Robert Blackson is the founding director of Temple Contemporary at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Prior to moving to Philadelphia from the UK in 2011, Blackson was curator of public programs at Nottingham Contemporary and curator of BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle/Gateshead. Temple Contemporary’s signature initiatives include Funeral for a Home (2013-2014), reForm with Pepón Osorio and the Fairhill community (2014-2015), and Symphony for a Broken Orchestra (2016-2019).  Temple Contemporary’s purpose focusses on the ways in which programming of, by, and for a community leads to targeted impact. Over the past nine years, Temple Contemporary’s work illustrate a curatorial shift in the way programs can be crafted to build a healthy mutuality of institutional momentum and social purpose.