Viewing page 14 of 35

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[top right margin]] [[strikethrough]] 9 [[/strikethrough]] 42 [[/top right margin]]

Q. Who is head of the art department at Atlanta U. now?

A. They don't have an art department at Atlanta U. - they never had one. I was employed by Spellman College. There are 4 major colleges in Atlanta Morehouse for men, Spellman for women, Clark is co-ed and Atlanta University is a graduate school. And Atlanta U. is where we [[strikethrough]] operated [[/strikethrough]] conducted all the shows. I was on the Spellman College payroll. John Howard was at Atlanta U. taking classes at Spellman. So were all the other guys we mentioned - Spellman, Morehouse, or Clark. These four colleges were affiliated - there was a sort of cross fertilization.

Q. I thought that they were all at Atlanta U. Were there any other teachers?

A. No. I was a one-man art department down there. Miss Prophet - Nancy Elizabeth Prophet - was there but there was no communication at all between us. We didn't have many students - if we had 12 or 15 we had a class. We never had a large enrollment. I would teach printmaking, painting, and design all in one room and at the same time because we did not have enough students in any one area to make a class. And I also did art history.
I had an old car and all the guys would pile into the one car and we'd all go out to paint - the whole class. I didn't have to maintain any given number of students in a class in order to justify the class.

Q. [[strikethrough]] Well [[/strikethrough]] In light of that, I would say that your achievement in Atlanta - with the great work that was done there and the subsequent success of your students as artists and as educators, - I would say that makes your achievement all the more remarkable.

A. Well, they all worked very hard.