A Tyler Block Party Community Project in Response to Pyramid Club: 1937–2035

As part of the Block Party on October 29, Temple Contemporary and Tyler School of Art and Architecture will host a participatory flag-making project inspired by Pyramid Club: 1937–2035—an exhibition that reimagines the legacy of Philadelphia’s historic Pyramid Club as a living, evolving site of cultural power.

Led by adjunct faculty member Alicia Link, this project, “Flags for the Forgotten and Formidable Pyramidians,” builds on an assignment Alicia developed with her students in consultation with curator Dr. Matt Kenyatta. Their individually designed flags, created in direct response to the exhibition, will be on display during the Block Party, expressing how students have interpreted the layered histories and symbolic language embedded throughout the gallery. Students designed a flag honoring or contemporizing one of the following artist's featured in the exhibition; John W. Mosley, Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett, Romare Bearden, or Humbert Howard.

The Block Party project is an extension of this classroom work, inviting the broader Temple and Tyler community to collaborate in the making of a large-scale quilt-flag. The flag’s underlying structure will incorporate one of Shawn Theodore’s designs and be arranged as a quilt-like grid, providing a shared framework for collective expression. Throughout the event, students can select and iron on symbols drawn from Theodore’s installation, adding their own contributions to a piece that celebrates both remembrance and reimagining.

The finished flag will remain on view following the Block Party as part of a larger conversation about how the Tyler community can extend and respond to the Pyramid Club’s enduring influence through contemporary creative practice.