Faculty
John T. Scott
1940-2007
Professor of Art
Artist Mentor
Growing up, Scott and his five siblings were introduced to a solid work ethic by their parents, Thomas and Mary Mable Holmes Scott, in New Orleans’s Lower 9th Ward. His father’s dedication to providing for his family as a cook and server in several of New Orleans’s most prominent restaurants, along with his mother’s wisdom and inspiration, encouraged Scott to pursue his dream of becoming an artist with determination and optimism. Scott learned basic carpentry skills from his father and embroidery from his mother, instilling in him a partly practical, partly creative desire towards making things that would influence his life as a resourceful and inventive artist. The insight and generosity instilled in him during childhood are part of what has made him an exceptional artist and an inspirational teacher.
He attended Xavier University of Louisiana in the 1950s and studied under painter Numa Rousseve, sculptor Frank Hayden, and Sister Mary Lurana Neely. During the 1950s, Scott and his fellow African American students were pushed to excel beyond greater society’s often narrow-minded expectations and participate in region-wide art projects challenging their knowledge and initiative. Scott received a Master of Fine Arts from Michigan State University where he gained two important assistantships with his major professors, sculptor Robert Weil and painter/printmaker Charles Pollock (brother of Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock).
Scott then returned to New Orleans as a Professor of Fine Arts at his alma mater, Xavier, creating a legion of inspired students during the past 40 years. In the fall of 1965 he married longtime girlfriend Anna RitaSmith and continued teaching and creating art. A new marriage, a demanding teaching post, and the arrival of children did not slow Scott’s artistic productivity. These challenges only motivated Scott to work at a pace and level of success unparalleled among his peers.
John T. Scott is the 1992 recipient of the prestigious “Genius Grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, awarded for demonstrating extraordinary originality and exceptional creativity in the field of art. Scott is one of a selected few artists from across the United States chosen to receive this honor. This grant and unrestricted stipend recognized John Scott as one of America’s most innovative artists.
Scott’s art often contains movement, either kinetic or implied. Experimenting in a multitude of media infused with African, Caribbean, and local flavors, Scott’s art is characterized by diversity. Scott uses a unique thinking style, which he describes as “Spherical Thinking”--an improvisational technique which allows him to see relationships between all things, even when the relationship may not be blatantly clear. “The name Circle Dance alludes to Scott’s performative engagement with three-dimensional object making and the self-choreographed movements required by the viewer to fully experience his art,” says guest curator Dr. Richard J. Powell, Chairman of Art and Art History at Duke University. Scott’s main objective in all of his work is to “move someone’s spirit,” and anyone who has seen his art would say that he has accomplished that task with aplomb.