Tyler Blog

January 8, 2025

9 Questions for Art Ed Professor David Herman Jr. About "An Opus of Love"

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

In An Opus of Love, a new exhibition at the TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image by Tyler Assistant Professor of Art Education David Herman Jr., collage plays a central role as an artistic technique and a tool for introspection and narrative construction. Through such creative practice, they capture the subtle ways in which the past is always present and creates non-linear, seemingly fragmented narratives in which past and future coexist in meaningful dialogue.In this Q&A, Herman, a lens-based artist and distinguished visual art education scholar, reflects on the exhibition as it opens and the ways in which An Opus of Love (January 9-February 22) uses his personal archival material to explore themes like fatherhood, Black visualities, Gullah Geechee culture, and perception. Read More

The artist in the studio is standing between two images of elk.
January 6, 2025

Native American Artist Norman Akers Joins Tyler as First Edgar Heap of Birds Family Artist in Residence

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

Native American artist Norman Akers, who uses cartographic imagery in paintings and prints to reference the history of a changing Indigenous landscape, has been selected as the inaugural Edgar Heap of Birds Family Artist in Residence at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University.Akers, a member of the Osage Nation who currently teaches painting in the Department of Visual Art at the University of Kansas, will spend January-May 2025 in the Tyler community focusing on his artistic practice and engaging with students and faculty. Read More

December 30, 2024

Two Retiring Professors Leave a Lasting Impact After Decades of Service

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

When retiring Associate Professor Lynn Mandarano reflects on the most rewarding moments of her decades-long academic and professional careers, she doesn’t point to her board memberships, leadership of Tyler’s Planning and Community Development program or her many published works in peer-reviewed journals. Instead, Mandarano speaks of the community-based projects by students in her capstone course for the Bachelor of Science degree in Community Development, such as a partnership with Asociacion Puertorriquenos en Marcha (APM), a Philadelphia-based community development corporation serving the neighborhood just east of Temple University’s main campus.   Read More

Joe Kopta with students, standing with materials
December 18, 2024

Byzantine Art History Class Launches Virtual Exhibition

Author: Jane DeRose Evans

Students in Tyler Assistant Professor Joseph Kopta's art history class on the art of the Byzantine Empire have launched a virtual exhibition, Fragments of Byzantium. The collaborative project features works of art from the Eastern Roman Empire (ca. 300—1453 CE), which students studied in person at local collections in Philadelphia and New York. The class collaboratively chose the objects for the exhibition, individually researched them, grouped them together into galleries, and designed the virtual exhibition. Contributors include Miranda Aebersold-Burke, Ethan Bisselberg, Jay DaCruz, Virginia Edwards, Casper McNew, Maggie Miller, Evan Morgans, Winton Petty, Teni Real, and Jericho Steele. Read More

December 12, 2024

Students Bring the Garden into the Art and Science of Photography

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

Tucked away at the base of the plate-glass facade in the Tyler Atrium, a series of photographic images were ever so slowly coming into view.The eclectic collection of anthotypes, chlorophyll prints and phytograms was a project in Adjunct Professor Laurie Beck Peterson’s plant-based photography class this fall, and they relied on the fickle nature yet ubiquitous presence of natural light to appear.“The purpose of teaching these techniques is to promote sustainability and reduce the environmental impact of hazardous photography chemical waste,” Petersen explained during the fall semester. “Students learn skills that align with current trends in sustainability, which they can then incorporate in their artwork.” Read More

November 11, 2024

From Architecture to Public Art: An Alum's Journey to Philly’s Public Art Director

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

Tyler alum Marguerite Anglin's (BSArch '01) path from architecture student to the Public Art Director at Creative Philadelphia, the city’s office for arts and culture, showcases the power of interdisciplinary thinking and the lasting impact of the strong educational foundation that Tyler provides.    Anglin's journey into architecture wasn't a straightforward one. Initially interested in fashion design, she was steered toward more technical fields by her parents. At a summer camp for business and engineering, a counselor introduced Anglin to architecture – a discipline that balanced her creative and analytical sides perfectly.  Diving into Architecture at Tyler At Tyler, Anglin immersed herself in the architecture program.  Read More

October 18, 2024

On the Block: 5 Questions for Byron Wolfe

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

Professor Byron Wolfe is an accomplished photographer whose work is widely published and exhibited, a Guggenheim Fellow, and the current chair of the Art Department at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture.He is passionate about collaborative research projects that investigate topics that span the visual arts, humanities and natural sciences, and uses photography and other visualization tools to tell stories that reflect upon broader notions of culture and the constructions of landscape, perception and time. Read More

October 11, 2024

Remembering Gerda Panofsky-Soergel

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

Tyler Professor Emerita Gerda Panofsky-Soergel was a pixie of a woman with a prodigious intellect that earned her widespread recognition as one of the 20th century scholars who helped define the study of Italian art of the 15th to 17th centuries.Beloved by her students and colleagues alike, she was slight and wiry, with a soft voice—all of which belied her muscled, driven, and courageous scholarship in art history. Her students remember her as dedicated, humble, energetic, and robust of spirit. Panofsky-Soergel, Professor Emerita in the Art History Department, passed away in September at the age of 95.    Read More

October 3, 2024

Professor's Exhibition Critiques Health Care System Through Real Illness

Author: Wanda Motley Odom

Tyler Professor Pepón Osorio has been celebrated worldwide for his provocative and immersive large-scale, multimedia installations that explore complex, systemic problems in American life through the lived experience of others. But his current exhibition Convalescence, now on view in the heart of Thomas Jefferson University’s medical center, is the first time he has used his personal story – of cancer diagnosis and treatment – to shine a light on inherent health and health care inequities in the United States. Read More