Painter to Present UA Art Lecture at Dinah Washington Center

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Acclaimed artist Phoebe Beasley will present a keynote lecture titled “Connecting Textured Roots and Routes” at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center Wednesday, April 13 at 5:30 p.m.

This lecture is part of the Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art Lecture Series and is free and open to the public.

Beasley will discuss experiences from her career in art and will discuss in detail several examples of her artwork that she is bringing to Tuscaloosa for the occasion.

Beasley’s paintings have been collected widely by private collectors, corporate collectors and prominent art museums, and she has produced commissioned art for presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

The art created by Beasley for more than four decades appears in the homes of Oprah Winfrey, Clarence and Jacqueline Avant, Bill Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Tyler Perry and others.

Although known primarily as a painter, Beasley also collaborated with the late author Maya Angelou to produce a set of serigraphs for a book of poetry by Langston Hughes, an example of which is held in the Paul R. Jones Collection.

She received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from her alma mater, Ohio University, in 2005. She also served on the board of the Savannah College of Art and Design and devoted 15 years as a commissioner on the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

Beasley serves on the California Arts Council and was honored in 2013 by the California African American Museum with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Visual Arts and Arts Advocacy at their CAAM Gala.

She is a strong advocate for the arts and has been honored by several organizations for her charitable work including The Legacy Ladies Torch Award, The HeART Project, Hillsides Center in Pasadena, Victoria Rowell’s Foster Children Positive Plan, The Jenesse Center Silver Rose Award and the United Negro College Fund.

The Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art Lecture Series is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes and Goldwater scholarships.