A Tale of Two Shows in Philly for America’s 250th

Both the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) are historic, distinguished museums, smack in center city Philadelphia. This past weekend I visited the City of Brotherly Love to see how American art is faring as we near July Fourth.

First, the PMA is still standing. Last November its board, brazenly incompetent, fired its new director, Sasha Suda, a giddily woke Canadian, inexperienced, and clearly a bad pick, and, without a search, hired a new one who has a past I’d call mixed. Lawsuits flew. To add humiliation to malpractice, the PMA spent hundreds of thousands of charitable dollars on a rebrand. The PMA became the Philadelphia Art Museum, or PhArt, for one brief smelly moment, apologies to Camelot. Having emptied air-freshener shelves at every Wawa, the board reverted to tried-and-true PMA. The press, loving high-society mud fights, had a grand old time.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

Featured Tags

Both the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) are historic, distinguished museums, smack in center city Philadelphia. This past weekend I visited the City of Brotherly Love to see how American art is faring as we near July Fourth.

First, the PMA is still standing. Last November its board, brazenly incompetent, fired its new director, Sasha Suda, a giddily woke Canadian, inexperienced, and clearly a bad pick, and, without a search, hired a new one who has a past I’d call mixed. Lawsuits flew. To add humiliation to malpractice, the PMA spent hundreds of thousands of charitable dollars on a rebrand. The PMA became the Philadelphia Art Museum, or PhArt, for one brief smelly moment, apologies to Camelot. Having emptied air-freshener shelves at every Wawa, the board reverted to tried-and-true PMA. The press, loving high-society mud fights, had a grand old time.