As founding dean of what was then known as the Stella Elkins Tyler School of Fine Arts, Blai instilled the school with a commitment to progressive education emphasizing the student's mastery of technique within the framework of a liberal arts curriculum.
[5] Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Tyler's curriculum continued to grow in response to new definitions of art-making and the role of art in society.
In 2017, Susan E. Cahan, who came from Yale University became the first permanent dean of an independent Tyler since the school moved into its new building in 2009.
In 2018, Temple University's board of trustees approved changes to Tyler's structure and identity in order to unify the school, integrate disciplines in architecture and environmental design, support cross-disciplinary studies and reflect current understanding of creative practice and research.
[6] The two structures, which are connected by a passageway and are located at Temple University's Main Campus in Philadelphia.
Past Jack Wolgin Annual Visiting Artists: Tyler Architecture alumni endowed a lecture series to honor Brigitte Knowles, professor emerita and former associate dean, that brings architects, landscape architects and designers to campus.
Past lecturers include: Temple Contemporary is Tyler's exhibitions and public programs unit.
Temple Contemporary's community-focused programming that has earned national attention includes "Funeral for a Home" (2014),[27][28] an extended commemoration of at-risk urban housing stock and the lives that soon-to-be-demolished homes contain; "reForm" (2014–2015),[29][30] a response to the closure of public schools and its impact on urban communities and their children by artist and Tyler faculty member Pepón Osorio; and "Symphony for a Broken Orchestra" (2017–2018),[31][32] a citywide effort to collect, display, repair and return broken instruments belonging to Philadelphia's public schools, highlighted by the composition of music for the broken instruments by composer David Lang and the music's performance by a diverse orchestra of local residents.