Faculty Biography
Vitals:
Name: Randolph Williams
Title: Professor
Department: Studio Art
Building: Brownson Hall
Room: 209
Phone: 914-323-5331
Email: williamsr@mville.edu
Degrees:
MA in Art Education, Sir George Williams University
BS in Art Education, New York University
Randolph Williams maintains two careers, one as an active visual artist and another as an educator developing new ways to present the visual arts to children. A professor of Art at Manhattanville College, Randolph Williams is active as an educational consultant to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Neuburger Museum. He is also the program director of the New York State Summer School of the visual arts. Professor Williams holds a Bachelor of Science in Art Education from New York University and a Masters Degree in Art Education from Sir George Williams University in Montreal.
A Prize Winning Artist
In his role as artist, Professor Williams has won numerous prizes and awards, including a 1982 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts to the American Academy in Rome. He has also been recognized by the New York State Council on the Arts, Visual Arts Services Division, and New York Foundation for the Arts Sculpture Fellowship. His work has been the subject of more than a dozen solo exhibitions. His publications include Beauty by Design, the Aesthetics of African Adornment, from the Exhibition Catalogue of the Universal Structure of Particular Forms, and he has served as the Fine Arts editor and Critic of Black Creation, A Quarterly Review of Black Arts and Letters Of his artwork, Williams says, "The content of my art explores the tangible events of my past as well as the current events that I experience presently. In a very simple manner my art work acts as a form of re-constructive surgery. Often I explore elements of my past that were harmful to me as an African-American. When I was young I was restrained and incapable of correcting injustices inflicted upon me. Now I am stronger and have the capacity to view the world differently. I often use my artwork to comment on personal history. History must be illuminated if I want to proceed as an educator and an artist of integrity.
Chair of the Department
Williams believes that the Studio art department at Manhattanville values the process of collaboration in the development of young artists, "We work with the artist as an individual," he says. "We feel that the quality of process determines the quality of the product. We instruct our students to develop a disciplined approach to their work while honoring their individual achievements as the subject matter of their artwork. We teach students that creativity and intelligence are compatible and just, as there is scientific research, there is also aesthetic research. Art is not simply about art, but it includes the worlds that we are a part of: the worlds of the past, the worlds of present and the worlds of the future. Art begins outside of the studio. It is defined and refined in the studio, then it is returned to the world and presented to the public. The integrity of this process is our main concern.