UNC Asheville Art Professor Virginia Derryberry to Hold Solo Exhibition in Tennessee

Virginia Derryberry, a noted painter and UNC Asheville associate professor of art, will hold a solo exhibition entitled “Dreamscapes” from August 29-September 30 at the Tennessee Technology University’s Joan Derryberry Gallery (no relation) in Cookeville, Tenn. The exhibition will feature some 15 paintings by Derryberry and was selected from a national call for entries. She will hold an artist talk at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, in the gallery.

Derryberry is an actively exhibiting artist. She has held six solo exhibitions at the Cumberland Gallery in Nashville, Tenn., and recently completed a commission for the Knoxville Convention Center. Her paintings are also in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Tennessee State Museum, the Morris Museum of Art, the West Virginia Permanent Collection and in such corporate collections as NationsBank, HBO and the Nashville International Airport. In recent years, Derryberry has received two Individual Arts grants from the Georgia Council for the Arts as well as the Governor’s Award in West Virginia.

A Tennessee native, Derryberry holds a master of fine arts degree from the University of Tennessee and a master of arts degree from Peabody College. She joined the UNC Asheville faculty in 1996. In 2004 Derryberry received the UNC Asheville University Research Council Award for Professional Scholarship and Creative Activities, and earlier this year she was presented the Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award, the University’s highest faculty honor. In addition to teaching art courses, Derryberry is also director of the UNC Asheville’s nationally acclaimed Undergraduate Research Program.

For more information about the exhibition, call Joan Derryberry Gallery at 931/372-3051.

Media Contacts:

• UNC Asheville Art Department, 828/251-65599
• Jill Yarnall, UNC Asheville Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526