Deborah Dancy Art

Deborah Dancy, also known as Deborah Muirhead (born 1949), is a Black American woman painter of large-scale abstractions in oil; she is also a printmaker and mixed media artist. Her work is also known to encompass digital photography. In 1981, she began to teach at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, where she taught painting for thirty-five years until her retirement in 2017. She has received awards such as a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Women’s Studio Workshop Studio Residency Grant, and a YADDO fellowship. Dancy was born in 1949 in Bessemer, Alabama. She was born into an African American family who treasured their heritage and ancestry. Dancy received her BFA from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1973, as well as an MS in printmaking and MFA in painting from Illinois State University in 1976 and 1979, respectively. Dancy’s works are in the permanent collections of numerous galleries and academic institutions, some of which include the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Dancy was also nominated for a Connecticut Children's Book Award for Illustration for The Freedom Business as an illustrator and co-author. Deborah Dancy was the art director and the illustrator of The Freedom Business, a book by her friend, Marilyn Nelson. Public Collections Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio Baltimore Museum of Art Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Ala. Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, Iowa Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, S.C. Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. Detroit Institute of Arts Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa Fine Art Museum, Bardo Arts Center, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, N.C. Fine Arts Museum, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tenn. Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Mo. Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Ala. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Penn. Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind. Spencer Museum of Art,[15] University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kans. United States Embassy, Yaoundé, Cameroon Awards & Honors Women's Studio Workshop Studio Residency Grant Banff Creative Residency Program Grant University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts Outstanding Faculty Award The University of Connecticut Chancellor’s Research Fellowship American Antiquarian Society William Randolph Hearst Artist and Writers Creative Arts Fellowship Nexus Press Artist Book Project Residency Award Visual Studies Press Artist in Residency Award Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Nominee John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship New England Foundation for the Arts Regional National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Artist Grant[1] Joan Mitchell Foundation Nominee Juror's Merit Award, New American Talent: Laguna Gloria Museum Connecticut Commission on the Arts Individual Artist Grant Yale University Visiting Faculty Fellow YADDO Fellowship Connecticut Book Award Illustration Nominee - “The Freedom Business”Professor Deborah Dancy has been teaching at the University of Connecticut since 1981. She has an MS in Printmaking and an MFA in Painting from Illinois State University. She was included in the show Magnetic Fields, Expanding American Abstraction 1960’s to Today at The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC. Abstract works by multiple generations of Black women artists, within the larger history of abstract art. Many featured artists have ties to the Washington, D.C., area, particularly the Department of Art at Howard University. Evocative prints, unconventional sculptures, and monumental paintings reveal the artists’ role as under-recognized leaders in abstraction. Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Maren Hassinger, Alma Woodsey Thomas, Mildred Thompson, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Sylvia Snowden, Candida Alvarez, Betty Blayton, Chakaia Booker, Lilian Thomas Burwell...

Deborah Dancy, also known as Deborah Muirhead (born 1949), is a Black American woman painter of large-scale abstractions in oil; she is also a printmaker and mixed media artist. Her work is also known to encompass digital photography. In 1981, she began to teach at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, where she taught painting for thirty-five years until her retirement in 2017. She has received awards such as a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Women’s Studio Workshop Studio Residency Grant, and a YADDO fellowship. Dancy was born in 1949 in Bessemer, Alabama. She was born into an African American family who treasured their heritage and ancestry. Dancy received her BFA from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1973, as well as an MS in printmaking and MFA in painting from Illinois State University in 1976 and 1979, respectively. Dancy’s works are in the permanent collections of numerous galleries and academic institutions, some of which include the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Dancy was also nominated for a Connecticut Children's Book Award for Illustration for The Freedom Business as an illustrator and co-author. Deborah Dancy was the art director and the illustrator of The Freedom Business, a book by her friend, Marilyn Nelson. Public Collections Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio Baltimore Museum of Art Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Ala. Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, Iowa Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, S.C. Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. Detroit Institute of Arts Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa Fine Art Museum, Bardo Arts Center, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, N.C. Fine Arts Museum, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tenn. Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Mo. Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Ala. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Penn. Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind. Spencer Museum of Art,[15] University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kans. United States Embassy, Yaoundé, Cameroon Awards & Honors Women's Studio Workshop Studio Residency Grant Banff Creative Residency Program Grant University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts Outstanding Faculty Award The University of Connecticut Chancellor’s Research Fellowship American Antiquarian Society William Randolph Hearst Artist and Writers Creative Arts Fellowship Nexus Press Artist Book Project Residency Award Visual Studies Press Artist in Residency Award Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Nominee John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship New England Foundation for the Arts Regional National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Artist Grant[1] Joan Mitchell Foundation Nominee Juror's Merit Award, New American Talent: Laguna Gloria Museum Connecticut Commission on the Arts Individual Artist Grant Yale University Visiting Faculty Fellow YADDO Fellowship Connecticut Book Award Illustration Nominee - “The Freedom Business”Professor Deborah Dancy has been teaching at the University of Connecticut since 1981. She has an MS in Printmaking and an MFA in Painting from Illinois State University. She was included in the show Magnetic Fields, Expanding American Abstraction 1960’s to Today at The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC. Abstract works by multiple generations of Black women artists, within the larger history of abstract art. Many featured artists have ties to the Washington, D.C., area, particularly the Department of Art at Howard University. Evocative prints, unconventional sculptures, and monumental paintings reveal the artists’ role as under-recognized leaders in abstraction. Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Maren Hassinger, Alma Woodsey Thomas, Mildred Thompson, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Sylvia Snowden, Candida Alvarez, Betty Blayton, Chakaia Booker, Lilian Thomas Burwell...