Gestures W'06_07 FINAL 2.indd - Temple University
Gestures W'06_07 FINAL 2.indd - Temple University
Gestures W'06_07 FINAL 2.indd - Temple University
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director of development’s message<br />
DEAR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF TYLER,<br />
I hope you are enjoying the newly designed<br />
newsletter. It’s just one of the changes from<br />
the offi ce of development and alumni affairs.<br />
Please let us know how you feel about the<br />
new format.<br />
Another change is the establishment of the alumni exhibition<br />
as a bi-annual event. You have just recently received a call for<br />
entries brochure requesting your submission. I’m personally<br />
looking forward to seeing all the submissions that will come<br />
in for Victory for Tyler.<br />
The other news is that we have had our best fundraising year<br />
ever, with more than $1.5 million added to the scholarship<br />
endowment alone. Thank you all for your support over the years.<br />
So many alumni and friends send a check with their alumni<br />
news. It is greatly appreciated. One factor in the ranking of any<br />
college is the level of alumni participation in the annual fund.<br />
Your donation, of any amount, contributes to this important<br />
number. Tyler’s new rankings will be unveiled next year and as<br />
always we expect our programs to be near the top.<br />
However, our biggest opportunities for private support are in<br />
the future, as Tyler goes through a period of great change and<br />
growth. Dean Keith Morrison will be an agent of change as<br />
Tyler moves from an obsolescent campus to a new building on<br />
<strong>Temple</strong> <strong>University</strong>’s main campus. His vision for Tyler includes a<br />
focus on urbanism, a much wider international scope, a deeper<br />
commitment to community arts and a greater connection to<br />
the great urban art centers.<br />
The dean’s new vision and the vibrant new building will combine<br />
to attract the best students and faculty to Tyler. As Tyler makes<br />
this transformation there will be much private support from<br />
alumni, art lovers in Philadelphia, private foundations and<br />
corporations.<br />
Sincerely,<br />
Gregory Murphy<br />
Director of Development and Alumni Affairs<br />
Tyler School of Art<br />
24 TYLER GESTURES WINTER 2006<br />
G A L L E R Y O F S U CC E S S<br />
Two Tyler alumni were inducted into the Gallery<br />
of Success this October during Homecoming<br />
weekend. Congratulations to Helen Williams<br />
Drutt English, BFA ’52 and Laurie Simmons,<br />
BFA ’71, who have achieved success as artists<br />
and continue to serve as inspirations for Tyler’s<br />
student body.<br />
HELEN WILLIAMS<br />
DRUTT ENGLISH, BFA<br />
’52, is world renowned<br />
for her signifi cant<br />
contributions and<br />
continual commitment<br />
to the advancement<br />
and awareness of<br />
the Modern and<br />
PHOTO CREDIT: MICHAEL AHEARN<br />
Contemporary Craft<br />
Movement. Drutt<br />
English’s earliest achievements in the fi eld include<br />
her appointment as volunteer executive director and<br />
a founding member of the Philadelphia Council of<br />
Professional Craftsmen (1967 – 1974), author of the<br />
fi rst college level syllabus on the history of modern<br />
craft (1973), and the establishment of Helen Drutt:<br />
Philadelphia, one of the fi rst galleries in the United<br />
States committed to modern and contemporary<br />
crafts (1973).<br />
LAURIE SIMMONS,<br />
BFA ’71, is a<br />
photographer, painter,<br />
and sculptor, who<br />
describes herself as<br />
“an artist who uses<br />
photography.” Her<br />
work takes the form of<br />
designing dollhouses,<br />
PHOTO CREDIT: SARAH CHARLESWORTH, 2004<br />
which are clever<br />
creations that mirror<br />
society from the post-World War II years through<br />
recent decades. Simmons’ creations are hand-made<br />
collages depicting men and women who, according<br />
to Art in America, “hold up to ridicule and contempt<br />
the furnishings of consumer culture and desire.”<br />
Moreover, her art has been shown nationally in such<br />
major venues as the Metropolitan Museum of Art,<br />
the Museum of Modern Art, and the Philadelphia<br />
Museum of Art.