The Tyler School of Art and Architecture is pleased to announce the return of 2025 Jack Wolgin Visiting Artist Sam Van Aken, internationally recognized for his Tree of 40 Fruit sculptures, which merge art, science and agriculture. Van Aken will be on campus Sept. 22–25 for a public lecture and a series of classroom visits and activities with Tyler and Temple students.
Van Aken opens the residency on Monday, Sept. 22, with a printmaking workshop, conducted in collaboration with faculty member Corinne Teed.
On Wednesday, Sept. 24, at 6 p.m., he will present a free public lecture on usufruct — a medieval legal principle present in early U.S. law that sought to protect natural resources as a common good, granting citizens the right to use them without claiming ownership. This philosophy echoes the Lenape belief that while no one can own a tree, all can share in its fruit. Interwoven with this history is the story of fruit varieties in Southeast Pennsylvania, particularly Philadelphia, from pre-European contact to the early 20th century. The lecture will trace how these legal, cultural and ecological perspectives shaped both the diversity of fruit and our evolving relationship with trees.
On Thursday, Sept. 25, Van Aken will host a tasting event for Tyler students featuring recipes based on Pennsylvania native fruit varieties and historical dishes.
“Sam Van Aken is a unique and visionary artist,” said Susan E. Cahan, dean of the Tyler School of Art and Architecture. “His residency demonstrates to our students how artists can open new ways of thinking about culture, ecology and community through collaboration.”
“It’s been a real privilege to work with Tyler’s administrative staff, faculty and especially the students,” said Van Aken. In the spring, he collaborated with Associate Professor Bryan Satalino’s design and illustration class to develop 20-page illustrated care manuals for his grafted Tree of 40 Fruit, which produces 40 varieties of peaches, cherries, apricots, plums and other stone fruits.
Van Aken, who grew up in Reading, described his return to Tyler as a homecoming in more ways than one. “It’s been an incredible honor to be asked, particularly having grown up in Reading and viewing the Philadelphia Museum of Art as my ‘home’ museum. It feels great to return,” he said.
Van Aken’s Wolgin residency will culminate with a third visit in spring 2026 to plant and dedicate trees constructed with Tyler’s Horticulture students at Temple University’s Ambler Campus.
These unique opportunities invite students to explore the intersections of nature, technology and contemporary artistic practice through direct interaction with Van Aken’s methodologies. His collaborative processes embody themes of environmental interconnectedness and community engagement, reinforcing the relationship between art and social practice.
RSVP for the Jack Wolgin Visiting Artist Lecture with Sam Van Aken on Wednesday, Sept. 24.
About Sam Van Aken
Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Sam Van Aken received his undergraduate education in art and communication theory. Immediately following his studies, he lived in Poland and worked with dissident artists under the former communist regime through the auspices of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the United States Information Agency. Van Aken received his MFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and since then he has exhibited his work nationally and internationally. He has received numerous honors, including a Joan Mitchell Foundation Award, Association of International Curators of Art Award and a Creative Capital Grant. His work has been presented as part of the Smithsonian Design Triennial, at the World Economic Forum and at the Eli and Edyth Broad Art Museum. His monumental work, The Open Orchard, is located on Governors Island, New York City, with an expansive orchard planted in partnership with community gardens across all five boroughs. Van Aken lives and works in New York and is currently associate director of the School of Art and an associate professor at Syracuse University.
About the Wolgin Visiting Artist Program
The Jack Wolgin Annual Visiting Artist and Lecturer is an endowed program that brings one of the nation’s most influential artists and thinkers to campus each year to work with Tyler students and present a free public lecture. The program is made possible by the Wolgin Endowment at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, thanks to the late civic leader Jack Wolgin. He is best remembered for his inspiring and influential public art commissions throughout Philadelphia, including Claes Oldenburg’s Clothespin (1976).