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Deborah Dancy
Born	1949 (age 74–75) Bessemer, Alabama
Nationality	American
Education	Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Ill. - BFA (1973); Illinois State University, Normal, Ill. - MS in Printmaking (1976), MFA in Painting (1979)
Known for	Painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, artist's books
Movement	Contemporary art, abstract art
Awards	1985 - YADDO Fellowship 1997 - John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship

Deborah Dancy, also known as Deborah Muirhead^[1] (born 1949),^[2] is an American painter of large-scale abstractions in oil; she is also a printmaker and mixed media artist.^[2]^[3] 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.^[4]^[5] She has received awards such as a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship,^[6] Women’s Studio Workshop Studio Residency Grant,^[7] and a YADDO fellowship.^[5]

Early life and education

Dancy was born in 1949 in Bessemer, Alabama.^[2] She was born into an African American family who treasured their heritage and ancestry. Dancy received her BFA from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1973,^[1] as well as an MS in printmaking and MFA in painting from Illinois State University in 1976 and 1979, respectively.^[4]

Career

Her painting "Seed Travel" appeared in the Stamford Museum and Nature Center.^[8] Dancy taught painting at the University of Connecticut, Storrs for thirty-five years before retiring in 2017.^[4]

Dancy’s works are in the permanent collections of numerous galleries and academic institutions, some of which include the Museum of Fine Arts Boston,^[3] the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama,^[2] 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.^[9]

Deborah Dancy was the art director and the illustrator of The Freedom Business, a book by her friend, Marilyn Nelson.^[10]

Public collections

Allen Memorial Art Museum,^[11] Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio
Baltimore Museum of Art
Birmingham Museum of Art,^[2] Birmingham, Ala.
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, S.C.
Davison Art Center,^[12] Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn.
Detroit Institute of Arts^[13]
Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa
Fine Art Museum, Bardo Arts Center, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, N.C.
Fine Arts Museum,^[14] 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^[3]
Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Penn.
Raclin Murphy 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 and honors

Women's Studio Workshop Studio Residency Grant^[7]
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^[16]
Nexus Press Artist Book Project Residency Award^[5]
Visual Studies Press Artist in Residency Award^[5]
Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Nominee
John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship^[6]
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^[5]
Yale University Visiting Faculty Fellow
YADDO Fellowship^[5]
Connecticut Book Award Illustration Nominee - “The Freedom Business”^[5]

Bibliography

Armstrong, Kathleen, et al. “Children's Literature Reviews: 2008 Poetry Notables.” Language Arts, vol. 86, no. 6, 2009, pp. 468–472. JSTOR
“Book Design, Digital Imaging and Photography.” Clarellen, Clarellen and Cary Graphic Arts Press, New York, 2001^[17]
Danza, Emmie. “Deborah Dancy, Chasing the Light.” Gallery Artist Deborah Dancy Reviewed on The Drawing Center Column, "Annotations.", The Drawing Center, 27 June 2013
Edwards, Jeff. “‘It’s a Constant Struggle to Keep the ‘Thingness’ at Bay’: An Interview with Deborah Dancy.” Artpulse, 2015^[18]
“Front Matter.” African American Review, vol. 41, no. 3, 2007 ^[19]
“Flatfile Collection, Queen Bea.” Artspace New Haven. 2016^[20]
King, Leslie. “Gumbo Ya Ya : Anthology of Contemporary African-American Women Artists.” Hathi Trust Digital Library, Midmarch Arts Press, 1995^[21]
McNALLY, OWEN. “Painter Muirhead peers through a history, darkly.” Courant.com, Hartford Courant, 13 Sept. 2018
Mercer, Valerie J., et al. “Examining Identities.” Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, vol. 86, no. 1/4, 2012, pp. 66–87. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43492326.
Mobilio, Albert. “The Bookness of Not-Books: Modern and Contemporary Artists' Books,” The Paris Review, 22 Jun 2017^[22]
Nelson, Marilyn. “The Freedom Business (Ca. 1790).” Venture Smith and the Business of Slavery and Freedom, edited by James Brewer Stewart. by James O. Horton, University of Massachusetts Press, 2010, pp. 257–258. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vk4gq.16.^[23]
Perosino, Bruno. “Marking 35 Years: The Work of Deborah Dancy.” The William Benton Museum of Art, 18 Jul 2017^[24]
Raynor, Vivian. “Spirit in the Wood/Paint.” The New York Times, Sunday, 26 Feb 1989
Raynor, Vivian, “Stamford Museum.” The New York Times, Sunday: 2 May 1989
Robert, Kiener. “In Works with a Visceral, Spontaneous Feel, Deborah Dancy Explores the Amorphous Zone between Abstraction and Representation.” New England Home Magazine,
Robin Kahn. ROBIN KAHN, 1 Jan 1970.
Rosoff, Patricia. “Small Vistas, The 10-Year Show at 100 Pearl.” Hartford Advocate, 15 Jul 2004.
Zimmer, William. “ART; A Glimpse of Contemporary Taste.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Feb 1996.
Zimmer, William. “Connecticut Biennial.” The New York Times, 14 Apr 1991.^[25]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Deborah Dancy". N'Namdi Contemporary Miami. 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Sarah - Deborah Muirhead". Birmingham Museum of Art. July 13, 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Untitled". Museum of Fine Arts Boston. December 23, 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c Mercer, Valerie J.; et al. (2012). "Examining Identities". Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts. 86 (1): 66–87. doi:10.1086/DIA43492326. JSTOR 43492326. S2CID 222812759.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Perosino, Bruno (July 18, 2017). "Marking 35 Years: The Work of Deborah Dancy | The William Benton Museum of Art".
^ ^a ^b "Deborah Dancy". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
^ ^a ^b "Deborah Dancy". Women's Studio Workshop.
^ Raynor, Vivian (May 21, 1989). "In Stamford Exhibit, Art Imitates Life". The New York Times.
^ Lindsay, Nina (October 2008). "The Freedom Business". School Library Journal. 54 (10): 173.
^ "A conversation with Marilyn Nelson".
^ "Document". Allen Memorial Art Museum. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
^ "DAC Collection Object Information: Nameless - Deborah Muirhead". Wesleyan University - Davison Art Center. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
^ "Document, 2002". Detroit Institute of Arts.
^ "American Art". Fine Arts Gallery - Vanderbilt University - College of Arts and Sciences.
^ "Welcome to the Spencer Collection". Spencer Museum of Art.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ "Present and Former Creative and Performing Artist and Writer Fellows". American Antiquarian Society. January 15, 2013.
^ "Clarellen - Digital Book Design and Publishing". www.clarellen.com. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 1, 2019. Retrieved April 1, 2019.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "Front Matter". African American Review. 30 (2): 161–164. 1996. JSTOR 3042351.
^ "Deborah Dancy". Artspace New Haven. Archived from the original on April 1, 2019. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
^ Morgan, Ann Lee (1995). "jstor". Art Journal. 54 (3): 102–107. JSTOR 777610.
^ Mobilio, Albert (June 22, 2017). "The Bookness of Not-Books". The Paris Review. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
^ the freedom business.
^ Perosino, Bruno (July 18, 2017). "Marking 35 Years: The Work of Deborah Dancy | The William Benton Museum of Art". Retrieved April 1, 2019.
^ Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (December 19, 2013). Connecticut Biennial. Routledge. ISBN 9781135638825.

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