA in Dance program. She said Bennington was able to absorb many of the dance students and faculty from UArts – but that the transition hasn’t been easy.
“Can we give the folks who lost their jobs, especially those full-time folks, can we give them enough work to help them kind of get across this terrible time?” she said. “And we’ve been able to help some of them, but they’re driving four and a half hours to five hours to be here to do it, or they’re taking the train where you change in New York.”
Burchfield said there was a lot of work done to continue pertinent aspects of the program – including trying to keep part of the student’s studies in Philly.
Despite these adaptations, she said the situation was still “horrible” and left many without answers.
“Resilience is so necessary,” she said. “We live in a world that kind of demands that we figure out how to keep going and I’m just thankful to the faculty who’ve joined in on this effort to try to hold something together that we believed in so deeply.”
She said the repair from a situation like this can’t happen immediately, but she is grateful for those who have been helpful and the support from her colleagues along the way.
Erik VanHorn
WAS Former Program Director of Game Art, Associate Professor of Animation at UArts
NOW Art Director, Worldbuilding – Disney Lorcana
During his time at UArts, Erik VanHorn worked as the Program Director of Game Art and as an Associate Professor of Animation. As Program Director of Game Art, VanHorn said he was in charge of things like admissions and marketing, day-to-day programming and advising/mentoring students.
As a professor in animation classes, VanHorn said UArts had more unique subject matter due to its focus on 2D animation.
“UArts, being a uniquely older animation program, they still have light tables and down shooters, and they can still do things the traditional way,” he said. “It was a great opportunity, and we found that that was one of the most popular and growing programs in the school, specifically because it’s almost impossible to find that kind of program anywhere else. So, we were attracting students from all over the world to that animation program for that reason, because they could get a really strong 2D animation education.”
He said UArts’ game art program was similarly unique. He said while other schools in the region tend to focus more on programming, UArts had a deeper focus on arts and narratives of the games.
“We were really good at storytelling and creativity, and so that’s what we nurtured with, sort of like handcrafted-feeling games, very personal games, games as art or games as self-expression,” she said. “You’re not going to get that the bigger schools, they’re going to teach you to work in a cubicle and make like first-person shooters or real-time strategy games or one of the big triple-A genres that the industry wants people to conform to.”
He emphasized UArts’ nature as a small, boutique college allowed it to differ from these standard programs.
VanHorn’s initial reaction to UArts closure was confusion – he didn’t think he had heard correctly.
“I thought that these parents that were calling me in a panic were hearing something and getting signals crossed, because I said there are art schools closing, but they’re not our school,” he said.
He said he quickly discovered the truth once a faculty email came out the following day. He said he noticed other arts schools that were closing weren’t recommending students to UArts, which likely meant administration knew about the school’s closure for some time.
VanHorn said his personal transition was likely not as painful as most.
“Part of what we do to stay connected to the industry is we try to stay active in our professions as professors so our skills don’t stagnate,” he said. “So, I had already accepted the role of art director on Disney Lorcana, which is a trading card game.”
He said the product his team works on is unique.
“[The game] is sold all over the world and is translated into eight languages,” he said. “So, it’s a pretty big deal. And I was part of the founding team, the Worldbuilding team as we call it, that put together the story and the narrative behind the game.”
Despite his success in this role, he said his family is reaping the consequences of the school’s closure. VanHorn said he took the job at UArts to help in part with his daughter’s tuition.
“They’re going to have massive student debt, which we tried to avoid, which was the whole reason I took the UArts job in the first place,” he said. “Because I had students that were approaching college age, and these days you have to find clever ways to pay for it, because it’s very expensive.”
Beyond the scarcity of similar programs for students, VanHorn said faculty positions are few and far between.
“It’s becoming administration heavy and really scarce for teaching jobs, at least full-time,” he said. “So that means, if you have no interest in being a peer administrator, but you want to be an educator, it’s really hard to find work in that industry, which is one of the reasons why I’m not teaching right now.”
He said it is extremely difficult, even with previous experience, to find jobs in this field at the moment.
Sheryl Oring
WAS Dean of School of Art
NOW Artist focusing on civic engagement and democracy through art
Sheryl Oring was the Dean of UArt’s School of Art. In this role, she was in charge of everything from budget and facilities to overseeing faculty, staff and program directors.
Oring said the announcement of the school’s closure came at a bad time. She said it was inconvenient for both faculty and students.
“This was the worst possible timing that anyone could imagine to close a university,” she said. “This was well beyond the time that faculty and staff could reasonably be expected to find new work for the following academic year. Nothing had been done to prepare plans for students at that time.”
Oring said she struggled personally with the short notice. She had to leave some belongings in her office due to the short time frame.
“We were all told that we had to remove our personal belongings within a week, and so I had to move about 150 typewriters out of my office space,” she said. “I also had a number of books stored there. By the time it got to moving the books, because I moved the typewriters first, it was a little like triage, and by the time it got to the books, I just didn’t have the strength to move all of my books, so I literally left some of my books in the office.”
She said the immediate aftermath of the situation was really tough. She said there are a lot of factors that go into a school closing.
“People out there in the world sort of assume that we got some severance,” she said. “Nobody got severance, and the school is in bankruptcy now. So there’s, I would imagine, very little expectation that we’ll ever get any money.”
Since her time at UArts, Oring has been working on creative pursuits as an artist.
One of her projects, “I Wish To Say,” has involved 21 years of traveling with a typewriter and asking for people to write out messages to the current U.S. President. Oring dresses as a ‘60s secretary and brings her physical typewriter all over the U.S. to collect these letters.
Some messages from these letters will be showcased at Oring’s upcoming exhibit, “Secretary to the People,” which will be on display at the Free Library of Philadelphia beginning January 30.
She is also working on a book called Secretary to the People that should come out in 2026. This is in addition to her book Activating Democracy: The I Wish To Say Project, which was released in 2016.
Oring said she is continuing to apply for jobs – but that artistic projects that activate and encourage civic engagement have also been important.
“I started working on my art again, in addition to applying for academic jobs and also nonprofit jobs and looking for jobs that relate more to the work that I do on activating democracy with art and on civic engagement and work with schools as well,” she said.
She is hopeful for her colleagues and other staff at UArts as they move forward in their pursuits and future employment.
Kikau Alvaro
WAS Interim Dean – Ira Brind School of Theater Arts & Associate Professor of Musical Theatre
NOW Adjunct Professor at Marymount College & job searching
Kikau Alvaro was initially brought on to be brought on as an associate professor in musical theater department, but soon transitioned to become the interim dean of the program. This involved overseeing acting programs, theater design and technology programs, musical theater, directing and playwriting options within the school.
He said the closing of UArts came as a total shock for him.
“Being one of the nine deans, you would assume that you would have a little bit of a heads up, but essentially, we found out when the newspaper released that information,” he said.
Alvaro said he stayed onboard to help with transitions for students through July. While many students were able to transfer to local universities or other schools outside the region that offered similar programs, he said students were ultimately missing out on the productions and events UArts would put on each year.
“They’re not only bringing wherever they were in the process, but the possibility of someone being able to produce at that level was just not in the cards,” he said. “So, yes, all of these classes transferred to these new institutions, but the opportunities, to me, felt like it was hit or miss, depending on where they were going,”
Alvaro applied for unemployment as soon as he could following the UArts closure. As many UArts staff shared, the timing was not ideal for job searches within academia.
“This [timing] has messed everything up a bit, where most big searches happen in the fall, like late fall or early spring,” he said. “So then is when, when you would have those full-time positions and because UArts closed when it did, unless there was some lucky quick position, it was going to be some sort of transition, some sort of timing that meant applying to lots of positions and once again, not even seeing those yield until really about this time.”
For the fall semester, Alvaro would commute to New York City to be an adjunct professor for several classes at Marymount Manhattan College. He would travel to NYC to teach his two classes, and he would sometimes stick around the city to see a show. But, he would ultimately come back to Philly at the end of the day.
Now, Alvaro is searching for a more permanent role.
“I have been on several in-person interview sequences, and am anticipating more of those over the next couple weeks,” he said. “And these are positions that are both in academia as well as out. So I’m open to an artistic directorship or even some other artistic leadership position, but that’s where we are at the moment.”
He said he imagines it has also been a tough transition for other colleagues – with minimal support from UArts following its closure.
“There really was not a specific place for our faculty or staff to land, and has been zero to none support when it comes to that,” he said. “And so I just want to say out into the space – it is complicated and still really sad.”
He said the investment he and many other students and colleagues had in the Philadelphia area also made for a disappointing result.
“The only jobs I’m reaching out for are all in other markets and regions, like they are on the West Coast, they are South and then something completely in the middle of America,” he said. “So everything I’m looking for is out of this space, that is the market as we speak now. The positions that would find me in them are not here. And so I don’t know what those logistics mean, but there’s something kind of deep and sad about being in this amazingly artistic space and actually having to go somewhere [else] is sort of troubling and sad.”
Alvaro also mentioned that many arts colleges reached out to help affected UArts students. However, he said that this makes him think about the viability of art programs in general.
“It is a bit more of a deeper story and telling about the desperation for students in other programs, places that our students wouldn’t even necessarily geographically go to who are reaching out to say, ‘Hey, we’d really love to fill our classes,’ ” he said. “So it’s just putting that in context. It was generous, it was amazing what people have done across the country. And also, I want to look closer at that level of desperation. Are there too many of these programs? Are other places in need of closing down so that other programs can be uplifted?”
Erin Elman
WAS Dean of Graduate & Professional Studies at UArts
NOW CEO of Girls Inc. of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey
Erin Elman wore many different hats during her time at UArts.
“I got my very first job at the University of the Arts in August of 1990,” she said. “I started as the director of the youth programs, and I never left, until the sudden closing last June.”
She said she was able to grow a lot at UArts through lots of professional development, peer support and further studies. She then began a series of deanships.
“Starting in 2008, I was appointed into a deanship of extension programs,” she said. “And then I had three other deanships that followed that. I became sort of the person that when something maybe wasn’t working so well, maybe Erin could help out a little bit there.”
Elman also spent time as the Dean of Liberal Arts and the Interim Dean of the School of Art. She said her final position before UArts’ closure was Dean of Graduate Studies – which included a lot of professional programs.
“So, a lot of master’s degree in education, museum studies, professional development for arts educators, and we were developing a lot of new programs,” she said.
Following such a long tenure at UArts, Elman was in disbelief when she first heard the news of the school’s closure.
“I would say I was really focused on believing that this could be turned around,” she said. “I’m not usually naive; I’m a realist. But, I have been for many, many years an accreditation reviewer. So, I know that the accreditation group that we work with, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, never wants to close the school. It’s so damaging to students and faculty and the economy, and it just didn’t really make sense to me.”
She added it “still doesn’t make total sense.” Elman stayed on the school’s payroll through the end of June to create “teach out” plans for students and ensure they landed in places where they were comfortable.
She said many students have moved on to great schools, and many of them have remained together.
“I think that they’re sad, but I think they’re going to be OK,” she said. “And they went together in clusters, so they have their cohort. And I’ve been told that some of the schools put them in housing together, so that they would feel comfortable with each other. And I think there are little reunions here and there for different schools.”
She said she was grateful for the outpouring of love from the city, community and alumni, and that she hopes everyone is able to land well.
Elman recently began a position as CEO of Girls Inc. of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. She said her first 25 years at UArts centered around youth programs, and that she is excited to get back into this kind of work.
“I was a little sad when my portfolio kind of shifted away from youth,” she said. “So when I saw this opportunity at Girls Inc., which serves 3,000 girls in Greater Philadelphia and central New Jersey every year, and really interesting programs, I thought maybe this is like a full circle moment for me.”
Elman said she is hoping to use her background to integrate more arts and culture into the organization. She enjoys the focus of the organization and finds herself resonating with the organization’s pillars – strong, smart and bold.
“So strong focuses on the body and wellness, which is so important,” she said. “And smart, of course, is academic, but also intellectual rigor, and bold is really life skills and leadership development,” she said. “And when I was a kid, I grew up in New York City. I didn’t love my public schools in New York City, but it was the after-school programs that kind of saved me and helped me find my path.”
While Elman gets adjusted to her new role, she is hopeful that other colleagues land well and in the best places for them.
“I would say it was really different for every single person,” she said. “There were some people that were at a place in their lives that they could retire in terms of faculty and staff. Other people took this as an opportunity to reinvent themselves, maybe move out of the region. Other people are still committed to staying in Philly and having some challenges.”
In terms of students, Elman said she can see that students were “heartbroken,” but that they were also “realistic and resilient” in moving on and figuring out the best plans for them.
This story is a part of Every Voice, Every Vote, a collaborative project managed by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. The William Penn Foundation provides lead support for Every Voice, Every Vote in 2024 and 2025 with additional funding from The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, Comcast NBC Universal, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, Judy and Peter Leone, Arctos Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, 25th Century Foundation, and Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation.To learn more about the project and view a full list of supporters, visit www.everyvoice-everyvote.org. Editorial content is created independently of the project’s donors.
