Class of 2013 Says Goodbye!

Tyler’s Class of 2013 participated in Commencement exercises at McGonigle Hall on May 16, 2013.  Dean Robert Stroker handed out diplomas to over 300 newly-minted graduates, and thanked the students’ families, friends and loved ones for helping them make it to this joyous occasion. There were cheers all around as the last (former) student recieved her Bachelor of Arts in Visual Studies.

Student speaker Katie Yuen, BFA Photography, summed it up the Tyler experience and gave all the graduates a task to undertake:

And with that, graduating class of 2013, while I truly wish you the best of luck in your futures, I would like to leave you with this charge: have the courage to face the challenges of the modern world with your fiery passion, have the courage to be so far out of the box that you can’t even see it anymore and have the courage to strive for greatness in every thing you create. It’s not about making a living, it’s about making a life doing what you love. Thank you.

You can see a slide show of the festivities here: https://vimeo.com/66417461. Special thanks to Tyler staff member Suzanne Earnest for taking most of the photos.  Music here provided by Oliphant under a Creative Commons license.

Tyler Alumni Connect Through Sculpture

In October at a sculpture class for the legally blind and visually impaired, two Tyler School of Art alumni met for the first time.

The class, located at Allens Lane Art Center in Mount Airy, has been offered for 57 years.

Armand Mednick, 80, is the class’s co-instructor. He graduated from Tyler in 1958 with a degree in graphics and ceramics. Carol Saylor, 75, graduated in 1976 with a degree in painting.

Saylor was a watercolorist before she started to lose her sight and hearing in her mid-40′s. She is now a sculptor.

When Saylor showed up to Mednick’s class, they immediately connected over Tyler and their love for art.

To read more about their story, visit http://articles.philly.com/2013-05-09/news/39117941_1_art-studio-art-class-carol-saylor

Architecture Students Create Spatial Experiences

Professor Robert Trempe’s capstone course Architectural Design VI gives students the opportunity to take on a special topic in architectural design.

“The students are expected to learn about new techniques in full-scale architectural manufacturing including the translation of complex computational geometries and physical production employing CNC [Computer Numerical Control] technologies,” Trempe said.

For this studio, students are required to complete two installations, “Patterned Porosity” and “Sequential Conversations.”

For “Patterned Porosity,” students used Styrofoam insulation to design a group installation in the window bay of the corridor between the Tyler Cafe and the Architecture building.

“The installation was meant to adjust condition of light through a sequence of transformative patterns milled into the Styrofoam, one pattern per window bay/student,” Trempe said. “So this installation served (pragmatically) as a method by which students could examine the usage of computational technology towards the articulation of a building facade.”

The second installation, “Sequential Conversations” will consist of character studies inspired by the 2003 Jim Jarmusch film “Coffee and Cigarettes.”

“Each student graphically mapped the movements of the characters in space to determine how their bodies are used in the articulation of a conversation,” Trempe said. “These drawings are now serving as the logic towards a sequence of physical installations that attempt to shape users who sit within each installation to act out moments of the conversation. In this way, students learn about the intimacy of architecture and the fact that small operations can have a massive effect.”

When the students are working on these projects, Trempe meets with them three days a week for three and a half hours per sessions.

“At every meeting graphical work is expected…the graphic is our language, and the best means for us to communicate. I help the students by challenging them to pay attention to their own internal design processes through graphical explorations while enabling them to understand the connections between design process and physical product,” Trempe said.

Having the students complete these projects helps them learn how to design something as a group and to understand the true potential of installations.

“I want the students to learn the power of full-scale constructions and the methods by which they can navigate what I have coined as a ‘computational design pipeline.’ This pipeline is the system by which they employ various computational toolsets as part of a design process. Physical constructions have an immediate and important part in this pipeline as they are moments where a digital process translates to a built form,” Trempe said.

While the students learn a lot from these installations, the audience is also able to see the amount of work that goes into large projects like these.

“I’d love people to realize that architecture can be (and is) an allied art with other disciplines at Tyler and that there are many ways in which out disciplines can ‘cross-pollinate.’ I’d like people to know that the role of an architect is much larger than simply following building code…that architects are passionate in the crafting of space and spatial experience,” Trempe said.

Temple Contemporary Receives Pew Grant

Temple Contemporary has received a Pew Grant for $160,000. For Director of Exhibitions & Public Programs, Robert Blackson, this is a very important step for Temple Contemporary.

“This is the first time Tyler School of Art has received an implementation grant from Pew…and such a large amount of support will build our competitive capacity to apply for other large grants in the future,” Blackson said.

To apply for the grant, Temple Contemporary had to go through a very thorough and lengthy process.

“It begins in October by submitting a Letter of Intent. The purpose of this letter is to describe the project and how much money the project is likely to cost. This letter is peer-reviewed by a panel of experts and based on this decision you may be asked in December to submit a full application. If you are asked to submit a full application it is due in February,” Blackson said. “Thankfully, Temple Contemporary was asked to submit a full application and by the time we were done it was over 300 pages long.”

This grant will help support Temple Contemporary’s mission and allow for more collaboration with the community.

“Temple Contemporary’s mission is to creatively re-imagine the social function of art through questions of local relevance and international significance. With Pew’s support we can apply our mission in collaboration with a range of publics, artists, and scholars that would have previously been out of our reach due to funding limitations,” Blackson said.

The project, “A Funeral for a Home,” is one of the projects that will benefit from Pew’s support. It will arrange a funeral for a row home that is about to be pulled down in North Philadelphia.

“This project has obvious resonance with our local community, but thanks to Pew’s support we can also draw connections to the housing market collapse, the depopulation of post-industrial cities like Philadelphia, and artists from around the country who are building creative solutions for urban revitalization,” Blackson said.

Mark Shetabi, Assistant Professor, Has Upcoming Exhibition

Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at Tyler, Mark Shetabi, has an upcoming exhibition in New York City.

The Grand Tour will be Shetabi’s fourth solo show presented by the Jeff Bailey Gallery. It will feature new sculptures and paintings that explore ideas about travel, transition and escape.

Many of the pieces depict places or technology of the past that have now become obsolete.

The sculptures that serve as points of departure, Campers, and the painting Girl on a Bicycle feature styles that could be old or new.

The exhibit also features the sculpture Arcade and the painting Caspian Sea Hyatt. Both portray a certain technology or style from another time that are now outdated

Shetabi depicted objects and images in a way that invites further consideration. By using painting and sculpture, he creates a permanent place that resists the eventual disappearance of the things from the past.

The exhibition will open on Friday, May 10 and run until June 22.

For more information, visit http://baileygallery.com/exhibition_01.cfm?exh=948

Two GAID Students Awarded Prestigious Fellowship

A spread from a Rome guide book that Emily Colburn designed and illustrated.

Two GAID graduating MFA students, Emily Colburn and Lydia Nichols, have been awarded a prestigious fellowship from Chronicle Books in San Francisco.

“I applied for this fellowship because working for Chronicle Books would be a dream of mine,” Colburn said. “They create beautiful, contemporary and playful books/products.”

Nichols will be their Children’s Design Fellow, while Colburn will be their Marketing Design Fellow. At first, Colburn applied to be in the Food & Drink department because of her love for food.

“They saw my application and recommended me for the Marketing position, which I’m thrilled about!” Colburn said.

There were only five total fellow positions available this year, so they had to be very competitive.

“I had to submit a printed profile, a statement and a resume,” Colburn said. “I created a book with all my recent graduate work.”

However, all of the work was worth it when she received the email awarding her the fellowship.

“I was overjoyed! I didn’t even finish reading the email before I called my mom, who proceeded to yell and cry,” Colburn said.

For the fellowship positions, both Nichols and Colburn will be traveling to San Francisco for 5 months.

“I’m most looking forward to working for a company I admire and to be surrounded by talented like-minded people,” Colburn said.

Colburn believes that the skills she has gained from being at Tyler have aided her in getting to where she is today.

“These past two years at Tyler have been extraordinary. I have grown vastly in my design abilities and aesthetics,” Colburn said. “Also through working with the other grads, undergrads, and professors, I feel that I have become a better communicator and collaborator.

This opportunity will most likely lead to job offers and book publishing opportunities for Nichols and Colburn.

Tinicum High School Students Display Art

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The Tinicum Art and Science High School currently has an exhibition in the Underground Gallery at Tyler.

The exhibition, Thick and Sassy, was installed by Barbara Bjerring and her high school students. It will remain in the Underground Gallery until April 29.

“The entire Thick and Sassy exhibition was based on one lesson plan targeted to help the students find individual themes based on their personal concerns that would drive art making. We talk a lot about contemporary art, pop culture, and visual literacy in reference to symbolism,” Bjerring said. “After the students found themes that interested them, we worked pretty hard to realize symbolism that they felt truly fit with what they were trying to express.”

The students found that they were able to fit more symbols into their pieces by working in three dimensions.

“Quite a few of the students were apprehensive to work this way, even from the start when we were looking for themes. They pushed back a lot which created a lot of procrastination and then hurried work just before the show went up,” Bjerring said. “Now that they’ve seen their work hanging in an organized, clean environment, they are proud of their efforts. Many of the students can see themselves as artists. They also see a need to change their work ethics away from procrastination and to relax and trust the process.”

Bjerring is currently student teaching at Tinicum for her art education certification candidacy.

“I never saw myself as a teacher and ten years ago if you told me I would be teaching I would seriously doubt that idea. Then at some point after I gave birth to my son, I suddenly felt that being in my studio, focusing on myself and my personal expression was a bit selfish. I thought that I was not really putting myself fully out into the world and living as big as I could,” Bjerring said. “Now that I am teaching, I see the rewards of having these wonderful relationships with the students. Helping them is so much more rewarding than I could have imagined before.”

To open up her students to art, Bjerring teaches them that art is not solely about craftmanship, but also about having an idea.

“Many of the students are terrified to create because they don’t want to be judged on their drawing or painting skills. I point out to them their beautiful ideas and feelings; all the wonderful accomplishments they’ve acquired,” Bjerring said. “I love contemporary art so I’m able to show them how others have made art about being alive and just living. The students are able to see how being an artist is and has always been open to them. I hope they feel invited and welcomed into the art world.”

A mix of Bjerring’s students’ paintings, drawings, prints, a book, and sculptures will also be shown at The Art of Student Teaching exhibition, along with works from students under the direction of 26 other Tyler student teachers, in the Stella Elkins Tyler Gallery from May 1-5.

“My art has always been message heavy and still is but now I think about the message an object conjures and how that can intensify the message in the art,” Bjerring said. “My go to artistic inspirations are the likes of Barbara Kruger, David Wojnarowicz, Banksy, Tracy Emin, Marcel Duchamp, Grayson Perry, Ai Wei Wei, and about a million other amazing artists and their generosity. I’m immensely inspired by my students.”