Sharon F. Patton (born 1944) is an American historian who specializes in

African art African art describes the modern and historical paintings, sculptures, installations, and other visual culture from native or indigenous Ethnic groups of Africa, Africans and the African continent. The definition may also include the art of the ...

Early life and education

She was born in southern part of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1944, where she received her bachelor's degree in 1966 from

Roosevelt University Roosevelt University is a private university with campuses in Chicago and Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The unive ...

. Patton attended

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

in Champaign-Urbana where she got her master's degree three years later. The same year, she became a student at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

and by 1980, obtained her Ph.D. in the history of

at the

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

Career

In 1968, Patton began her career as an instructor for the art department at Mankato State College in Minnesota where she taught

African-American art African-American art is a broad term describing visual art created by African Americans — Americans who also identify as Black. The range of art they have created, and are continuing to create, over more than two centuries is as varied as the ...

. From 1971 to 1972, she was one of the faculties at the

Lake Forest College Lake Forest College is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Lind University by a group of Presbyterian ministers, the college has been coeducational since 1876 and an undergraduate-focused liberal arts i ...

and from 1972 to 1973, served at the

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virginia in 1854. In 1968, the Virginia ...

. In 1976, she worked at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the university in Texas with over 47,000 students. Its campus, which is primarily in s ...

and from 1979 to 1985, she was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

, which in the end, led her to become the art director at

Montclair State University Montclair State University (MSU) is a public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Little Falls. As of fall 2018, Montclair State was, by enrollment, the second largest public university in New ...

of New Jersey by 1986. In 1987, she became a curator-in-chief of the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. In 1991, she relocated to the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

where she worked as an associate professor. In 1998, Patton was named an art director of the

Allen Memorial Art Museum The Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM) is an art museum located in Oberlin, Ohio, and it is run by Oberlin College. Founded in 1917, the collection contains over 15,000 works of art. Overview The AMAM is primarily a teaching museum and is aimed at ...

which was a department of Oberlin College. In 2003, she relocated again, this time to Washington, D.C. where she worked as a director of the

National Museum of African Art The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from both Sub-S ...

, a department of

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

until 2008. During her life, she held 20 exhibitions, three of which were in the Studio Museum.

Publications

Her first book ''Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden'' won the ''Choice’s Outstanding Academic Book of the Year Award''. She is also an author of 1983 published ''Traditional Forms and Modern Africa: West African Art at the University of Maryland'', a 1987 ''Witches, Demons and Metamorphoses'', and 1990s ''Vincent C. Smith, Reding on a Blue Note''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patton, Sharon F. 1944 births Living people American art historians Women art historians Roosevelt University alumni Northwestern University alumni Allen Memorial Art Museum Lake Forest College faculty Oberlin College faculty University of Illinois alumni University of Houston faculty University of Michigan faculty Virginia Commonwealth University faculty Smithsonian Institution people American women historians Directors of the National Museum of African Art Women museum directors American art curators American women curators Curators of African art African-American museum directors