Selma Burke PhD

Selma Burke (1900-1995) was raised in Mooresville, NC along with 9 other siblings. Her interest in art grew from a very young age when she started making shapes with the riverbed clay in her hometown in North Carolina. She continued to practice with the clay without any mentor or teacher to help her sharpen her skills. However, she went to nursing school due to her mom’s request for her to engage in a profession. While she was serving as a nurse to a wealthy socialite in New York, she became exposed to the rich culture of New York and to the art world of New York. She ended up taking classes at Sara Lawrence College and at Columbia University and earned her Master of Fine Arts degree. She married Claude McKay, a Jamaican poet who played a key role in the Harlem Renaissance. She started to gain recognition from her work and got the opportunity to be mentored by experts such as Matisse, Polvoleny and Maillol. Burke won an award in 1943 and was commissioned to make a portrait of former President Roosevelt, which was later put on the dime coin. The subject of her works is mostly family-centered. She established the Selma Burke School of Sculpture in New York and the Selma Burke Art Center located in Pittsburgh.

Siegel, Joel. “Honored Sculptor: Selma Burke Reaches Age 82 But Still Has Something to Say.” Indiana Gazette, Newspapers.com. 7 December 1983.