Alumna Dr. Gwendolyn J. Cooke made a decision that will reap significant benefits for Alabama State University. She has committed to a giving initiative that involves the donation of part of her extensive art collection to the University.  Cooke earned a degree in English from ASU in 1965 and earned her master's from Morgan State University in 1966. She went on to a distinguished 40-year career as an educator and education administrator. Cooke began her career as a high school English teacher in Baltimore. She later served in various administrative capacities ranging from principal to director of schools, and deputy superintendent to superintendent of Warrensville City Schools in northwest Ohio.

Over the years, Cooke amassed an impressive collection of works by printmakers of various backgrounds and by African-American artists, including Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett, Romare Bearden and Benny Andrews. Cooke's love for collecting was inspired by one of her graduate school professors. "I bought my first piece, a lithograph of an African-American woman, in 1966 for a humanities course. It began a passion that just stuck with me over the years," said Cooke.

Cooke said she wants her donation to be used not only to inspire a love of art in future generations of Hornets, but also to foster a tradition of planned giving in her fellow alumni. "I want them to receive a twofold message from this gift. One is that we ought to be collecting and the other is that we should give back to the institution or institutions that have supported and nurtured us," she said. "What we give back might be cultural, as mine is. This gift is African­ American centered, but I think other people can give gifts to increase the University's collection and to foster appreciation for the humanities in general." 

From the NAAHBCU Founder

We are pleased and very excited to share with you a portion of the excellent collection of fine art that is now in the permanent collection of the National Center at Alabama State University. The artwork was created by artists from the National Alliance of Artists from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (NAAHBCU).  Since the earliest part of the 18th century, Black colleges and universities have been the focal point of intellectual growth, and the caretakers of African American history and culture by maintaining a creative atmosphere. Cheyney in Pennsylvania, founded in 1852, is listed as the oldest HBCU. The first major public collection of African-American art was probably housed at Hampton Institute Museum, now Hampton University in Virginia. Founded in 1868, Hampton carried the distinction of having the only art gallery of Black colleges for more than 40 years when its gallery opened in 1928.

The NAAHBCU is deeply honored to contribute to the Art Legacy Project at Alabama State University under the leadership of Dr. Janice Franklin, Project Director of the National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African-American Culture (National Center) at Alabama State University and Dean of the Levi Watkins Learning Center (LWLC). As of 2022, there are ninety-nine historical Black colleges that are scattered throughout the United States of America. The NAAHBCU is the second largest and most active Black arts organization in America with an excess of more than sixty practicing artists from Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Illinois, and several more states. We continue to maintain a network with HBCU art departments and programs.

Our long-range goal has been to bring artists and art education to the forefront of American art and to keep art programs as institutional priorities for generations to come. The majority of the artwork in this collection was created by artists that received training, taught at an HBCU, or were artists-in-residence at one of the HBCUs.  We hope you enjoy the collection.

Dr. Lee A. Ransaw, Professor Emeritus at Morris Brown College 
Co-Founder of the National Alliance of Artists from HBCUs