We were up at Tyler School of Art today for the formal dedication of the school’s new building on Temple Main Campus when we heard the music and folderol of the ad hoc parade by the students, who would not be put off from their frolicking. Here’s a very brief video of the parade with some additional photos.

The parade gear was color coded. We decided this group was the drum corps. — The parade gear was color coded. We guess these are what pass for cheerleaders at Tyler!

We wandered around during some of the speeches. That’s how we saw Frank Bramblett and Jude Tallichet.

Tyler Painting Prof, Frank Bramblett. They ran out of "Hello my name is" stickers so Frank made his own out of blue tape. — Tyler Painting Prof, Frank Bramblett. They ran out of “Hello my name is” stickers so Frank made his own out of blue tape.

Tyler sculpture prof, Jude Tallichet, watching the student parade.

We stopped in the gallery and admired some work by MFA candidate Erin Riley.

Erin Riley, one of the weavings for the MFA thesis exhibit

Then we bumped into Erin herself.

When we ceased our wanderings, we saw that an enormous crowd had gathered in the lobby, listening. Among the speakers were Tyler Interim Dean Therese Dolan, Temple President Ann Weaver Harte and Tyler building architect Carlos Jimenez. We heard bits of their talks but that was it for us.

Caterer running upstairs. Don't you love the yellow tie? Some of the staff had orange ties. — Caterer running upstairs. Don’t you love the yellow tie? Some of the staff had orange ties.

Honestly, we were there to see if any of the other schools responded to Tyler’s declaration of war. Here’s what PAFA delivered–

PAFA retaliation for the Trojan Horse/War declaration. Weak. we hope someone can come up with something that rises to the conceptual level of the initial gifts.

Everyone seemed thrilled with the new building. We were, and we were happy to see student work pouring out of the studios into the hallways and the galleries, giving life to what was already a terrific building.