The nearly 150-year-old Historic Landmark Building of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts will be inaccessible to the public for over a year starting this July, but PAFA promises that its programming will continue.
Beginning Monday, July 8, the historic building, located at 118 North Broad Street, will go "offline" for planned renovations to its HVAC system. The venue will not reopen until sometime in the fall of 2025, just in time for the building's 150th anniversary in 2026.
According to PAFA, the maintenance will ensure better climate control in the building, which should provide the conditions needed for the institution's valuable collection. During the renovations, several parts of that collection will be taken across the country for traveling exhibitions.
Until the building closes, the Artists as Cultivators exhibit will remain open. The Sunday Serenades series of solo concerts will conclude on July 7. PAFA's other venue, the Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building at 128 North Broad Street, will host several exhibitions and programs while the historic building is closed.
PAFA's Victorian Gothic building was built from a design by Philadelphia architects Frank Furness and George Hewitt. Other surviving buildings from Furness include the Fisher Fine Arts Library at the University of Pennsylvania and the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia.
In January, PAFA announced that the institution would cease its degree-granting programs at the end of the 2024-25 academic year, but it continued its focus on its art exhibits and promised to continue non-degree art education initiatives.
