Hundreds celebrated at a reception in the center’s inaugural exhibit, The Afterlife.

On the 10th floor of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’ (PAFA) historic Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building, the hallways buzzed with energy as artists gave guests tours of their new studios located in the heart of Temple University’s new Tyler Center for Art and Creative Exchange.    

About 300 people turned out for the opening celebration on Thursday, Sept. 10, including Temple and PAFA leaders, local elected officials, artists, art nonprofit leaders, students, alumni, and neighbors.    

Temple President John Fry called the center an investment in both recent Tyler graduates and Philadelphia's broader creative ecosystem.   

“That ecosystem needs a boost right now,” Fry said. “We need to fund arts better than we do. We need to get behind our artists, especially our young artists, and really support them. And this is our down payment.”

The center gives emerging artists space to create, build professional connections and establish themselves in Philadelphia, said Tyler School of Art and Architecture Dean Susan E. Cahan.

“The center is based on a simple idea: that artists, critics, curators and educators are most powerful when in conversation with one another,” Cahan said. “When that conversation extends beyond the university and into the life of the city, we have accomplished a very important goal.”

Attendees viewed the center’s inaugural exhibit, The Afterlife, featuring work by 27 recent Tyler MFA graduates.

“It is wonderful to have the Tyler School of Art and Architecture in residence here at PAFA,” said PAFA President and CEO Kristen Shepherd. “This inaugural exhibition is such a beautiful expression of the kind of partnership that is possible when we work together.”

After opening remarks, Tyler faculty and staff led guided group tours of the center, showcasing the individual studio spaces of the inaugural cohort of fellows, and the collaborative flex studios designed for events with curators, critics and other guests. “To have the space, to have the environment and to have the community is just a really amazing, spectacular place to be,” said Boi Boy, TYL ’25, a fellow and Tyler instructor. 

Art historian Rebecca Butterfield, who attended the opening, praised Temple’s new presence in the heart of the city’s art district. 

“I think it’s fabulous,” she said. “I think these students are very lucky, and deservedly so, after seeing their work downstairs in the Fisher Brooks Gallery.” 

“When our students graduate, they become important creative assets to this city,” Cahan said. “The studio program is designed to encourage them to stay in Philadelphia and build their careers here.” 

The center’s programs include the post-MFA studio fellowship, annual exhibitions at PAFA’s Fisher Brooks Gallery, a curatorial practice program launching in 2027 and a critic-in-residence program, which begins with Tim Griffin, writer, curator and former editor-in-chief of Artforum.

Fry said a lot can be accomplished when institutions like Temple and PAFA invest in each other.

“The beautiful thing is, you don’t really have to speculate,” he said. “You can just look around and see what’s already started in such a short period of time.”