Join artist Brenda Kingery and Heather K. Lunsford, Director of the School of Visual Art, Oklahoma City University, in a conversation about Kingery’s artistic influences, including Abstract Expressionism, indigenous traditions from Africa, Japan, and Mexico, and her interest in cultural preservation.
Brenda Kingery is a contemporary artist and champion of women’s empowerment around the world. Born in Oklahoma City, Kingery earned a bachelor’s in fine arts and history from the University of Oklahoma. She attended graduate school at Ryukyus University in Okinawa and completed a master’s in arts from the University of Oklahoma.
Kingery returned to Okinawa, where she taught drawing, painting, and Okinawan cultural history for the University of Maryland’s Far East Division. She later settled in San Antonio, Texas, where she taught at San Antonio College. Her artwork has been displayed in many private, corporate, and public collections around the world and is part of numerous permanent collections. Kingery is the founding member of Threads of Blessing International, an organization that teaches textile art and design to women in developing countries to use their indigenous artistic skills. In Kingery was appointed by the president of the United States to the board of trustees of the Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her efforts to empower women around the world led to her being named the Dynamic Woman of the Year for the Chickasaw Nation.
Heather Lunsford is Chair of the Studio Art and Design Department and the Director of the Nona Jean Hulsey Gallery at Oklahoma City University. She is also a mixed-media artist who studied watercolor painting and art history at Oklahoma State University and Northern Illinois University. She received her Master of Arts in Administration from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, TX and wrote Spanish and bilingual educational programming at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Previously, Heather was the Director of Art in Public Places for the State of Oklahoma and the Art Director for the Heritage Trust project in Oklahoma City. Heather has served as an arts commissioner for the city of Edmond, is a current Rotarian for Oklahoma City and is on the board of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition.
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