Tyler Blog

October 13, 2023

Horticulture Major Tests Forest Recovery at Ambler Campus

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

This is the second of four articles about Tyler's Spring 2023 CARAS grant awardees.Horticulture major Trinity Flores (BS Hort ’24) developed a love for nature as a young student attending Waldorf schools, an academically rigorous education program where the focus on experiential learning often took her outdoors.“I learned to milk cows when I was in third grade,” Flores, a Pottstown native, said. Read More

October 5, 2023

Kalila Jones (BFA ’24) Featured in Fiber Art Now

Author: Alina Ladyzhensky

When Fibers & Material Studies student Kalila Jones (BFA ’24) describes what she loves best about her chosen medium, her response is both practical and poetic.“I’m interested in the sheer possibilities of fiber arts. We’re around fibers all the time, from the clothes that we wear to our bedspreads,” they said. “I find that very fulfilling about fibers— they’re all around my life. I can see fibers. I can touch them and feel how comfortable they are. I love that tactile feeling about it.” Read More

September 24, 2023

Tyler Professors Exhibit at 2023 Design Philadelphia Festival

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

At first blush, the art of jewelry making and the design of architecture might not seem to have much in common. But for two Tyler faculty — Doug Bucci, Assistant Professor and Program Head of Metals/Jewelry/CAD-CAM, and Andrew John Wit, Associate Professor of Architecture and Graduate Curricular Head — the synergies are readily apparent. Read More

September 12, 2023

CARAS Grant Recipient Explores Architecture's Purpose

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

This is the first of four articles in a series about Tyler's Spring 2023 CARAS grant awardees.Architecture student Russell Berg (BS Historic Preservation ’24) had become a bit disillusioned with the field of architecture when he decided to use a CARAS grant to counter one he believes to be one of the unfortunate economics of constructing new buildings -- that is “everything looks the same.” “A chief motivator was trying to understand for myself the ways in which people have understood architecture to be the shaping function of cities,” said Berg, one of four Tyler undergraduate students to be awarded research grants in spring 2023 through Temple University’s Creative Arts, Research and Scholarship program.  Read More

September 8, 2023

GAID Program Illustrates Issues of Climate Change

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

At the Jenkins Arboretum and Gardens outside Philadelphia, the lush landscape of native and rare plants provides purpose -- from seed propagation to bird walks, nature exploration to yoga practice, rhododendron lectures to botanical illustration.So, when members of the arboretum’s board of directors visited Tyler earlier this year, it was only natural that an idea for collaboration flowered afterward.“Jenkins was interested in making a connection with Tyler and the idea for an exhibition with works by faculty or students was born,” said Tyler Professor Kim Strommen, who teaches in the first-year Art Foundations program. “Of course, it needed to have something to do with nature and the environment.” Read More

August 24, 2023

Alumna Shows Pride through Philly's Chinese Lantern Festival

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

Journeying from China to Philadelphia to study at Temple nearly 10 years ago, Ellen Zhang, TYL ’17, now gets to showcase the pride she has in her heritage as arts and culture manager at the Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival. In that role she’s been able to make that dream a reality, helping curate the outdoors museum-like spectacle, and allow others to experience the culture she’s so incredibly passionate about. Read story by Matthew Michaels in Temple Alumni News.   Photo credit: Temple University Read More

August 21, 2023

Gemologist Emily Phillippy (BFA '12) Speaks on Ethics in Hidden City

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

Tyler alum Emily Phillippy (BFA '12) has distinguished her jewelry store, Emily Chelsea Jewelry in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood, for its ethical stance on using 100 percent recycled precious metals, Fairmined gold and diamonds, and colored stones that are either recycled or can be traced back to responsible sources. “If we don’t know where it comes from, we won’t work with it,” she says. Read More

July 19, 2023

Art History Grad Students Curate Print Exhibition at Berman Museum

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

Art history graduate students Jessica Braum (left) and Natalie Cruz arrange prints for hanging.In early 20th century American artist Asa Cheffetz’s (1897-1965) wood engraving Deserted Farm, the carved lines are so adroitly executed that they create the illusion of wind blowing across a field of grass.“It is remarkable that an artist can convey such a fleeting movement and sensorial experience of the wind blowing in nature by incising lines in wood in a specific manner,” said Tyler art history graduate student Jessica Braum, who along with eight other Art History graduate students and Art History Associate Professor Ashley West co-curated a print exhibition for the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College in Collegeville, 30 miles outside of Philadelphia. Read More

Jessica Braum Danielle Cooke and Brittany Rubin laying out prints
July 18, 2023

Curating an upcoming exhibit at the Berman Museum at Ursinus

Author: Jane DeRose Evans

This past spring nine Art History graduate students and alumni co-curated a print exhibition for the Berman Museum at Ursinus College, whose Executive Director (Lauren McCardel) is a current doctoral student in our program and whose Collections Manager, Catherine Sirizzotti, is one of our MA alumni. The students acting as co-curators are: Jessica Braum (PhD student), Danielle Cooke (MA alum 23), Natalie Cruz (MA alum 23), Emma Holter (PhD student), Rachael Reynolds (PhD student), Samantha Rhodes (PhD student), Brittany Rubin (PhD student), Alexandra Schoolman (PhD student), and Jessica Sternbach (PhD candidate). Read More

July 11, 2023

Tyler Alum Tim McFarlane (BFA '94) Aims for the Monumental in His Work

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

As part of his artistic journey, Tyler alum Tim McFarlane (BFA '94) has in recent years veered toward the monumental.Putting his typical works on canvas or panel aside, McFarlane has preferred work at the large scale afforded him by murals and other wall-based installations -- applying acrylic paint, drawings and sculptural forms complete with silver and frosted Mylar, pushpins, nails, tape to walls and other surfaces. Read More