Visit Tyler’s NEW website

We’re not posting on this blog anymore… Instead, Tyler has a new, improved blog on the new website.  For information about what’s going on at Tyler please visit http://tyler.temple.edu/blog

Photo by Sam Fritch

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.

Mega Monday Mixer!

Poster by Jocelyn Naarden

Join us Monday, April 8 from 6-8 pm for our annual Mega Monday Mixer.  Students from PAFA, UArts and Moore College of Art have been invited to come and see all the wonderful work Tyler students have done!  We’ll have a large spread of food for your enjoyment, jazz music, and other goodies!

Professor Emeritus Winifred Lutz Named 2012 Outstanding Educator by the International Sculpture Center

Congratulations to Professor Emeritus Winifred Lutz on being named 2012 Outstanding Educator by the International Sculpture Center.

Read a feature article,“Place as a Condition of Time: A Conversation with Winifred Lutz” in Sculpture Magazine.

As the ISC notes, “Winifred’s teaching emphasizes the importance of developing a lifelong working practice that embodies active comprehensive attention in the world. Her site-integrated installations and permanent public projects are known for their remarkable sensitivity to each site, and for how they reveal the discrete history of a place. Lutz is also recognized as a primary innovator in the field of hand papermaking as an art form. She has lectured nationally and internationally on her unique paper casting methods.”

Tyler Students Participate in Temple University Office of Sustainability’s Campaign to Conserve Project

Rachel Kosbab’s winning entry

During the Fall 2012 semester, Graphic & Interactive Design students were given the assignment to design a poster for the Temple University Office of Sustainability’s Campaign to Conserve project. This was the project brief:

Temple University has made a long-range commitment to carbon neutrality. In 2012–13, the Office of Sustainability is focusing on an energy conservation campaign, a component of which is to encourage the conservation of electricity. This will impact favorably on the environmental cost to the planet and the financial cost of energy to Temple University. Your assignment is to design a poster for this campaign that promotes electricity conservation to the Temple University community.

Students in Graphic Design 2001 (Sophomores), Typography 3011 (Juniors) and Visual Design Thesis 8095 (MFA candidates) participated in this project. Graphic & Interactive Design faculty  selected the pieces to be exhibited. Gavin Cooper and Michelle Cooper, principals of Cooper Graphic Design in Philadelphia, juried the first through third place prizes and honorable mention awards. Kathleen  Grady, Director of the Temple University Office of Sustainability, juried the Office of Sustainability Award. The cash awards were generously funded by the Temple University Office of Sustainability and the Hallmark Fund of the Graphic & Interactive Design program.

First Prize: Rachel Kosbab
Second Prize: Bryan Satalino
Third Prize: Colleen Demenna
Honorable Mention: Noopur Agarwal, Maureen McGirr, Mirim Seo, Christian Stewart, Lauren West
Temple University Office of Sustainability Award: Dahye Lee

–Alice Drueding

Stanley Whitney, Professor Emeritus, Wins First Robert De Niro, Sr. Award For Painting

(Untitled ’10, January 7th – February 6th 2010, Team Gallery, NYC)

Tyler Professor Emeritus Stanley Whitney was recently named the first recipient of the $25,000 Robert De Niro, Sr. Prize, given to an outstanding mid-career American painter.  Mr. Whitney served as chair of the painting department until he retired in 2009.  He also taught several semesters at the Temple Rome campus. He earned his BFA at the Kansas City Art Institute and came to New York in 1968 to attend the Studio School. He was encouraged by painter Rob Reid to attend Yale University, where he earned his MFA and studied under painter Al Held. An abstract Modernist painter, he was also awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996, a Pollock-Krasner Grant in 2002, and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2010. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across The U.S. as well as internationally.

“Stanley’s work and the way he practices his craft both show what this prize is all about—honoring a person with great passion for and lifelong commitment to art,” said the namesake artist’s son, actor/producer Robert De Niro. “I am so proud to pay tribute to my father through this inaugural prize in his name, and to recognize and support an artist who has achieved so much throughout his career.” The jury added: “For the recipient of the first Robert De Niro Sr. Prize, we have selected a painter who represents the spirit of commitment, independence, and invention that marked De Niro’s own work as an artist. Stanley Whitney proves that you can be a traditionalist without being a conservative. His concerns are those of painters from the Venetians through Delacroix to the Abstract Expressionists: color, light, and a sense of movement communicated through visual rhythm—but his painting is a continual adventure in these realms that he shows to be without limit. For many years he has worked with a consistent set of structuring devices but has used them as a basis for more than just variations on a theme, for the true structural basis of Whitney’s art is color, not shape, and he rediscovers it anew each time.”

You can read more about the prize and Robert De Niro, Sr. at the estate’s website.

Tyler Student Profiled in the Philadelphia Inquirer (and NOT for the reason you expect!)

Tyler Senior painting major Emily Youcis of Harrisburg, had a profile of her at work in Tuesday’s Philadelphia Inquirer.  She has a rather unusual day job!  You can read the article by Michael Vitz, as well as see a picture of her at work, here.  Thanks to former Student Life Coordinator, Theresa Kitch, for bringing me the article.  And, as Debby Jolly would say, GO PHILLIES!

Tyler’s Living Learning Community Visits Art in City Hall

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Students from the Tyler School of Art Living Learning Community in Peabody Hall visited the Philadelphia City Hall last Friday to meet with Tu Huynh, City Hall Exhibitions Manager in the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy.  Mr. Huynh talked to the students about the Art in City Hall program, which presents exhibitions that showcase contemporary artwork by professional and emerging Philadelphia visual artists. Then Mr. Huynh generously guided students through the current exhibitions at City Hall, Score! a juried exhibition of local art inspired by sports and Arts and Aging, a collaboration with the Department of Recreation, a juried exhibition of art by seniors from a network of senior centers throughout Philadelphia.  While touring City Hall, students were given a bit of a “behind the scenes tour” and allowed to visit some of the grand meeting rooms, including the Mayor’s Reception Room and the City Council Chamber.  The highlight of the trip was probably visiting Conversation Hall, which has a balcony leading to the North Portal of City Hall and two grand stairways, which are normally open only for special functions.  We got to go out to the balcony and see the historical Ceremonial and Legislative Entrance to the building, which faces north towards Temple University.

A special thank you to Tu Huynh, who was extremely generous with his time in showing us all the interesting architecture and taking us to some really special places in City Hall!

Tyler Student Included in National Juried Exhibition For Emerging Artists With Disabilities

First year graduate student Rea Walsh, who is hard of hearing, has been included in the annual juried show presented by VSA, the international organization on arts and disability, and Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.  Rea earned her BFA in Metal and Jewelry Design at R.I.T, School for American Crafts.  She is currently working towards her MFA in Jewelry/Metals/CAD-CAM at Tyler.

This year’s theme was Momentum, which asks emerging artists to examine the vital creative spark behind their work.  This exhibition features the work of 15 emerging artists with disabilities.  Rea’s sculpture, The Wall, (pictured above, 20.5″ x 7″ x 21″) was created in 2009 of steel, spray paint, water and smoke.

Besides Rea, this year’s honored artists include Dimelza Broche (Florida), Holiday Campanella (Pennsylvania), Will Copps (District of Columbia), Angela Godoy (Maryland), Brian Kellett (Ohio), Krista Kuskye (Indiana), Emily Gail Lyles (South Carolina), Artur Matveichenkov (Puerto Rico), Emily McPeek (California), Caitlin Miller (District of Columbia), Xi Nan (Maryland), Sonya Seitz (Pennsylvania), Jansen Smith (Florida), and Beth Zarden-Benson (Wisconsin).

VSA, the international organization on arts and disability, was founded more than 35 years ago by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to provide  arts and education opportunities for people with disabilities and increase  access to the arts for all. With 52 international affiliates and a network  of nationwide affiliates, VSA is changing perceptions about people with  disabilities around the world. Each year, 7 million people of all ages and  abilities participate in VSA programs, which cover all artistic genres. VSA is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Momentum is the 9th exhibition in this series presented by VSA and Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. The partnership supports young artists at a critical time when many are deciding whether to pursue the arts as a career. The award validates and supports that life-defining choice. Presented in coordination with the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian’s Office of Accessibility.

New Class: “How to Build Anything…”

Fall 2011 – Sculpture’s Materials & Techniques:

“How to Build Anything…”

with Rob D’Amico

CRN: 6719

Meets Fridays 10:40am – 1:10pm, & 2:40-5:10pm

COURSE OVERVIEW

We will structure this course in a way that will maximize the group’s abilities and experiment with its potential. One segment of the class will be structured using the framework of a nonprofit board with the goal of holding a group show. The course will culminate with an off-campus exhibit that is themed, designed, installed and publicized by the class. Another large segment of the course will be dedicated to the group learning of basic construction & art handling skills, and have an emphasis on putting them to use as we learn. The remaining component of the course will be filled with individual students completing a project or a series of projects of their choosing; they will be encouraged to explore a process or technique that has been previously unfamiliar to them with the goal of learning something new. These independent investigations will demystify the process of acquiring new skills. For inspiration and added interest, we will also organize the screening of a 10 part documentary on the history of technology and invention.

Demos:  stud wall construction (metal & wood)  •  drywall installation & repair  •masonry fasteners  •  wiring a lamp/motor  •  pulling an electrical circuit  •  interior door installation  •  pedestal construction  •  wall mounting methods  •  crate construction  •  basic welding methods  •  …And more!

About the Instructor

This course will be taught by Rob D’Amico, a fabricator and sculptor living and working in Philadelphia. He has served on the board of FluxSpace, a nonprofit alternative exhibition space in North Phialdelphia. He is also the sight manager of a historic property in Fairmount Park. In addition to his individual practice, D’Amico contracts his services and expertise to many regional artists, manufacturers, designers, and architects.