Gilda Snowden

Snowden was born in Detroit, Michigan on July 29, 1954, and grew up in northwest Detroit.{{cite web|last1=Abbey-Lamberts|first1=Kate|date=September 9, 2014|title=Gilda Snowden, Beloved Detroit Artist And Educator, Dies At 60|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/09/gilda-snowden-dead-dies_n_5793852.html|archive-url=|archive-date=|accessdate=29 January 2021|website=HuffingtonPost|publisher=TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.}}{{Cite web|last=Hansell|first=Betsy|date=4 December 1986|title=Her Challenging Art Has Layers of Secrents|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/99421490/|url-access=subscription|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-01-29|website=Newspapers.com|publisher=Detroit Free Press|page=135|language=en}} Snowden's father was a dentist. Her parents and grandparents migrated from Alabama and Texas to Detroit early in the 20th century, part of the mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North.{{Cite journal|last=Cole|first=Thomas B.|date=2012-07-18|title=Self-portrait|url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1217215|journal=JAMA|language=en|volume=308|issue=3|pages=218|doi=10.1001/jama.2012.3104|pmid=22797616|issn=0098-7484|url-access=subscription}} She attended Cass Technical High School with a focus on fashion design.

Snowden earned her earned her BFA degree in Advertising Design and Painting in 1977 and her MFA degree in Painting in 1979 from Wayne State University.{{cite news|last1=DeVito|first1=Lee|title=Detroit artist Gilda Snowden dead at 60|url=http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/archives/2014/09/09/detroit-artist-gilda-snowden-dead-at-59|accessdate=19 March 2016|publisher=Detroit Metro Times|date=9 September 2014}} She decided her sophomore year of college to focus on fine art. At Wayne State University, she was heavily influenced by the Cass Corridor art movement and studied with artist John Egner.{{Cite book|title=Great female artists of Detroit|last=Bilek, Suzanne|year=2012|isbn=9781609496715|oclc=806018780}}

She was married to William "Bill" Boswell, an actor and director of the Detroit Repertory Theatre.

In 1985, Gilda Snowden became a professor in Department of Fine Arts at the College for Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit.{{Cite web|last=Miro|first=Marsha|date=31 January 1993|title=Waxing Artistic, professionals push edge of the wrapper using new shades|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/98015928/?|url-access=subscription|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-01-29|website=Newspapers.com|publisher=Detroit Free Press|pages=68, 71|language=en}} She taught at CCS for 31 years, serving as chair for both the fine arts department and the painting department at various times during her years there.{{cite web |last1=Rogers |first1=Rick |date=9 September 2014 |title=With Sadness We Announce the Passing of Professor Gilda Snowden |url=https://www.collegeforcreativestudies.edu/articles/with-sadness-we-announce-the-passing-of-professor-gilda-snowden |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171109134740/https://www.collegeforcreativestudies.edu/articles/with-sadness-we-announce-the-passing-of-professor-gilda-snowden |archive-date=9 November 2017 |publisher=College for Creative Studies |accessdate=8 November 2017}} At the college she also served as a curator and juror for art exhibitions.

Gilda Snowden's works are predominately abstracts that utilize vivid color. The city of Detroit sparked several bodies of work. Her Flora Urbana series features abstracted floral forms, in encaustic, inspired by the gardens now tended by Detroit citizens on plots where buildings once stood.{{cite web |title=Gilda Snowden: Flora Urbana |url=http://www.artxdetroit.com/past-exhibitions/gilda-snowden/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710152526/http://www.artxdetroit.com/past-exhibitions/gilda-snowden/ |archive-date=10 July 2017 |access-date=19 March 2016 |website=Art X Detroit |publisher=Midtown Detroit, Inc. }} City Album: Department of Railways 1929 is an example from a series of charcoal rubbings she made of the Detroit manhole covers she discovered riding though the city on her bicycle.

Snowden describes all of her works as autobiographical including an extensive series Self-Portrait of over one hundred self-portraits of the back of her head and shoulders. She has cited her experience of race, gender and fears she felt as a child as the inspiration for this series. She began again with the series after growing her hair out in the 2000s and using computer projections to help create her pieces. Monument [1988], found at the Detroit Institute of Arts, as "a chronicle of my family on their travels from Alabama to Detroit. We are all looking for something, all traveling from here to there."{{Cite journal|last=Cole|first=Thomas B.|date=2012-07-18|title=Self-portrait|url=http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1217215|journal=JAMA|language=en|volume=308|issue=3|page=218|doi=10.1001/jama.2012.3104|pmid=22797616|issn=0098-7484|url-access=subscription}}

She was a member of the Michigan chapter of the National Conference of Artists. This organization helped Snowden exhibit her work internationally throughout her career.

Over the course of her career, Snowden served as an advisor on the DIA Friends of Modern Art Board, a member of the advisory board of the Scarab Club, a member of the Educational Advisory Board for the Art Education Department of the College for Creative Studies, and a gallery directory for the Detroit Repertory Theater.

Among the honors which Gilda Snowden has earned are:

• 2009 – Kresge Arts Fellowship from The Kresge Foundation.{{cite web|title=Inaugural 'Gilda Awards' honor the legacy of artist Gilda Snowden|date=July 8, 2015|url=http://kresge.org/news/inaugural-gilda-awards-honor-legacy-artist-gilda-snowden|publisher=The Kresge Foundation|accessdate=19 March 2016}}
• 1982, 1985, 1990 in Painting, 1988 in Sculpture – Individual Artists Grant from the Michigan Council For the Arts.
• 1977–1979 – Graduate Professional Scholarship, Wayne State University
• 1990 – Tannahill Faculty Grant, Center for Creative Studies
• 1990 – Arts Midwest NEA Regional Fellowship{{Cite book|title=The Art of Black Women: Works of Twenty-Four Artists of the Twentieth Century|last=Henkes|first=Robert|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc.|year=1993|isbn=0-89950-818-9|location=Jefferson, NC|pages=193}}

Gilda Snowden's work has been featured in gallery and museum, this is a select list of her exhibitions including:

• 2013 – Gilda Snowden, Album: A Retrospective 1977-2010, (solo exhibition) Oakland University Art Gallery, Rochester, New York, United States{{Cite book|last=Goody|first=Dick|title=Gilda Snowden, Album: A Retrospective 1977-2010|publisher=Oakland University Art Gallery|year=2013|isbn=978-0-925859-60-0|location=Rochester, Michigan|pages=50pp}}
• 2006 – Abstractions of Life Paintings, (solo exhibition) Sherry Washington Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, United States{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=20 June 2006|title=Painter Adds Musical Touch|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/363388588/?|url-access=subscription|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-01-29|website=Newspapers.com|publisher=Detroit Free Press|page=17|language=en}}
• 2002 – Gilda Snowden, New Work, (solo exhibition) Sherry Washington Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, United States{{Cite web|last=Cohen|first=Keri Guten|date=25 August 2002|title=Paintings Take Gallery By Storm|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/361703069/|url-access=subscription|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-01-29|website=Newspapers.com|publisher=Detroit Free Press|page=61|language=en}}
• 1986 – Paint Creek Center, Rochester, Michigan, United States

• 2014 – Another Look at Detroit (Part I and II), Marianne Boesky Gallery, Chelsea, New York City, New York, United States{{Cite news|last=Cotter|first=Holland|date=2014-07-24|title='Another Look at Detroit: Parts 1 and 2' (Published 2014)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/25/arts/design/another-look-at-detroit-parts-1-and-2.html|access-date=2021-01-29|issn=0362-4331}}
• 1993 – TransFORMING IDEAS, Michigan Gallery, Detroit, Michigan{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=12 November 1993|title=Art, Downtown|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/97903709/?|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-01-29|website=Newspapers.com|publisher=Detroit Free Press|page=48|language=en}}
• 1992 – Women of Color, Dahl Arts Center, Rapid City, South Dakota, United States{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=8 November 1992|title=Women of Color, Art Knows No Racial Boundaries|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/528755974/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-01-29|website=Newspapers.com|publisher=Rapid City Journal|page=27|language=en}}
• 1991 – Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit (DIA), Michigan, United States{{Cite book|last=Henkes|first=Robert|title=The Art of Black Women: Works of Twenty-Four Artists of the Twentieth Century|publisher=McFarland and Company Inc|year=1993|isbn=0-89950-818-9|location=Jefferson, NC|pages=193}}
• 1990 – Signature Images, (with artist Michael Luchs, curated by Jan van der Marck), Detroit Institute of Art (DIA), Detroit, Michigan, United States{{Cite web|last=Miro|first=Marsha|date=21 September 1990|title=DIA Exhibition Affirms Strength of Two Cass Corridor Artists|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/100003604/?|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-01-29|website=Newspapers.com|publisher=Detroit Free Press|page=31|language=en}}

Snowden died on September 9, 2014, at the age of 60.

Snowden's work is held in permanent museum collections including Detroit Institute of Arts,{{cite web|title=DIA: Search the Collections: Gilda Snowden|url=http://www.dia.org/art/search-collection.aspx?artist=SNOWDEN+GILDA|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021050854/http://www.dia.org/art/search-collection.aspx?artist=SNOWDEN+GILDA|archivedate=21 October 2016|accessdate=7 March 2017|publisher=Detroit Institute of Arts}}{{Cite web |title=Twin Tornadoes |url=https://www.dia.org/art/collection/object/twin-tornadoes-61839 |access-date=2018-03-03 |website=Detroit Institute of Art |language=en}} the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland,{{cite web|title=David C. Driskell Center: Collection: Gilda Snowden|url=http://driskellcenter.pastperfect-online.com/37341cgi/mweb.exe?request=keyword;keyword=gilda%20snowden%20;dtype=d|accessdate=21 March 2016|publisher=David C. Driskell Center}} Oakland University Art Gallery, and the Wayne State University Art Collection.{{cite web|title=Wayne State University Art Collection: Picture of the Week: Gilda Snowden|url=http://artcollection.wayne.edu/picture-of-the-week.php?id=43|accessdate=20 March 2016|publisher=Wayne State University}}

The Gilda Snowden Emerging Artist Awards, funded by The Kresge Foundation since 2015, honor Gilda Snowden's lifetime of work mentoring Detroit area emerging artists.

{{Reflist}}

• [http://elibrary.wayne.edu/record=b4307702~S47 Gilda Snowden Oral History Interview]
• [http://www.kresgeartsindetroit.org/portfolio-posts/gilda-snowden Kresge Arts in Detroit Profile Page]

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Category:1954 births

Category:2014 deaths

Category:African-American artists

Category:Artists from Detroit

Category:Cass Technical High School alumni

Category:Wayne State University alumni

Category:20th-century African-American artists

Category:21st-century African-American artists