Museum of Art

David C. Driskell, Five Blue Notes

One of the world’s leading authorities on the subject of African American Art, David C. Driskell is highly regarded as an artist and scholar. A few of his many accomplishments include curating the 1976 groundbreaking exhibition “Two Centuries of Black American Art, 1750-1950” which has been the foundation of the field of African American art history; authoring five books on African American art and contributing to dozens of others; and being the recipient of numerous fellowships, awards, and prizes, including a National Humanities Medal, given by President Bill Clinton. Since 1977, he has served as curator of the Camille O. and William H. Cosby Collection of African American Art. Driskell resides in Maine for a part of each year:
For more: http://www.driskellcenter.umd.edu/about/dcd.php

Following a successful career teaching Psychology, in which he founded of a summer research institute for students of color, and served as Associate Dean, Robert E. Steele became the founding director of the David C. Driskell Center in 2004, a position he held until 2012. Steele and his wife Jean built an extensive collection of African American art, much of which is now in the Driskell collection. Additionally, Steele has a connection to Benjamin Mays ’20: he studied under Mays at Morehouse College.
For more: http://www.umd.edu/Black_History_Month/robert_steele.cfm

Painter and printmaker Curlee Raven Holton is the Executive Director of the David C. Driskell Center and Senior artist-in-residence in the Department of Art at the University of Maryland. An artist-scholar, Holton has exhibited extensively throughout the US and abroad for over 25 years, at venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, and the 7th International Biennale in Cairo, Egypt. Holton is founding director of the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College.
For more:  http://www.arhu.umd.edu/news/curlee-holton-appointed-permanent-executive-director-umds-david-c-driskell-center