Georgia Museum of Art gifted significant collection of African-American works

Longtime art patrons Larry and Brenda Thompson have donated 100 works to UGA's Georgia Museum of Art to expand the museum's collection as well as funding for a new curatorial position, the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of the African Diaspora.

The first round of the gift includes 37 works and the curatorial position "will be a full-time academic professional who will oversee the museum’s collection of paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings and archives by African and African American artists, will conduct research and publish the results, and will develop special exhibitions, lectures and symposia and other educational events for university and general audiences. ...The curator will work with the staff of the museum to enhance public knowledge of art by African Americans within the contexts of American history, of African history and of social, practical and creative expression," said the GMOA in a press release.

Larry, a former U.S. deputy attorney general and now professor of corporate and business law at UGA, and Brenda, a former Atlanta Public Schools clinical school psychologist and Morehouse assistant professor, have more than 600 pieces of artwork in their permanent collection.

“This is something we’ve grown with for the last 30 or 40 years,” Larry told the AJC in an article about the donations. “It’s a lot, and it’s a responsibility. ... People have entrusted us with works, and so it’s best to place as many as we can in the next 20 years or so.”