Graduating Students Portrait Info
All graduating students will receive four tickets for guests to attend the Commencement Ceremony. A randomized lottery will take place in May for those students who wish to receive one to two extra tickets, if available.
We wish you the best of luck as graduation draws near. Additional information will be mailed to our graduates and potential graduates during the spring semester. If you have any questions after viewing the above information, feel free to contact the Office of Student Affairs at 215-717-6617, the Student Development & Activities Center at 215-717-6615, or the Provost's Office at 215-717-6388.
131st Commencement
May 21, 2009
On-Demand Webcast
Photo Gallery
After receiving an honorary doctorate of fine arts degree at the 131st commencement of the University of the Arts at the Academy of Music on May 21, three-time Tony Award-winning Broadway director James Lapine delivered a unique address to the nearly 500 graduates in attendance – in the form of a mini one-act play, "The Devil and Diane Feinstein or Her Imaginary Son," an allegory about the power of the arts, and a call for increased funding for them. Sean T. Buffington presided over his second Commencement as president of the University of the Arts.
Portia Hamilton Sperr, founder of the Please Touch Museum who was instrumental in creating the University's Museum Education Program, also recived an honorary degree, while influential stop-motion animators Stephen and Timothy Quay, and the late illustrator Richard Amsel, who created posters for such films as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and illustrated close to 40 TV Guide covers, received Silver Star Alumni Awards.
