Arthur R. Berry: Artist & Educator
The watercolor painting, Untitled (Fruit and Bottle Still Life), by Arthur R. Berry (1923-2015) is on view in the Home exhibition through April 26, 2025, in the McCormack Gallery of the Albany Museum of Art. Created before 1998, the painting is in the AMA’s permanent collection.
Berry was a noted artist and educator, and the founder of the Art Department at Albany State University, which he chaired from 1968 to 1988. He is remembered nationally, regionally, and locally as an acclaimed artist.
A native of Tulsa, Okla., Berry enrolled at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., to study art under Aaron Douglas after serving in the U.S. military in World War II. He later studied at Columbia University and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
During his long career in education, Berry also taught at Alabama A&M University and Florida A&M University. He served in leadership at the Albany Museum of Art, where a retrospective exhibition of his work was shown in 2010. His wife, Sylvia Berry (1931-2021), had a 30-year career in education and was a lifetime member of the AMA’s Board of Trustees.
Arthur Berry designed the Soil to Sun statue adjacent to the ASU Fine Arts Center, which houses the Arthur R. Berry Art Gallery. In 2010, it was selected as one of the Seven Wonders of HBCUs in an online contest that determined the most iconic and historic emblems of black colleges. He was a founder of the Georgia Artists Guild of Albany and served as director of the Ritz Cultural Center.
In 2012, Berry was recognized in the Governor’s Awards for the Arts and Humanities. It was noted that in his retirement he continued to invite ASU students into his home for lessons and to share his private art collection. During the presentation, it was remarked: “Georgia is culturally richer because of Arthur Berry and his creative spirit and unyielding desire to give all to his work and his fellow citizens.”
In 2021, Arthur and Sylvia Berry were recognized with the first Albany Museum of Art Treasures tribute video by the Friends of the AMA. The Berrys’ AMA Treasures video can be viewed HERE.
