News

Ash Garner working in her studio at MASS MoCA

Ash Garner (MFA ’20) is a Philadelphia-based artist who works with soft sculpture and site-specific installation. She recently participated in a Career Services Artist Residency Panel, sharing with current students her experience following graduation at The Studios at MASS MoCA Residency. In this…

Alumni News
Rhoden Arts Center

An excerpt from last month's Career Services newsletter to current college students, from Assistant Dean of Student Life and Career Services, Greg Martino:

“A few years back, my colleague at the time, Morgan Hobbs, embarked on the 100 rejection project. The idea behind this is that you submit your…

Perspectives
PAFA's digital lab

Studio classes and access to working faculty are only part of the training that shapes and challenges successful artists in the School of Art. Today’s artists must also strive to develop skills in entrepreneurship, self-promotion, and business acumen. Enter the Fine Arts Venture Fund. First awarded…

Perspectives
Athena Scott with back turned works on large painting of figures

“An artist enrolled in a school such as PAFA finds their practice transitioning from one realm of exploration to another until discoveries are made.” So begins the description of the Paths exhibit, which displayed works by PAFA’s Master’s of Fine Art Class of 2022 this past summer and early fall…

Perspectives
Kristy Jane smiles, doing the splits in front of a large PAFA sign

This academic year Lily Jane Brown, Kristy Jane, and Marley Massey Parsons lead PAFA’s Visiting Artist Program. With untold opportunities for attendees and coordinators alike, the program is entirely student-run—Lily and Marley are enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts program and Kristy participates…

Perspectives
artist Arcmanoro Niles standing between paintings in studio

After graduating from PAFA with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2013, award-winning painter and Washington, D.C. native Arcmanoro Niles has gone on to exhibit in solo and group shows around the United States, China, Costa Rica, and Ireland—including an upcoming show at ICA Boston in 2022—and his works…

Alumni News
Hiro Sakaguchi sits in studio with crossed arms and artwork in background

Perhaps few of us can sympathize with a fish. A drawer and painter—and self-described as awkward and imaginative—PAFA’s continuing education instructor Hiro Sakaguchi is one of those few. 

One of Sakaguchi’s most-seen paintings depicts Niagara Falls with a bear catching one of several airplanes in…

Alumni News
Artist Eustace Mamba stands on top of marble balcony

Originally from Manhattan, N.Y., Eustace Mamba entered PAFA in 2016. He received a BFA in illustration and is currently pursuing his MFA. Among other prizes, Mamba has received the 2019–2020 Raymond D. & Estelle Rubens Travel Scholarship. His “Weighing Escape Options” was acquired through the Judith…

Alumni News
Custom sheets of paper in yellow, orange, and red dry on a large table

“I’m primarily a painter”—an understatement from PAFA alumna Sarah McEneaney, whose autobiographical paintings can be seen in permanent collections from coast to coast—"but I have made some sculpture in the past throughout the years and they've mostly been animals. I think that’s because I live with…

Alumni News
Al Gury stands in front of group of students, leading in-studio lecture

Al Gury wears many hats, to say the least. At PAFA alone he chairs the painting department, teaching at the undergraduate, high school, and continuing education levels, and directs the After-School Studio Art Program for young people in the city. He also works with Mural Arts Philadelphia, people…

Perspectives
River wearing dragon head

River Hennick first came to PAFA for a visit in February 2020. She had recently submitted her application and was enthralled by the school’s Cast Hall and museum. “I feel so inspired by the city. I knew it was the right choice.” After she returned home to Overland Park, Kansas, the country shut down…

Perspectives
Global Optimization Diagram installed in Taking Space
Artist Ana Vizcarra Rankin graduated from the Master of Fine Art program in 2012. She received the Judith McGregor Caldwell Purchase Prize at the Annual Student Exhibition in May 2012 for her work Global Optimization Diagram. The painting is on view at the museum in “Taking Space: Contemporary Women…
Alumni News

About PAFA

Founded in 1805, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is America's first school and museum of fine arts. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, PAFA offers undergraduate and graduate programs in the fine arts, innovative exhibitions of historic and contemporary American art, and a world-class collection of American art. PAFA’s esteemed alumni include Mary Cassatt, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, William Glackens, Barkley L. Hendricks, Violet Oakley, Louis Kahn, David Lynch, and Henry Ossawa Tanner.