S. Tucker Cooke
Professor Emeritus of Art
S. Tucker Cooke joined UNC Asheville in 1966 after receiving a MFA from the University of Georgia. He taught introductory two-dimensional design, all levels of drawing and painting as well as senior level seminars. He was department chair for more than thirty years.
He works primarily with paint and mixed media and strives to create a balance of supposed opposites in his work: balancing the real and the unreal, light and shadow. Cooke has participated in over 21 solo exhibitions and has had his work accepted in over 60 competitive group exhibitions. The Asheville Art Museum hosted a major retrospective of his work in 1976. His work is in the collection of the Hunter Museum, the Mint Museum, and the Asheville Art Museum. UNC Asheville’s S. Tucker Cooke gallery is named for him, and he received an honorary doctorate degree from UNC Asheville in 2018.
Tucker retired in May 2007.
Virginia Derryberry
Professor Emerita of Art in Painting and Drawing
Professor Derryberry taught drawing and painting classes and was actively involved in the university’s Undergraduate Research Program, serving as its Director from 2004-2007 and the Department of Art, serving as Chair from 2009-2014. She retired in December 2015.
Her work is shown regularly in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and her paintings have been written about in an extensive list of publications, including the publication of her artist portfolio in New American Paintings, volume 82, 2009 and the 15th anniversary edition, 2010. Her awards include: Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement from the Southeastern College Art Association (2013); chosen as a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome (2010); the Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award (2005) and the Feldman Professor Award for scholarship (2010) from the University of North Carolina Asheville; the Annual Artist Fellowship from the Southeastern College Art Association (2005); a residency at Moulin a’ Nef, Auvillar, France, through the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2004); two Individual Artist grants from the state of Georgia (1995 and 1993). Her drawings and paintings are in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Morris Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, the Bank of America Southeast Collection, a site-specific installation of 16 paintings at the Hartsfield-Atlanta International Airport, and the Tennessee State Museum.
In February 2016, Derryberry was named the winner of the 2017 College Arts Association (CAA) Distinguished Teaching of Art Award.
Education
- MFA, drawing and painting
University of Tennessee, Knoxville - MA, painting and printmaking
Peabody College, Nashville, TN - BA, art history (magna cum laude)
Vanderbilt University, Nashville
Personal Website
Dan Millspaugh
Professor of Art Emeritus in Sculpture
A Florida native, Millspaugh holds a bachelor’s degree in ceramics and a master’s degree in sculpture from the University of Miami. He joined UNC Asheville’s Art Department in 1981. In 1996 he received the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching, and was named the first recipient of UNC Asheville’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship or Creative Expression. Primarily a sculptor, Millspaugh taught most art courses from all levels of three-dimensional art to photography to art history.
Millspaugh’s extensive exhibition resume consists of many solo shows, workshops, residency programs and symposiums. Millspaugh has completed sculpture commissions for the City of Asheville, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the UNC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill, and the Tennessee Valley Authority in Alabama. His works are on display in numerous corporate, public, and private collections throughout the United States.
He writes, “My imagery comes from life experiences, growing up in Florida, being the son of a professional artist, serving in the US Coast Guard and traveling.”
Millspaugh retired in 2007 after teaching at UNC Asheville for 25 years.
In February 2017, he juried the 50th Annual Juried Student Exhibition.
Robert Tynes
Robert Tynes was born in Chicago and spent his formative years in Birmingham, Alabama, with regular summer retreats to the mountains of North Carolina. He received a BA degree in Art from Rhodes College and a MFA degree in Painting from East Carolina University.
Tynes has held over twenty-five solo exhibitions of his work and has participated in more than a hundred and fifty group shows across the country. He is the recipient of several artist-in-residence grants including two from the Roswell Museum and Art Center, New Mexico and one from the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming. In addition, he has completed several large-scale commissions for The Doubletree Hotel in Kansas City, IBM Corporation in Atlanta, and the city of Charlotte’s Convention Center.
Currently Emeritus Professor of Art in Painting, Tynes has also taught at the University of Hawaii, Humboldt State University in California, and East Carolina University. He was the first Chairman of the Board for the Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center, and has served as a member of the Boards of Directors for both the Asheville Area Arts Council and the Black Mountain Center for the Arts.
Education
- MFA, Painting with a minor in Drawing
East Carolina University, Greenville, NC - BA, Art with Honors & Distinction
Rhodes College, Memphis, TN
Personal Website