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VITA

SHERRY TURNER DECARAVA

Sherry Turner DeCarava is an art historian and
a published author. In her multi-faceted career, she
has been an independent art curator and consultant,
a college and museum lecturer, an exhibition
coordinator and an archivist. Mrs. DeCarava holds a
Master of Arts degree in Art History from Columbia
University (1972), where she also was the recipient of
a University Fellowship and a Travel Research Grant
Award. She has completed the oral examination and
all of the course requirements of the Department of
Art History and Archaeology that are necessary to
receive the Ph.D. at Columbia. She holds a Bachelor
of Arts in Art History from Barnard College (1968)
and has completed a program in language and art at
the Universite de Dijon, France.

With a principal interest in African and Afro-
american art, she has lectured on African art at
Harvard University, Rockefeller University and New York
University. At The Brooklyn Museum, she worked as a
permanent collections Lecturer and Exhibition Consultant,
responsible for conceiving, funding and teaching the
first Afro-american Art Seminar conducted by the Museum.
She conceived interpretive lectures for the Museum's
collections in African, Oceanic, American Indian and
Egyptian art. She also lectured in Ancient art (Greek,
Roman) as well as in American painting and sculpture. As
Exhibition Coordinator, she planned public lectures,
seminars and demonstrations interpreting Lester Wunderman's
private collection of Dogon art exhibited at The Brooklyn
Museum. She officiated at the Third Triennial Symposium
on African Art co-sponsored by Columbia University and
Atlanta University. She has also been interviewed concerning
art in Museum collections on Channel 31 and Channel 5.

During the past decade, Mrs. DeCarava has devoted
her professional time to fulfilling one objective:
the establishment of the archives of Roy DeCarava. As a
result of her efforts, these works have now been presented in
a major monograph, Roy DeCarava / Photographs, published by the
Friends of Photography, Carmel, in 1981. As the curator
for the archives, she has accomplished the following:

Organized and documented photographic archives. This
includes reviewing over 2,400 photographs and
historical items, organizing them chronologically and
cross-referencing by type and documentation.