Bill > CER26-0083

This resolution honors Alma Woodsey Thomas, a pioneering African American artist, art educator, and modernist painter from Columbus, Georgia, who made significant contributions to art and education. The resolution highlights her remarkable life journey, including her graduation from Howard University's first fine arts program, her 35-year career teaching art at Shaw Junior High School in Washington, D.C., and her late-blooming artistic career that began after her retirement in 1960. Thomas is recognized for developing a distinctive abstract painting style characterized by vibrant colors and mosaic-like patterns, known as "Alma Stripes," and for breaking barriers as the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1972 at age 80. The resolution also acknowledges her historic achievement of having her painting Resurrection become the first artwork by a Black woman in the White House permanent collection in 2015, and celebrates her lifelong home in Logan Circle, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. By commemorating Thomas on the 134th anniversary of her birth, the resolution recognizes her groundbreaking contributions to art, education, and cultural representation.

https://lims.dccouncil.gov/Legislation/CER26-0083