UArts alum reclaims loss in new exhibit at old campus building

Isaac Avilucea

Colorful textile artwork showing a pile of household items made from fabric, including couches, clocks, a guitar, kitchen stove, signs, and various objects arranged against a white wall. — Photos: Courtesy Kay Healy and Paradigm Gallery + Studio

University of the Arts alum Kay Healy is channeling loss into purpose in her new solo exhibition, Don't Trash a Good Thing," now on view at the Village of Industry and Art (VIA).

Why it matters: UArts shuttered in 2024, but design firm Scout is transforming some of the school buildings it acquired into creative hubs for UArts alums who are still cranking out notable work.

The intrigue: The exhibit — curated by Paradigm Gallery + Studio — opened Feb. 26 — the same day that the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (later UArts) opened in 1876.

And it's one of the first activations at VIA, Scout's Lindsey Scannapieco said in a statement.

Zoom in: Healy doesn't hide her indignation about her alma mater's abrupt closure; it's in the title, after all, and interspersed throughout the work.

Yes, but: She also strikes a hopeful tone about the power of salvaging lost spaces and things.

Her works, ranging from drawings to screen prints, transform discarded objects into "vessels of shared experience."

What they're saying: Healy says UArts closing was a painful chapter in her life that she's still processing, but having her show at an old campus building "captures my hope that the Village of Industry & Art can rise from this moment as a place of care, reuse, and possibility."

If you go: The exhibition runs through May 31.

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UArts alum reclaims loss in new exhibit at old campus building

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