PAFA’s degree programs are shutting down because we don’t value arts, and it’s hurting our kids

Recently, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the oldest art school in the country, announced that it would no longer be accepting students for its degree-granting programs. Combined with the ongoing financial struggles of esteemed art schools nationwide, this marks a calamitous moment for the present and future of art schools.

For years, art schools across the nation have grappled with dwindling enrollments and escalating costs. The upkeep of art studios is a costly affair, requiring space, materials, and technical expertise. Faced with the challenge of attracting additional students, arts institutions have been forced into legitimizing their studies on a vocational level, shifting toward professionalized programs, and compromising the core of art education to mirror the (justifiably important) return on investment that many college students seek.

Ultimately, the issue is that colleges are big businesses. They are market-driven. The value of an education is determined by its return on investment, rather than how it supports student growth, learning, creativity, and motivation. This is not to blame schools themselves. With limited funding, colleges and high schools must comport themselves toward a big business model for the sake of survival. This, in turn, is limiting institutional investment in the arts.

But there are also socially contrived myths that eat into the possibility of more students studying the arts — namely, that it is a dead-end career.

This is patently false.

Contrary to many beliefs, working in the arts is far more profitable than people consider it to be. In December, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, independent artists, writers, and performers made on average more money than those working in manufacturing, retail, nursing, accounting, construction, transportation, utilities, or even hospitals. And these are just the independent artists, not those working in design, advertising, marketing, business, or other more lucrative creative sectors.

According to the World Economic Forum’s “The Future of Jobs Report 2023,″ business leaders agree that some of the top skills required for workers in the 21st century are creative thinking, resilience, motivation, self-awareness, curiosity, empathy, active listening, and technological literacy. Anyone who has spent time at an art school can tell you that studying the arts supports each one of these dispositions. In addition, the arts and cultural production bring in over $1 trillion to the U.S. economy each year.

That being said, the heart of the matter is not an economic problem, it’s a societal one. The loss of arts institutions negatively impacts young students from a creative, critically engaged, and empathetic perspective. What we teach our students reflects what we value as a people. And what we value based on our current models are shortsighted investments in intensely stressful environments to reap maximal returns. The results are students suffering from anxiety and feeling lost with limited self-worth.

I work primarily with teenagers, and what I have seen over the past several years is a concerning trend toward depression, anxiety, apathy, frustration, and alienation. Most of us have read the news about the mental health crises in young adults, and we are all, of course, aware of how this can play out socially.

I understand it is a massive leap from art school closures to these expansive issues, but we must certainly acknowledge the ever-conforming, highly pressured environments we force our children into daily as a component of their struggles.

I’m not saying that the arts are a panacea for these complicated social ills. By thinking about ourselves and asking questions, however, we can learn to value who we are and critically engage with thinking and making.

When taught well, the arts provide a perfect opportunity for everyone to understand that their thoughts and identities matter. And in a country and at a time where self-value and creativity are subjugated to groupthink, anger, and self-loathing, we need arts education more than ever.

Every student — even those who don’t know it — is an artist with something to say. The more we offer opportunities for students to share and express themselves, and the more we listen and engage empathetically, the better off we all will be.

Art schools are part of this network of support. I encourage everyone reading this to support an art school, talk to an artist, or learn about the arts. When an art school dies, part of the fabric of who we all are — or, more appropriately, who we should be — goes with it.

Massimo Pacchione is the founder and principal of Vision Field, an arts education and admissions company. He is a Philadelphia-raised artist and arts advocate.