Uartists Unite aims to support student artists after University of the Arts closing announcement

Mason Timberline did not expect to learn his school was permanently closing its doors in a class group chat on a random Friday.

But text messages from shocked and sad classmates flooded Timberline’s phone as the students tried to make sense of the devastating news that University of the Arts in Philadelphia would close for good on June 7.

“I was very surprised,” said the 20-year-old student, especially because “it wasn’t even UArts reaching out” — [we heard about it from] the Philly Inquirer.” The Inquirer reported that the school with 150-year-old roots notified the Middle States Commission on Higher Education of the imminent closure with no announcement to staff and students until 8 p.m. Friday.

A couple hours after learning the news, Timberline took to Instagram to create an account for his fellow student artists. He launched Uartists.Unite on Saturday with the goal to help promote artists and their work, and offer them resources.

“One of the main reasons you choose to go to art school is for the connections, the teachers, and the other students,” he said. “With all that getting dismantled … it seems really important for people to be able to support each other and be able to promote each other’s work.”

The Instagram account reached over 1,600 followers in a few days with former students offering resources and representatives from Temple University and Moore College of Art and Design reaching out to encourage students to join their schools.

Timberline, who wrapped his sophomore year in music composition, said the closure didn’t affect him as he had gotten approved to take a semester off from school to focus on his music and get ahead of the job search a month ago.

But he was motivated to help the classmates who relied on the community of students and teachers at UArts.

The college’s board of trustees described the reason for closing as an unspecified “urgent” financial crisis in their first public statement on Sunday, The Inquirer reported.

Timberline said the reason was “bonkers” because many students are on a scholarship and for those paying out of pocket, tuition is high when you compare the average starting salary to how much it costs to attend. Additionally, students were told that tuition, fees, and rooming costs would increase in the upcoming year.

“For the upcoming 2024 to 2025 academic year, tuition and fees for undergraduates will increase by 3% and room and board will increase by 5%,” Timberline read from an email he and other students received a few months ago.

The school Sunday announced to its community a virtual town hall for 4 p.m. Monday “to share information about UArts’ imminent closure and to address some of the important questions we know you have,” after which a Q&A web page will be added to the UArts website.

In the meantime, Timberline encourages student artists to reach out via direct message to be featured in a post on the Uartists.Unite Instagram page, and others to share, like, and follow these artists.

“The main thing for now is just to support the artists that I post, follow them and enjoy their art,” he urged.