Eric Pryor, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts president, is stepping down after three years

In a surprise move, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts president and CEO Eric G. Pryor is stepping down, PAFA leaders announced Monday.

Pryor, leader of the venerable but financially troubled museum and school since January 2022, informed the full board last week that he would leave Dec. 31 when his contract ends.

Reginald M. Browne, a vice chair of the board of trustees, said he was “somewhat surprised” by Pryor’s decision, but he declined to provide Pryor’s reasons for stepping down, calling them “personal.”

Asked whether he tried to convince Pryor to stay, Browne said: “I’m not at liberty to discuss more about his reason, but there was definitely a productive dialogue between Eric and senior leadership. But in the end, he’ll be ending his tenure.”

Pryor was not immediately available for comment.

Browne said the institution was “incredibly grateful for Eric’s leadership over the last several years, particularly his hard work on the thoughtful wind-down of the degree granting program here at PAFA, and the work on the historic building and getting that teed up so we can install our [new permanent] collection in ‘26. No small feat. He did a great job in those two endeavors.”

PAFA isn’t beginning an immediate search for a successor. Instead, the institution will be led by a three-person management team. Harry Philbrick, who had been director of the museum from 2011-2016, is returning as interim museum leader. He will work with Lisa Biagas, who has the new title of chief operations officer, and Sonia BasSheva Mañjon, the chief academic officer.

Philbrick was most recently interim executive director of the Fabric Workshop and founder of Philadelphia Contemporary.

PAFA will have a new president and CEO “at some point in the future,” said Browne, and will “kick off a process sometime next year to determine the road forward, and then we will determine when we’ll put out a statement looking for a new leader.”

But for the time being, “the leadership team we have in place, we’re very confident in them.”

The exit adds another layer of uncertainty around PAFA’s future. The museum’s chief artistic authority, Anna O. Marley, left for the Toledo Museum of Art at the end of July. The board chair position changed hands July 1, with former board chair Donald R. Caldwell coming back to succeed Anne E. McCollum.

Pryor arrived in January 2022 after running the Harlem School for the Arts starting in 2015. After initially commuting from West Orange, N.J., he moved to Philadelphia. His wife, Monique Moore Pryor, is executive director of the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation.

In a Monday letter to PAFA constituents, Pryor reflected on the organization’s accomplishments during his tenure, and said he would be “working mostly remotely through the fall. I look forward to sharing an update on my next chapter …”

Pryor was hired as a change agent. Facing a string of operating deficits and shrunken enrollment, PAFA in Januaryannounced the end of its college degree programs and plans to launch the return of its certificate program, which it hopes will be more lucrative. At the same time, the organization is renovating its 1876 Furness & Hewitt building, and marketing space and art-making equipment in its newer Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building to other arts groups.

Browne said Pryor’s departure did not augur any change in PAFA’s reorganization plan.

“We’re over the halfway mark of completing a [fundraising] match for the historic building renovation. We’re on the tempo of winding down the degree program with the completion of this class graduating in May. So plans are on track. There are no changes.”

Revelations about PAFA’s financial challenges and the institutional changes came within months of the sudden and unexplained closure of the University of the Arts. That event was “pretty shocking,” said Browne, “but fortunately, PAFA is not UArts. We have a lot of strengths here, and [PAFA’s] university degree granting program is one of the areas that provided some weakness. And to pivot away from that program and cultural philanthropy being in the position the way it is, it’s a challenge. But it’s a challenge that is met by renewed vigor of the board.”