Tyler dean retires just before transition to Main Campus

After serving as dean of the Tyler School of Art for two-and-a-half years, Keith Morrison announced his decision to step down from the position earlier this month to pursue his own projects.”I thoroughly enjoyed working at Tyler,” said Morrison, a native of Jamaica. “I loved the students and the faculty. They treated me well and I treated them well.”Art history professor Therese Dolan will serve as interim dean as Provost Lisa Staiano-Coico begins the search for someone to fill Morrison’s position.Morrison declined to comment on exactly why he made the decision to step down at such a crucial time in Tyler’s history, just one year shy of the school’s scheduled move to Main Campus.Though he was a pivotal part of the negotiations to move Tyler from Elkins Park, a suburb about seven miles north of Main Campus, Morrison will no longer be involved with the process.”I know [moving is] a very, very complicated issue, and there are factors involved,” he said. “Merging the faculty, moving the facilities, merging the student bodies, improving the space for the downtown departments – all of those things are on the table. How they will play out, I have no idea.”In addition to his contribution to the organization of Tyler’s move, during his time as dean, Morrison also hired 12 tenure-track professors, eight technicians, two budget officers and a new associate dean.”I’m very proud of my achievements at Tyler. All of that for me in two-and-a-half years is more than I imagined I could have gotten done,” he said. “Those 12 faculty members I recruited are major, and I think they raised the bar at Tyler, if not at all of Temple.”Morrison also raised the bar at the art school internationally by extending the curriculum to include South American, Asian and African art and worked to promote a more urban focus for the school.In addition to his contributions to Tyler, Morrison is also an internationally known artist. His colorful paintings have been exhibited around the world, from the Jamaica Institute of Art to the Cincinnati Art Museum.”Whenever he was talked about in art history meetings, it was always with extreme respect, friendliness and pleasantness,” said Abraham Davidson, an art history professor who worked with Morrison when he served as chair of the Collegial Assembly.”My plans now are to work on some exhibitions that I have commitments for, to curate an exhibition internationally that I have a commitment to do, and to write a significant essay that I have a commitment to do.”Morgan A. Zalot can be reached at morgan.zalot@temple.edu.