Shirley Woodson facts for kids

Shirley Woodson (born 1936) is an American artist, teacher, and art collector. She is famous for her amazing paintings that show African American history. Her artwork has been created for over 60 years. You can find her pieces in important places like the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. In 2021, Shirley Woodson was named a Kresge Eminent Artist. The Detroit Institute of Arts held her first solo show, "Shirley Woodson: Shield of the Nile," from December 2021 to June 2022.

Early Life and Art Education

Shirley Woodson was born in 1936 in Pulaski, Tennessee. When she was just three months old, her family moved to Detroit. Her parents were Claude E. Woodson and Celia Trotter Woodson.

In seventh grade, Shirley was chosen for a special art program. She took art classes every Saturday at the Detroit Institute of Arts all through high school. She loved going to the museum. She said it was her "most favorite place to be."

Shirley Woodson studied art at Wayne State University. She earned her first degree, a B.F.A., in 1958. Later, she earned her master's degree (M.A.) from the same university in 1966. She also studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1960. In 1962, she traveled to Rome, Paris, and Stockholm to study art on her own.

Shirley Woodson's Art Career

Shirley Woodson first showed her art in 1960 at the Detroit Institute of Arts. That same year, she started teaching in the Detroit Public Schools. She has shown her work in many places around the world. These include the Academy of Arts and Letters in New York and the Oakland Museum in California. Her art has also been shown in places as far away as Dakar, Senegal, and Lagos, Nigeria. She has had over 30 solo art shows.

Woodson is one of only ten Black artists featured in a book by Julia R. Myers. The book is called "Harold Neal and Detroit African American Artists, 1945 Through the Black Arts Movement." She is also in other books like The Art of Black American Women and Gumbo Ya Ya.

From 1966 to 1967, Shirley Woodson received a special award called the MacDowell Colony Fellowship. During this time, she explored new art ideas and techniques. She started using collage, which is an art form made by gluing different materials onto a surface. She still uses collage in her art today, often mixing it with her paintings.

Teaching and Leadership Roles

Shirley Woodson taught at Highland Park Community College in Highland Park, Michigan, from 1966 to 1978. After that, she worked as an art specialist for Highland Park Schools until 1992. From 1992 to 2008, she returned to Detroit Public Schools. There, she was the supervisor of fine arts.

In 1974, Woodson helped start the Michigan chapter of the National Conference of Artists (NCA). This is the oldest national art group for Black visual artists. She is a leader on the national board and is the president of the Michigan chapter. She is also a member of several other art education groups.

Mentoring Other Artists

Shirley Woodson has inspired many artists in Detroit. People in her city say she has "lived a life dedicated to uplifting the beauty of Black art." She also helped break down barriers that kept Black artists from being seen. Many artists, like the painter Gilda Snowden, learned a lot from her.

In the fall of 2021, an art show called "Shirley Woodson: Why Do I Delight" was held. It featured 28 of her pieces. The show also included six artworks by artists she mentored, such as Elizabeth Youngblood and Dwight Smith. Another exhibit at Michigan State University in 2021 showed Woodson's painting, "Martha’s Vandellas" (1969).

Shirley Woodson and her husband, Edsel Reid, were also art collectors. Edsel Reid was known for supporting African American art, including jazz music. In 2019, they loaned one of their artworks to the "Detroit Collects" exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Awards and Recognition

Shirley Woodson has received many awards for her art and her work in the community. In 2021, she was named the Kresge Eminent Artist. This award honors one Detroit artist each year for their achievements and contributions to the local art scene.

She also received the DIA Alain Locke Award in 1998. Other awards include the Delta Sigma Theta sorority Lillian Benbow Award. She was also given the MacDowell Fellowship in 1966. She won prizes for her paintings and prints at various art shows in the 1960s.

Art Collections

Shirley Woodson's paintings are part of 23 different art collections. Some of these important collections include:

• The Detroit Institute of Arts
• The Studio Museum in Harlem
• The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit
• The Mott-Warsh Collection of Contemporary Art in Flint, Michigan
• The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City
• The Museum of the National Center for Afro American Artists in Boston
• The Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C.
• Florida A&M University