RELEASE DATE: SEP 20, 2018
The Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC Greensboro is excited to announce the establishment of the Sherrill/Gingrow Docent Education Endowment Fund, the first of its kind to provide transformational opportunities for docent education and gallery instruction programs at the Museum.
Volunteer Weatherspoon docent Sydney Sherrill Gingrow and her sister Sharon L. Sherrill established the endowment in memory of their parents, Clark A. and Norma D. Sherrill, who championed both art and education. Despite neither having college degrees themselves, Clark and Norma Sherrill celebrated their daughters’ college degrees and subsequent careers in higher education.
Clark was a WWII Naval veteran with a later career in public works, emphasizing recycling and waste management. He also held patents on several inventions, one being the first front-ended leaf loader. His wife, Norma, was a homemaker, consummate bookkeeper, and accomplished bridge player. In his seventies, Clark became a self-taught artist, creating thousands of sculpted and carved assemblages, both representational and abstract. His love of art influenced his granddaughter, Alex (B.A. Guilford College, M.F.A. SCAD), who is an accomplished artist herself. As Clark and Norma became more financially able, they established a charitable foundation and entrusted their daughters Sherry (B.A. Guilford College, M.A. Wake Forest University, Ed.D. UNCG) and Sydney (B.A. and M.S. University of Tennessee) with identifying institutions that reflected the Sherrills’ shared vision of justice, equality, and diversity through arts and education.
The Sherrill/Gingrow Docent Education Endowment Fund will be used to enhance volunteer docent education and gallery instruction programs at the Weatherspoon Art Museum. The Weatherspoon’s Docent Education program began in the early 1960s and continues to play an invaluable role by introducing youth and adults to modern and contemporary art. Currently, the program’s twenty-five volunteers engage with more than 5,000 visitors annually through guided tours and visual literacy classes, while also serving a growing number of K-12 and college students, families, and adults with special needs.
Curator of Education Curator Ann Grimaldi says, “The Weatherspoon Docent program has a long history of meaningful engagement with visitors in ways that are not always visible to the general public. This endowment will help us provide continuing education opportunities and teaching resources to support and grow this essential volunteer endeavor. Our docents love art and more so love sharing it with new people each day.”
Contributions to the Sherrill/Gingrow Docent Education Endowment Fund are welcome. For further information, please contact Sarah Kathryn Coley, Director of Development, UNC Greensboro at skcoley@uncg.edu, (336) 256-0495, or visit alumni.uncg.edu/docented.
About the Weatherspoon Art Museum
Mission
Embracing its public service role, the Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC Greensboro fosters the ability of art to impact lives and connect multiple communities.
History
The Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC Greensboro was founded by Gregory Ivy in 1941 and is the earliest of any art facilities within the UNC system. The museum was founded as a resource for the campus, community, and region, and its early leadership developed an emphasis—maintained to this day—on presenting and acquiring modern and contemporary works of art. A 1950 bequest from the renowned collection of Claribel and Etta Cone, including prints and bronzes by Henri Matisse and other works on paper by American and European modernists, helped establish the Weatherspoon’s permanent collection. During Ivy’s tenure, other prescient acquisitions included a 1951 suspended mobile by Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning’s pivotal 1949-50 Woman, and the first drawings by Eva Hesse and Robert Smithson to enter a museum collection.
In 1989, the museum moved into its present location in The Anne and Benjamin Cone Building designed by the architectural firm Mitchell Giurgola. The museum has six galleries and a sculpture courtyard with over 17,000 square feet of exhibition space. The American Alliance of Museums first accredited the Weatherspoon in 1995.
Collections + Exhibitions
The collection of the Weatherspoon Art Museum is one of the foremost of its kind in the Southeast. It represents all major art movements from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. Among the nearly 7,000 works in the collection are pieces by such prominent figures as Henry Ossawa Tanner, Edward Weston, Joseph Stella, David Smith, Jackson Pollock, Elizabeth Catlett, Louise Nevelson, Gordon Parks, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Cindy Sherman, Adrian Piper, Betye Saar, Amy Sillman, Nick Cave, Jennifer Steinkamp, and Sanford Biggers. The museum regularly lends to major exhibitions nationally and internationally.
The Weatherspoon is also known for its dynamic exhibition program. Through a lively annual calendar of exhibitions and a multidisciplinary educational program for audiences of all ages, the museum provides an opportunity for visitors to consider artistic, cultural, and social issues of our time—enriching the life of our university, community, and region.
UNC Greensboro
UNC Greensboro is a learner-centered public research university with 18,000 students in eight colleges and schools pursuing more than 150 areas of undergraduate and 200 areas of graduate study. Recognized nationally for helping first-generation and lower-income students find paths to prosperity, UNCG is ranked No. 1 most affordable institution in North Carolina for net cost by the N.Y. Times and No. 1 in North Carolina for social mobility by The Wall Street Journal. Designated an Innovation and Economic Prosperity University by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, UNCG is a community-engaged research institution with a portfolio of more than $67M in research and creative activity. The University creates an annual economic impact for the Piedmont Triad region in excess of $1B. Please visit uncg.edu and follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, Bluesky and LinkedIn.
Weatherspoon Art Museum
UNC Greensboro
1005 Spring Garden Street
Greensboro, NC 27412, (336) 334-5770, weatherspoon@uncg.edu
For more information or press images, contact:
Loring Mortensen, Head of Communications, (336) 256-1451, lamorten@uncg.edu
