Inside the Bok Building in South Philadelphia on Monday night, several dozen artists gathered for a meaningful reunion. 

Former faculty, students and alumni of the University of the Arts came together for a holiday party hosted by the University of the Arts Alumni Council — a chance to reconnect after the school's sudden closure in June 2024 scattered its tight-knit artistic community.

For many, the gathering marked the first time they had seen one another since UArts shut down with little warning, ending more than a century of arts education in Philadelphia.

"It is a reminder of what we lost," said Lily Castiglione, a former UArts student.

Charis Duke, a former faculty member in the musical theater department, described the closure as a shared trauma.

"What happened to us was kind of a unique experience," Duke said. "It felt like a death. You know, the first year, we were going through the stages of grief."

Duke served as a collaborative pianist and coach at UArts before the closure left her students without a place to continue their education — and left her without a steady job.

"I haven't been able to replace the big monolith that my UArts job was for me," Duke said. "But I've been able to grab onto a lot of smaller things and try to patch some things together."

That sense of rebuilding echoed throughout the room.

Castiglione had just completed her sophomore year as a design tech major when the school closed. She transferred to Temple University, as did fellow former UArts student Fletcher Rabin.

"I actually have done a lot of new things at Temple," Rabin said.

Despite the upheaval, Rabin said the closure didn't weaken relationships formed at UArts.

"I feel like we've gotten a lot closer," Rabin said.

Duke said she's now finding new work across the local arts scene, including helping run auditions, and has even run into former students along the way.

"I'm so proud of them," she said. "They're just outstanding. They're so well prepared. It's made me feel really good about the work that we did — and the way the school fell apart was no reflection on the work that we did."

Creating a chance for everyone to reconnect was the vision that the University of the Arts Alumni Council had for this event.

"We really were like a big, creative family," said council chair David De Cristofaro. "So opportunities like this for us to be able to come together around the holidays, celebrate that community together as a family – have taken on greater meaning."

De Cristofaro said the alumni council plans to to continue hosting events into 2026, keeping former students, faculty and staff connected long after the holidays.

"I know it's been a hard year-and-a-half for a lot of us, for a lot of different reasons with this closure," he said. "It's just great to see everybody."