Temple students versus new Tyler

All the schools are part of the same univeristy, so why does it seem like they can’t get along?

The small percentage of students who take advantage of the Tyler School of Art’s presence on Main Campus surprises me.

Since Tyler officially moved to Main Campus from Elkins Park last year, more fine arts classes have been created for non-majors and a beautiful new building was built for students to wander through.

Through March 1, Tyler will host its annual Tyler Student Exhibition. The exhibition showcases the artwork of undergraduate and graduate students from the various departments of Tyler.

Though my column usually focuses on events and issues relating to the larger scope of the Philadelphia community, I found particular significance in bringing up this aspect of life at Temple. It’s important for Temple students to appreciate and support their university’s art school and fellow art students.

Some of my friends on campus have never stepped foot in Tyler because they are afraid they have to be an art student to take advantage of its classes and student facilities. Other students have some strange misconceptions about the stereotypical art student and feel they would be intrusive to take advantage of Tyler.

What is it about art students that create this hesitation among the non-art majors to enjoy the opportunities offered from the new building and programs?

Art can certainly be a strange, almost taboo subject, when not everyone connects to it. I’m sure some students either aren’t interested in fine arts, or don’t understand its emotional and craft-oriented path. I ask those disinterested to keep an open mind and remember that whether someone chooses to study art or biology – we all chose to study at Temple.

The other side of this complex coin screams the question: Why are art students afraid to integrate with their university at large? I’ve seen a separation even between the Boyer School of Music students from the Tyler students in the Artist’s Palette Café, formerly the Starving Artist.

There are a large number of art majors who would rather be back in Elkins Park, disassociated from Temple as a whole and not deal with the combined student experience. This is not the case for everyone, though. As artists, we may use art to express who we are individually, but it takes the general viewer to make art the magical experience it can be. The influence of other majors in the collegiate atmosphere can be a fruitful experience and allow the creative juices to flow more fluidly within artwork.

So how did this strange, almost rival atmosphere come into place? At one point, it might have been caused by one student not appreciating another’s creativeness or diversity in study. This hostile environment is an observation I’ve made during the past year, and I think this upcoming art show can be the beginning to discovering a solution from these estranged attitudes.

I’m sure I can’t speak for the entire population of Tyler students, but I want to encourage students of every school to visit the gallery. The purpose of this art exhibition is to showcase the hard work these artists have done during the past few semesters and for other student artists, professors and the general public to enjoy it.

I encourage artists to support Temple activities unrelated to art. This appreciation and support is very important within the collegiate atmosphere.

Congratulations to everyone showcased in the exhibition this year; it is an achievement Temple students should be proud of.

The Tyler Student Exhibition runs through March 1. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Nicole Welk can be reached at nicole.welk@temple.edu.

Tyler artists debut two-day festival

Six Tyler students and alumni put together this weekend’s Rock Bass Rainbow Fest.

When an enormous warehouse turned event space opened up in Fishtown, dubbed 2424 Studios, six former and current students of the Tyler School of Art decided to pounce on the opportunity to do something big.

“We wanted to come up with an event that would be open to the community, to get some new faces out there and bring like-minded people together,” said Brooke Somers, who graduated last May.

That event will come to fruition this weekend in the form of the Rock Bass Rainbow Fest, a two-day art, music and fashion festival, which will be held inside 2424 Studios’ special event space called the Skybox.

The six young artists form a collective known as the Cohoquinoque Crew, named for the underground Delaware River tributary turned sewage line of the same name, which flows beneath Willow Street. The group also includes Jessica Tyler, Tristan Wright, Willy Akers, Liz Briggs-Fandek and Jo Watko.

Somers, a former ceramics major who also has experience in printmaking and fibers, said the group comprises several different artistic avenues.

“We all have different directions for our artwork, but there are always common threads,” she said.

That sort of diversity may be a good representation of the festival, which will include works in a wide array of artistic categories, including glass, ceramics, painting, photography, soapmaking, clothing design and fashion accessories.

Friday’s event will feature a fashion show, live bands and a DJ at the end of the night, with a suggested donation of $5 for entry. The fashion show will also feature Temple alumni including designers Greg Labold and Emily King.

Saturday will be an all day vendors sale with free admission. It features crafts and artwork on sale from as many as 50 local artists, as well as live music throughout the day.  Doors open at 10 a.m. and close at 6 p.m.

Somers and her crew seem to be interested less in turning a profit from the event than they are in creating a new forum for local artists.

“We really just wanted a place for artists to show off their art and a venue for them to put it on sale,” she said.

Somers also said this is the Cohoquinoque Crew’s first attempt at such a large-scale event, and the group hopes it will give them the platform to put on more community events in the future. She also noted their interest in public space artwork like murals and park space.

For now, it seems Somers is just focusing on making the Rock Bass Rainbow Fest a success for the artists involved.

“I hope all our vendors end up making millions,” she said with a smile.

Kevin Brosky can be reached at kevinbrosky@temple.edu.

Provost handpicks Tyler student art for exhibition

Art created by Tyler students was on display in Paley Library from Sept. 30 until Oct. 2. Students who were featured in the exhibit were compensated for their works by the Provost’s Arts Commission.

During the Spring 2009 semester, the university provost gave the Tyler School of Art an opportunity to showcase its most important features – not the brand-new state-of-the-art facilities, but its students.
Provost Lisa Staiano-Coico made an offer to Tyler students to create works for her private collection, pay them for their works and feature selected pieces in an on-campus exhibition.

Her proposal came to fruition Sept. 30 at Paley Library with “The Provost’s Art Collection: An Exhibition,” which ran in the library until Oct. 2.

“Actually, it was my suggestion to the Provost’s Arts Commission that the provost have an art collection,” said Roberta Sloan, the Provost’s Art Commission Chair. “The commission members were enthusiastic, as was Deputy Provost Richard Englert, and then Provost Lisa wholeheartedly supported the idea.”

The idea for a private collection featuring Tyler students’ work came from a number of faculty within various departments, including Sloan, who is also chair of the theater department, Tyler Graphic Arts Chair Stephanie Knopp, Library Communications Manager Nicole Restaino and Vice President of Internal Affairs Lisa Meritz.

Restaino coordinated the exhibition.

“The exhibition was an interesting project, as it is quite different from the exhibitions we typically do at the library, which consist of books or reproductions of archival materials,” she said. “Also, our exhibitions are usually in flat cases, not on the wall such as this. It was interesting to find out how to get a traditional fine arts exhibition prepared and installed at Temple.”

Knopp said although the experience was challenging, it will be a great success for the Tyler students.
“The students were quite thrilled to have their art personally selected by the Provost,” she said. “For most of them, it was the first time they had sold one of their artworks. It was also wonderful to have the collection started the very first semester that the art school moved to the main campus. It contributed to the warm welcome that the Tyler students received.”

Knopp said she feels this endeavor will help the Temple community gain an increased appreciation for the arts.

“I think this Provost’s Collection will have a significant impact on the Temple community. The fact that the provost is honoring the creativity and hard work of students in the arts will raise the profile of the arts across the campus,” she said. “Anything that increases the visibility of the arts can only help to raise appreciation and interest.”

Kathryn Feryok, who designed two logo identities for the arts program, said she – like many others involved with the program – was honored to have her work displayed on Main Campus.

“I worked many long hours on developing my logo identities,” the senior graphic and interactive design major said, “and it was gratifying to know that my work would be on display for people to see.”
“Sometimes, graphic design is seen more of a commercial art than a fine art, and I am happy that my work is being appreciated for its artistic merit,” Feryok said.

The exhibit featured work that varied from a large red and grey triptych, which will remain in Paley indefinitely, to a three-part poster series depicting child abuse to a necklace Staiano-Coico herself wore at the opening.

Since the closing of the exhibition, the works are being moved to a permanent location on campus.
Sloan said more projects that will incorporate student work are on the way.

Lateef Amoo can be reached at lateef.amoo@temple.edu.

Tyler students take initiative to gain an intra-school presence

The Tyler Student Alliance was formed in order to give individual departments and degree programs their own say.

During the Spring 2009 semester, the Tyler School of Art made its big move from Elkins Park, it’s home for more than 60 years, to Main Campus.

Tyler students are still getting acclimated to life post-Elkins Park, which is why several students are working together to create an interschool student government, the Tyler Student Alliance. One student spearheading the coalition is Mary Jachetti, who also serves as the school’s Temple Student Government representative.

“Tyler is such a large school, and it has so many different departments, with so many different needs that it’s easier for it to have its own group, where each one of it’s departments are represented,” Jachetti, a sophomore art history and studio art major, said.

She added that issues for Tyler students weren’t just departmental but lied with degree programs as well.

At Tyler students have two options, to earn a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Fine Arts. The B.F.A. program requires a significant amount of studio time for one art concentration, so sharing space was an issue.

“Some students didn’t even know they were B.A. or B.F.A. students, and they weren’t very willing to share the space that was there,” Jachetti said, adding that students also had some problems communicating with the Tyler administration.

Students, she said, felt they couldn’t talk with the administration about problems they were having, such as students with fears about whether administrators were going to shut down certain classes. Students wrote a petition, and instead of taking it to the Tyler administration, they took it to Temple President Ann Weaver Hart.

“The alliance will give the students a voice within [Tyler] and make them feel more at ease with administration because they will be able to meet with the dean, associate dean and director of student activities on a regular basis,” Jachetti said, “so if they have a problem, they’ll feel like they can go to the Tyler administration.”

But that’s just an overview of Tyler students’ needs. The overarching issue is that, for the first time, Tyler students from all departments and programs are learning under one roof. The alliance will help students adjust to sharing the same studio space, said Theresa Kitch, chair of Tyler student life.

“The students are used to being separate and independent,” Kitch said. “Now that they are on campus, and everyone is in the same building, there’s a need for [a student government] kind of structure within the student body.”

Kitch is also responsible for helping Tyler students feel connected with Main Campus student life and organizations, something she said students need. In addition to the Tyler Student Alliance, she writes a blog, Tyler Student Life, which she said she hopes students use as a resource for getting used to the new student life.

Kitch provided Jachetti and other students involved in the alliance with an old constitution from the alliance at the Elkins Park Campus to use as a foundation for the students’ new group.

The next meeting, Jachetti said, will focus on coming up with a constitution and deciding the structure of the alliance.

Jachetti added that TSG and its members are aware of the alliance’s formation and said they felt that it was an interesting concept. The alliance will in no way be competing with TSG. Instead, she said, it will merely serve as a “centralized place” for students to voice concerns.

Overall, this new student government within Tyler is about promoting unity — unity among students and unity within each department and program.

“Hopefully, by the end of the semester, it will be a very productive reality for Tyler,” Kitch said. “That’s what I’m hoping for.”

Joshua Fernandez can be reached at josh@temple.edu.

Taking flight

Tyler student Dennis Ritter had a vision that fused his passion for ceramic art with a local park. On Friday, Sept. 4, his vision became a reality.

As a 33-year-old freshman ceramics major, Dennis Ritter certainly isn’t the typical Tyler student. In addition to being older than most of his classmates, Ritter has artwork on display in Bird Park in Old City.

At Third and Arch streets, you will find his summer 2009 project, which consists of 200 white porcelain birds hanging from a piece of netting suspended above Bird Park.

“I saw the space as I walked past it everyday on the way to work, and I saw that it was being neglected,” Ritter said. “I just decided that I wanted to put something there.”

Ritter calls the art project “Emergence,” which portrays the past year of his life, including achievements like getting an enjoyable job and being accepted to art school.

“If you look up ‘emergence’ in the dictionary, it’s the coming together of many things to form a pattern or a structure, and that’s kind of what’s happening with me,” Ritter said. “All these different little aspects have come together and brought me into school, and [I’ve worked toward] achieving some of my goals.”

The art project will only be on display through the end of September but will be reinstalled in March 2010.

It has been at least seven years since Ritter has regularly attended school, he said. He previously attended Montgomery County Community College but never finished with a degree.

It wasn’t until Ritter was hospitalized with Crohn’s Disease, he said, that he realized he truly wanted to go back to school.

Diagnosed with the disease at 16, Ritter became very sick three years ago and was forced to spend an extended amount of time in the hospital. During this time, he was fired from his job as an environmental tester, but Ritter said he is certainly not bitter about the layoff.

“It was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me,” he said.

Ritter has been interested in art ever since he was a little kid, but it was during his time in the hospital that he decided to make it his career.

“It was like a wake-up call,” Ritter said. “I realized I needed to make some changes and get onto a different path.”

Although he had already been dabbling in ceramics since he first graduated high school, Ritter said he wanted to return to school to build a broader base and obtain his teaching certificate. So, Ritter found himself at Tyler’s front steps August 31, his first day back to college since young adulthood.

“I feel like I already know a lot [of what I’m learning], so I struggle with it a little, but it’s good to go back and keep working on my foundation,” Ritter said, adding that his current time at college will be a lot different from his previous years at Montgomery County.

“I’m treating it more like a job and trying to get everything done. I’m not really worrying about the social aspects of school like before.”

Ritter said he also thinks having an older peer group outside of school and being around other artists his age will make his experience at college much different than before.

After he graduates from Tyler, Ritter said he’d like to start looking for a teaching job while continuing to work on his art. He also plans to apply for a residency program and possibly go back to school for his degree in art therapy or a Master of Fine Arts.

Ritter said he’d enjoy working with troubled teens or special needs students.

“It’s more challenging and more rewarding when you see success with kids with disadvantages,” Ritter said. “Art opens up a lot of doors for these kids.”

Ritter currently works as a studio technician at the Clay Studio, a nonprofit in Old City that offers art classes and has a residency program for established artists. The Clay Studio also participates in forms of community outreach, Ritter said. Every Saturday, he goes to a youth study center in East Falls, where he gets to do what he said he loves – teach children ceramics.

When he’s not teaching or creating, however, Ritter said he loves playing guitar and the Dobro and cooking.

As for whether he’s cooking up any upcoming installations, Ritter said there are a few ideas floating around in his head, but he wouldn’t be putting them into action any time soon. His priority right now is to remain a focused on his schoolwork.

“I’m putting my ideas off until summer,” Ritter said. “I really need to concentrate on school right now.”

Grace Dickinson can be reached at grace.dickinson@temple.edu.

New garden plants campus unity

Temple Community Gardens, a new student organization, plans to unveil a fruit and vegetable garden on Main Campus.

Temple’s freshest symbol of sustainability is taking root on the corner of 11th and Berks streets, as plans and plants are underway for the Temple Community Garden.

Dan Feeser, senior sculpture major, first conceived the idea for an on-campus garden last spring.

Feeser said part of the inspiration for establishing TCG were his fears about technology taking over.

“We all should have this connection to nature, which we try to get away from with technology,” Feeser said. “We have to take a step back and decide if all the effects of technology are really better than all the benefits. We need to start using nature as a means of technology.”

To get back to nature, Feeser cultivated the logistics all summer, ironing out proposals and seeking corporate sponsorship, but it wasn’t until this past weekend that TCG got to cultivate some soil, thanks to some of its sponsors.

Organics Mechanics provided organic coconut husk soil for the large bed, which is a more sustainable alternative to peat moss, and Primex Garden Center gave TCG a mix of mushroom compost for the small bed.

For the first season, cool weather crops like beets, turnips, spinach, kale and even kiwis are on the menu.

If all goes as planned, the ultimate goal of TCG is to first grow the crops on campus, then sell the crops to students on campus and finally send the proceeds to the SHARE (Self Help and Resource Exchange) food program, a Pennsylvania-based non-profit that helps people get a break on their grocery bills.
The initial intention of this project was a garden in the open lot adjacent to Tyler.

“Something needs to be added to this art facility that’s just naked and raw, and it needs some life,” Feeser said he remembers thinking.

He decided that life should come in the form of a fruit and vegetable garden and drew up a 15-page proposal for Temple’s Facilities Management to review.

Andy Riccardi, the associate vice president for Facilities Management, turned down the initial proposal for the Tyler courtyard.

“School is the first priority,” Riccardi said. “We don’t want students looking out the window and seeing something half done…and anyway, they’ll be able to expand more in the future at the new location.”
There were also concerns that the garden would interfere with the architect Carlos Jimenez’s design of the new building.

After this disappointment, Feeser revamped the proposal and offered to take any space on Main Campus that was available for the garden. Riccardi offered the 11th and Berks streets location, and Feeser gladly accepted.

This meant Feeser wouldn’t get the chance to see his initial aesthetic ambitions for Tyler come to pass, but his motives for establishing the garden were deeper rooted.

“I wanted to start something on Main Campus to create awareness about the importance of sustainability,” Feeser said.

“Tyler really emphasizes finding your voice and valuing ideas,” Feeser said. As a sculpture student, he found his voice in sustainable art. He adopted a utilitarian ethic for most of his work and said he aims to make his pieces functional as opposed to something purely visual.

Though he said the ideals of the sculpture department played a large role in securing the space for TCG, one of his main objectives is to solicit the involvement and integration of students from different schools and colleges throughout the university.

Feeser also said he wants to use the garden as a learning mechanism to teach people the basics of gardening.

“I want total participation,” he said, “but I also need dedication from students.”

“I’m interested in gardening, but I’ll probably kill plants if I touch them,” said TCG Treasurer Nicole Wilson, who has a self-proclaimed black thumb.

“[The garden] has the ability to bring people closer even if we don’t have similar interests,” she added.

“[TCG is a] great initiative to let people pass the torch,” Director of Temple’s Sustainability Task Force Sandra McDade said. “Working a garden builds fellowship among people, good neighbors and good students…it showcases what you can do with gardens in the city.”

Feeser said he hopes the garden will continue to grow after he graduates.

“In the future, I think all the food served on campus should be coming from campus,” he said.
“A very unlikely dream,” said McDade in response to Feeser’s inspiring idealism, “but we are always free to dream.”

Mary Hagenbach can be reached at mary.hagenbach@temple.edu.

Therese Dolan steps down as Tyler dean

At a time of change and excitement for the Tyler School of Art, its interim dean announced her resignation.

Therese Dolan, the interim dean of Tyler, made the announcement Thursday. Her resignation will be effective June 30. Dolan assumed the position in January 2008.

“We are extremely grateful to Terry Dolan and wish her well as she returns to the faculty,” said Lisa Staiano-Coico, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, in an e-mail interview. “She is a respected art historian and a beloved teacher.”

Perhaps one of the biggest accomplishments during Dolan’s brief tenure as interim dean was overseeing the move of the art school from its Elkins Park campus to its new $75 million home at 12th and Norris streets.

The building, which had been in the works for years, is one of the Temple’s biggest selling points.

“Terry Dolan did a superb job guiding Tyler through the challenging transition into its fabulous, new, state-of-the-art facility on Main Campus,” Staiano-Coico said. “And, as President [Ann Weaver] Hart said, she did so with grace.”

Dolan, who was unavailable for comment by press time, has been a faculty member with Temple’s art history department since 1980. Her specialties are 19th-century French art and contemporary art.

In January, under Dolan’s reign, Tyler snagged the Jack Wolgin International Prize in the Fine Arts, the world’s largest monetary award for a fine arts institution. The prize represented a monumental highlight of both her one-and-a-half years as interim dean and of Tyler’s history.

“We have such a high-ranked art program, and we have such a high reputation,” Dolan told The Temple News in January. “People only give to success.”

According to U.S. News and World Report, Tyler’s fine arts program ranks 14th in the nation.
Her tenure as dean also saw a small controversy.

In August 2008, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on alumni donations to Tyler. Dolan was quoted as saying while alumni from the medical and business schools “have deep pockets, ours are still waitressing” and aren’t able to give as much back.

In a response on the Tyler listserv, Dolan said she was “dismayed” that her words were “taken out of context.”

The article struck the wrong chord for some Tyler students, but others are upset to see her step down.
“It’s a shame,” said Liz Schneffer, an undeclared freshman at Tyler. “I liked the way the school was run.”

Robert T. Stroker, dean of the Boyer College of Music and Dance, will perform double duty and serve as interim dean of Tyler. Staiano-Coico said Stroker brings “tremendous expertise and knowledge of the arts to the position.”

Before arriving at Temple, Stroker served as the associate dean at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University from 1996 to 2002.

“Terry Dolan has provided exemplary leadership as interim dean,” Stroker said, “and I look forward to working with Tyler’s outstanding students, faculty, administration and staff.”

Because of the university’s hiring freeze initiated in January by Hart, all searches for deans are on hold, Staiano-Coico said.

Hillel Hoffman, assistant director of news communications, said having other schools’ deans fill in as temporary replacements is not uncommon.

“It is not unprecedented for the dean of a Temple school or college to stand in as interim dean,” he said.
Prior to serving as interim dean, Dolan served as the art history department chair for two terms. She will eventually return to teaching in an art school quickly gaining international acclaim.

“With their wonderful, new building, Tyler is on the rise,” Staiano-Coico said. “We look forward to working with Dean Stroker to ensure Tyler continues to move forward on its current exciting trajectory.”

Chris Stover can be reached at stover@temple.edu.

Tyler students clinch prizes for design work

Four students from Tyler School of Art received prizes April 22 for best work in interactive graphic design at the Interact 7.0, an annual event hosted by the Tyler’s Graphic and Interactive Design department.

The five-judge panel consisted of members from various graphic design organizations from around the nation who reviewed all 65 student entries and in the end presented the best 24 final presentations.

Roughly 100 students, parents and faculty members had a chance to see the work done by students that included websites and short digital animations.

“With each year the work just gets better and better because students are getting more technically savvy,” said event organizer and associate professor in graphic interactive design Dermot MacCormack.

MacCormack said this year’s event turned out to be more successful from all others in the past because of the amount of work entered into competition and it was also the first time the event incorporated a section on motion graphics and animation.

The students who won prizes in four separate categories were: junior Web site, Matylda Biedron, senior Web site, Megs Fulton, junior animation, Brian Cassidy and senior animation, Tom LeBeau.

Each winner received free tuition (books included) for a creative design workshop where they will be taught to expand their skills and further develop the knowledge of graphic design software.

The prizes were distributed by Joseph Rinaldi, an agency recruiter for Aquent, an international talent placement company dedicated to seeking out best artists and spotlighting their works to world-leading markets and corporations.

MacCormack said students used their skills in advance flash design, cascading style sheets and even HTML coding to create their work. All works presented were completed throughout many months and several semesters.

“Trying to keep up with technology today is impossible, so what we’re trying to do with students is training then into becoming good thinkers and students who like to learn,” MacCormack said. “I tell my students that stuff they learn today may in five years be totally different because the technology is changing so much,” he said.

MacCormack and members of the graphic design department started Interact seven years ago because the department wanted to highlight and promote the interactive program.

Originally, all the work was created by students using older technologies.

Megs Fulton, winner of this year’s senior Web site titled “Rainforest,” said she had spent more than 50 hours during this semester to complete her project. She described her site, which is geared toward younger children, as an informational and fun resource.

The site is rich in flash and CSS content also has voice-overs for different actions to take while browsing it.

“I had to bribe my two little cousins with ice cream for them to do the voice-overs” she said.

“We do instill basic fundamental design principals and I think that it shows in the work of our students,” MacCormack said. “We just use technology to make things happen.”

Sergei Blair can be reached at sergei.blair@temple.edu.

Dolan to step down as interim dean

Therese Dolan, the interim dean of the Tyler School of Art, has announced she’ll step down from the position at the end of June.

Dolan has been with Temple since 1980, mostly serving as a professor in the art history department. She has served as dean of the school twice and will return to teaching.

Most notably, Dolan oversaw the historic move of the art school from its Elkins Park campus to its new home at 12th and Norris streets on Main Campus.

Robert Stroker, dean of the Boyer College of Music and Dance, will serve as interim dean effective July 1, 2009.

Stay with The Temple News for more information.

Chris Stover can be reached at stover@temple.edu.

South Street gallery lends Tyler space

Senior painting students from the Tyler School of Art opened a gallery on South Street to display their work.

Stephen Giannascoli, owner of Triad Realty Inc. and a representative of the properties on South Street, said he contacted Tyler because his company wanted Tyler to have a presence on South Street.

Initially, school officials declined because they didn’t want to take on another gallery during the transition to Main Campus.

With the help of 16 students, Theresa Kitch, chair of student affairs at Tyler, worked with Triad Realty to obtain gallery space.

Associate Dean of Tyler Brigitte Knowles encouraged Kitch to aid students in the process.

Kitch accompanied Andrea Caldarise, a senior painting major, to the property on South Street to sign the lease.

Knowles said she feels “positive about [the] opportunities that the South Street venue offers to young artists.”

The gallery is made up of works from 16 senior painters. Among the 16 painters is Christy Romano.
“I take part in watching the gallery. All 16 of us divided up the work and take turns monitoring everything,” Romano said, adding that she thinks the gallery is a success so far.

The students involved divided the shows into three groups of painters. There has already been a show for one of the groups.

“Originally, when we came down to Main Campus from Tyler, we weren’t sure if they’d have space for their [bachelor’s of fine art] shows,” Kitch said. “Because of the new situation, some of the planning was up in the air.”

Students looked into the idea of taking the space on South Street because they wanted space for their bachelor’s of fine arts shows. Tyler provides students with limited space for their galleries.

“They decided they would try to do this on their own to get the experience and to try to show their work,” Kitch said.

“Since there were very few slots for BFA shows this semester, I’m using [the South Street gallery] as my BFA exhibition,” Romano said.

Caldarise took on most of the responsibility among the students. She started the gallery, signed the lease and coordinated the student group.

Other students heavily involved are Lauren Herring, Glenna Ryer, Jamie Straw, Chris D’Antonio, Rob Kelleher and Ally Boyd.

“They’ve been doing really well,” Kitch said. “It has been a good experience for our students, and I am impressed with the cooperative effort that they’ve made to handle this venture successfully.”

The Tyler Gallery on South Street is associated with the South Street Arts Initiative and the Eyes Gallery. Some of the vendors on South Street who had empty stores tried to bring Tyler to South Street. Many of the vendors and restaurants on South Street have contributed food during the students’ shows.

“The Tyler administration appreciated this opportunity for our students to have a presence on South Street,” Kitch said.

Valerie Rubinsky can be reached at valerie.rubinsky@temple.edu.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Senior painting major Andrea Caldarise also serves as a designer for The Temple News.

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