Deborah Dancy

Deborah Dancy, also known as Deborah Muirhead (born 1949), is an American painter of large-scale abstractions in oil; she is also a printmaker and mixed media artist. Her work is also known to encompass digital photography. In 1981, she began to teach at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, where she taught painting for thirty-five years until her retirement in 2017. She has received awards such as a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Women’s Studio Workshop Studio Residency Grant, and a YADDO fellowship.

Early life and education
Dancy was born in 1949 in Bessemer, Alabama. She was born into an African American family who treasured their heritage and ancestry. Dancy received her BFA from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1973, as well as an MS in printmaking and MFA in painting from Illinois State University in 1976 and 1979, respectively.

Career
Her painting "Seed Travel" appeared in the Stamford Museum and Nature Center. Dancy taught painting at the University of Connecticut, Storrs for thirty-five years before retiring in 2017.

Dancy’s works are in the permanent collections of numerous galleries and academic institutions, some of which include the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Dancy was also nominated for a Connecticut Children's Book Award for Illustration for The Freedom Business as an illustrator and co-author.

Deborah Dancy was the art director and the illustrator of The Freedom Business, a book by her friend, Marilyn Nelson.

Public collections

 * Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio
 * Baltimore Museum of Art
 * Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Ala.
 * Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
 * Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, S.C.
 * Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn.
 * Detroit Institute of Arts
 * Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa
 * Fine Art Museum, Bardo Arts Center, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, N.C.
 * Fine Arts Museum, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
 * Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa
 * Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tenn.
 * Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Mo.
 * Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.
 * Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Ala.
 * Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
 * Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Penn.
 * Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind.
 * Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kans.
 * United States Embassy, Yaoundé, Cameroon

Awards and honors

 * Women's Studio Workshop Studio Residency Grant
 * Banff Creative Residency Program Grant
 * University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts Outstanding Faculty Award
 * The University of Connecticut Chancellor’s Research Fellowship
 * American Antiquarian Society William Randolph Hearst Artist and Writers Creative Arts Fellowship
 * Nexus Press Artist Book Project Residency Award
 * Visual Studies Press Artist in Residency Award
 * Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Nominee
 * John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship
 * New England Foundation for the Arts Regional National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Artist Grant
 * Joan Mitchell Foundation Nominee
 * Juror's Merit Award, New American Talent: Laguna Gloria Museum
 * Connecticut Commission on the Arts Individual Artist Grant
 * Yale University Visiting Faculty Fellow
 * YADDO Fellowship
 * Connecticut Book Award Illustration Nominee - “The Freedom Business”