Colette C. Gaiter
Biography
Colette Gaiter is Professor of Africana Studies with a joint appointment in Visual Communication in the Department of Art & Design at the University of Delaware
After working in graphic design for ten years in Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., and New York, Gaiter became an educator, artist, and writer. She has exhibited work internationally and in galleries, museums, and public institutions in the United States such as the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston, Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. As a pioneer in new media art since 1982, she has presented and exhibited work at SIGGRAPH, ISEA, and other new international new media venues. Her work remains interdisciplinary—from artist books to mixed media sculptural objects and textiles--usually including digital imagery.
Her writing on former Black Panther artist Emory Douglas’s work appears in the monograph Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas and West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1977, among other publications. Gaiter's essay on Cuban artists in The African Americas: A Collaborative Project on the African Diaspora in the Cultures of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States reflects her many visits to the island to study art, design and culture.
Putting into practice her interests in socially-engaged art, she has initiated two community projects in Wilmington, Delaware—Urban Garden Cinema in 2012 and The Beauty Shop Project, currently underway.
