Fin: What is going on with the arts in Philadelphia?

The sudden death of UArts and drama at the Free Library- plus Alamo trouble, Tom Hanks meets Ted Cruz, and more in this week’s notes column.

There’s some very weird stuff going on in the arts scene in Philadelphia. 

Last Friday, it was suddenly announced that the University of the Arts, an art school based on the Avenue of the Arts on South Broad Street, would close, effective just one week later. For a major university to close on such short notice is practically unprecedented- and most people who are students or employees of the university heard about the closure from the media. 

The closure also means the end of the Lightbox Film Center, at least for now. The Lightbox was a nonprofit arthouse theater that specialized in rare showings of world cinema, restorations, and obscure indie fare that doesn’t get shown anywhere else in town. I was there a few weeks ago to see Ryuichi Sakamoto Opus, which was a great watch, even though the composer’s piano playing was drowned out occasionally by loud music from a dance performance a couple of floors below.

The program dates back to 1970 when it was called Film at International House and was based in West Philly; it moved over to UArts in February 2020- only to shut down again just a couple of weeks later due to COVID. 

I wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer this week about the closing of the Lightbox, speaking with director Jesse Pires and others about the theater's closure and their hopes for reviving the project in some form. 

By the way, the Inquirer staff has been killing it all week long on the UArts story, which is many things at once—it’s an education story, an arts story, a real estate story, and much more. There’s a possibility that Temple University will step in and rescue UArts, which I certainly hope happens. 

The other big arts story in Philly this week? The extremely bizarre drama with the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Author Events team.

The Free Library, usually at its Parkway Central location, has long hosted the Author Events series, in which major authors come to town for on-stage interviews and sometimes book signings. 

I’ve gone to these frequently over the years with authors such as Chuck Klosterman, Maggie Haberman, Stephen A. Smith, Kara Swisher, Michael Wolff, Camille Paglia, and numerous others; when prominent authors visit Philly for events, they come to the Free Library about 95 percent of the time. 

Last week, the Free Library sent an email to its mailing list stating, “The entire lineup of scheduled Author Events is cancelled. The Author Events team is no longer with the Free Library Foundation.” Similar messages were also posted on social media. 

Another email went out a few hours later, stating that “We want to clarify that no Author Events are cancelled and we remain committed to continuing this beloved program.” It turns out the entire Author Events team had quit and decided to carry out a rogue cancellation of the summer’s slate of events. 

Despite the insistence that the events would continue as scheduled, yet another email on Thursday announced that an event set for next Monday with Rev. William J. Barber II had, in fact, been canceled. 

Wild stuff that I hope can be resolved.