Gail Cooper
Retired art educator, artist
Education:
Bachelor of Creative Arts with a concentration in printmaking, UNC Charlotte (1986)
Associate degree in Interior Design, Randolph Community College (2002)
Hometown: Concord, N.C.
As a young person, Gail Cooper would draw pictures of her friends, rather than take their pictures. Eager to build her skills, she was unable to take art class in high school so had to find her own art education opportunities.
“My high school did not provide art classes, so I took a ‘Famous Artists Course’ by mail with very highly recognized artists/instructors (such as Norman Rockwell and Jon Whitcomb),” she says.
Gail was in her 40s when she came to UNC Charlotte to pursue her printmaking degree, having previously taken art classes at Western Carolina University and St. Andrews Presbyterian College.
“It was one of the happiest experiences in my life,” she remembers, “and it gave me a resource that I could constantly revisit for inspiration.”
After graduation, Gail taught for several years at the Randolph County Arts Guild in Asheboro where her family was based, eventually becoming a program director there. As an arts leader, she maintained membership in the NC Arts Council, the NC Print and Drawing Society, and the NC Watercolor Society. She also exhibited work widely in exhibitions and competitions throughout the eastern United States, and her art is in the collections of the North Carolina Department of Education, the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Department of Social Services, Sprint Cellular, First National Bank, and UNC Wilmington.
Retired now for several years, Gail regularly volunteers as the art instructor for her local senior center in Randolph County “as a way of giving back,” she says.
For the Generations exhibition in celebration of the Department of Art & Art History’s 60th anniversary, Gail contributed a four-color monoprint that she made as a UNC Charlotte student.