As demonstrations against racist violence continue, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is at the center of controversy for asking faculty not to affiliate with the school in their activism activities. A website launched today, changeatpafa.com, brings together five independently authored open letters of concern from PAFA alumni, undergraduate students, graduate students, post-baccalaureate students, and the school’s Alumni Council.

Collectively, they express solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement; condemn the school’s non-affiliation policies; and demand concrete actions, such as the immediate termination of PAFA CEO and President David Brigham. They also advocate for various measures to foment inclusivity, representation, and diversity in PAFA’s faculty and curricula.

“PAFA has had many important artists of color pass through its doors; the school is not far from being a leader in diversity,” Eustace Mamba, a student who was involved in writing the undergraduate response, told Hyperallergic. “We just need an administration and board that admits their white privilege, and ushers in a new era.”

Within two hours of the site going public, the letters garnered more than 300 signatures of support, ...

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