As the University of the Arts continues the process of selling off its downtown real estate through bankruptcy court, some of the contents inside the buildings have found a new home.

The Albert M. Greenfield Library — the UArts library of 60,000 items, mostly books about art and music — has been sold en masse to the Philadelphia-based foundation Forman Arts Initiative. The contents of the library will be relocated to the Kensington neighborhood, where FAI is renovating a series of buildings into an arts campus.

The sale was made through bankruptcy court. FAI co-founder Jennifer Rice said she paid $76,250 for the collection, or roughly $1.25 per book, which has a symbolic meaning.

“Because of the significance of the number 76, and the 250th anniversary,” she said, referring to the United States’ upcoming Semiquincentennial. “We thought it was nice to attach some meaning to the number.”

Rice is not exactly sure what she just bought. So far, she and Adjoa Jones de Almeida, FAI executive director, have only had a chance to briefly browse the contents still on the shelves inside Anderson Hall.

“It really aligned with FAI’s mission and vision and values. One is paying tribute to the legacy of this incredible institution that was around for 100 years,” Jones de Almeida said. “To have the opportunity to keep this library here and continue to serve Philly’s artistic community felt like an opportunity for us.”

When Rice learned of the opportunity to acquire the library, she called Theaster Gates, the Chicago-based artist who serves as an advisor to FAI.

“’Of course you’re going to do that,’” Rice recalled of Gates’ advice. “’You’d be crazy not to.’”

The UArts library is particularly strong in books about modern and contemporary artists, including well-known figures like Mark Rothko, Bruce Nauman, Georgia O’Keefe and Ed Ruscha, as well as lesser-known artists like Esphyr Slobodkina, a pioneering feminist abstract artist most famous for the children’s book “Caps for Sale.” There is an entire foot of shelf space devoted solely to books about Kiki Smith.

The library has a huge holding of sheet music, including, for example, all of Schumann’s symphonies, all of Mozart’s concertos and several pieces by the early 20th century composer Francis Poulenc published in the original French. Every issue of the jazz magazine DownBeat from 1964 to 2014 is bound in blue hardback.

Its extensive collection of sheet music for musical theater includes everything Cole Porter ever wrote, plus newer shows like the “Mean Girls” musical, the “Beetlejuice” musical and the musical “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.”

In the final days of the University of the Arts before it shut down in June 2024, the fate of the library was at top of mind for Sid Sachs, the longtime curator of Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery in Anderson Hall. While packing up his office before the doors were locked forever, he was reaching out to libraries in the city to find any takers but came up empty.

“I’m really happy that it’s not being sold off for poundage, and that someone interested in the arts on some level will be utilizing it,” Sach said upon learning of the sale. “It’s a specialized art library. We had the best art library in the city.”

The UArts library was assembled for entry-level arts students and designed to cross-pollinate interests. In addition to art, music and dance, there are books about geology, chemistry and biology.

UArts students had access to photographer Nina Leen’s “The World of Bats,” John Bland’s “Forests of Lilliput: The Realm of Mosses and Lichens” and marine biologist Rachel Carson’s landmark 1962 book “Silent Spring” about the environmental impacts of pesticides, which spurred the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. The collection even has molecular biologist James Watson’s “The Double Helix,” a book about his discovery of the structure of DNA which, as legend has it, supposedly came to him in a dream — but maybe not.

FAI plans to invite Theaster Gates to curate the library and draw out its cross-disciplinary potential.

“I think that idea of having a space that allows people to deepen their understanding of art, of connections across art, the fact that there’s such a huge emphasis on music,” Jones de Almeida said, “that’s something that felt like a real point of synergy.”

For now, the books will remain in Anderson Hall until a buyer for that building is determined through bankruptcy court. Once a secure and stable space is ready for them in Kensington, FAI will move the entire collection to its arts campus.

Editor’s Note: Jennifer Rice is a WHYY supporter. WHYY News produces independent, fact-based news content for audiences in Greater Philadelphia, Delaware and South Jersey.