Pioneers in Black Art

Driskell, a celebrated painter as well as a curator and influential scholar of African American art, began teaching at Maryland in 1977; in 2001, the university established the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora on campus in his honor. 

Dr. Walter O. Evans has amassed a sizeable and eclectic collection of paintings, sculptures and other media, all created by African-American artists. The more than 500 pieces span a 150-year period, a cultural legacy that he came to feel a personal responsibility to share. To that end, he and his wife, Linda, selected and assembled approximately 80 pieces for an exhibition that began in 1991 and traveled continuously until 2007. The collection was shown in more than 45 museums and university galleries in the U.S., and selections from the exhibit were loaned to several U.S. embassies and major museums throughout the world.

Walter O. Evans: collector of African American art & literature

The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art