Collection: Shirley Woodson-Reid Collection

Shirley Woodson-Reid is an artist, curator and collector. She received her BFA and MA from Wayne State University and graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

“Paintings are my diaries; drawings are my prose; collage is my poetry; assemblages are my dialogue,” notes artist, educator, arts advocate, and 2021 Kresge Eminent Artist, Shirley Woodson Reid. Across six decades and parallel to her accomplishments as an artist, Woodson has also been an exceptionally dedicated and influential educator, arts advocate, and institution builder.

Woodson has lived a life dedicated to uplifting the beauty of Black art. Fine arts paintings, collage, portraits, and figurative paintings depict her life, the environment, and African American history. She is a MacDowell Colony and ConFaba Fellow, and held art residencies at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, as well as the Brandywine Printmaking Workshop and Archives in Philadelphia.

 Her writings have appeared in the International Review of African American Art, MidMarch Arts Press, along with the publications of Morgan State University, Marygrove College, NCA Michigan and others. Woodson also served as an illustrator for Broadside Press. Woodson’s work iin the public collections include: Detroit Institute of Artists, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Museum of the National Center of Afro American Art, Boston; Mott - Warsh Collection of Contemporary Art, Flint, MI; Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; African American Library Northwestern University, Evanston; Williams Museum, Scripps College, CA ; Florida A and M University; Fayetteville State University, NC; Wayne State University; Detroit Receiving Hospital, and Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit. Currently her projects include preparation for an exhibition of abstract drawings.