Once spread out across the region — with student exhibitions at Tyler’s old home in Elkins Park and professional exhibitions at Temple Gallery in Old City — Temple’s exhibition space is now housed in new galleries in the new Tyler building at 12th and Norris streets. Coordinated by Tyler’s Exhibitions and Public Programs Department, the new Temple Gallery will display the work of professional artists and Tyler’s M.F.A. thesis candidates, while the Stella Elkins Tyler Galleries will display the work of Tyler students and faculty as well as exhibitions curated by undergraduates in the student exhibition program, “Produce.”

The size of the new exhibition spaces alone — the new Temple Gallery is nearly four times the size of the Old City gallery — will change the kind of experience that the department is able to offer.

“The best thing about the move [to Main Campus] is that we have professionally scaled galleries for the first time in 25

years,” said Sheryl Conkelton, director of exhibitions and public programs. “Our program is now large enough, dense enough and rich enough to provide people with a real gallery experience.”

The new Temple Gallery is equipped with professional lighting, Internet capabilities, a climate control system and a workshop, and will allow the exhibitions department to work closely with the professional artists that they commission to fully realize their vision — a vast improvement over the limitations they previously faced.

“[In Old City] everything had to fit through the front door,” Conkelton said. “The new workshop will allow us to create settings, walls and other elements the artist might need. We are now set up in a way that supports ambition, and now we can work more closely with an artist than ever before.”

While Temple Gallery will provide a more museum-like experience for Tyler’s professional artist exhibitions — which will include the exhibition for the winner of the Wolgin International Prize in the Fine Arts — the Stella Elkins Tyler Galleries will provide Tyler students with a central location to display their work.

Previous exhibitions at the Elkins Park campus were spread out among four separate galleries — one of which was a converted living room in the old Tyler mansion. When the amount of art available to display surpassed the amount of space available on the walls of the galleries, artwork was displayed in hallways. Now, in a space designed to accommodate one large show or up to three smaller shows, Tyler students will be able to share their artwork in a more professional setting designed to highlight their achievements.

According to Therese Dolan, Tyler’s interim dean and a professor of art history, the new student exhibition space on Main Campus benefits both Tyler students and those interested in seeing their work.

“It is a win-win situation,” Dolan said. “The Elkins Park campus was harder for many at Main Campus to get to, but this is much more accessible and open to Temple and the community. And for the students, it gives them a chance to have their art seen by a much larger audience.”

Public programs expand with Tyler relocation

In addition to coordinating a variety of exhibitions throughout the year, the Exhibitions and Public Programs Department also offers a number of public programs. Through extensive research, the department works to create thought-provoking programs that will engage participants in an ongoing conversation about the changing roles of art, artists and art making.

Programs include lectures, roundtables, in-gallery commentaries and more, and are often developed around work that is simultaneously on display at Temple Gallery. For instance, Temple Gallery will host a lecture on Feb. 17 by Winifred Lutz, who has created major site-integrated sculptural installations and permanent public works, to complement its current exhibition, “Field Reports: Documents and Strategies from Land Arts of the American West.”

With the move to Main Campus, the department is pursuing opportunities to expand its public programs. One example of a new program that has resulted from Tyler’s relocation is the North Philadelphia Arts and Culture Alliance.

Last spring, in anticipation of Tyler’s move, exhibitions coordinator Shayna McConville began to explore ways exhibitions and public programs can reach out to its new audience and work in a collaborative way with other arts and culture organizations in North Philadelphia. Through her research, McConville identified a number of local organizations, but learned that nothing was in place to coordinate their efforts.

Hoping to fill this void, McConville began working with neighborhood organizations and created the alliance, which now comprises more than 20 organizations, including the Art Sanctuary, the Mural Arts Program and the Wagner Free Institute of Science.

The alliance will kick off its activities in late April, with the launch of its web site and a weekend open house, during which many of the organizations will open their doors and showcase what they do.

“We want to use this as an opportunity for a celebration of all of the cultural resources in the area,” McConville said.

For more information about upcoming public programs, contact McConville at exhibitions@temple.edu or 215-777-9144.