Its campus made up part of the Avenue of the Arts cultural district in Center City, Philadelphia.

[6] In 1921, contralto Marian Anderson applied to the Philadelphia Musical Academy but was turned away because she was "colored.

In 2022, the president behind the capital campaign, David Yager, was driven out by a faculty vote of no confidence.

[13] In October 2023, Walk privately announced to the deans of the university that "she’d recently discovered serious financial problems that she’d been unaware of when she accepted the job".

The announcement caught many by surprise, including then-current students, faculty, and the university's accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

[4] On June 4, 2024, Walk announced her resignation after canceling an information meeting for faculty and students the night before.

[15] On June 5, 2024, the board of trustees hired the consulting firm Alvarez and Marsal to oversee the closure.

The university's campus, in the Avenue of the Arts cultural district of Center City Philadelphia, included six academic buildings and four residence halls.

[21] The Albert M. Greenfield Library housed 152,067 bound volumes, 6,936 CDs, 14,901 periodicals, 16,820 scores and 1965 videos and DVDs.

The Music Library collection held about 20,000 scores, 15,000 books, 10,000 LP discs, and 8,000 CDs.

Exhibitions have included the Quay Brothers, Vito Acconci, R. Crumb, Rosalyn Drexler, April Gornik, Alex Grey, James Hyde, Jon Kessler, Donald Lipski, Robert Motherwell, Stuart Netsky, Irving Penn, Jack Pierson, Anne and Patrick Poirier, Yvonne Rainer, Lenore Tawney and Andy Warhol.

The Caplan Center for the Performing Arts, located on the 16 & 17th floor of Terra Hall – which opened in 2007, housed two theaters.