News & Events

UNC Asheville Holds Retrospective Exhibition of Local Sculptor, Former Professor Dan Millspaugh

January 26, 2009

UNC Asheville will hold a retrospective exhibition of works by noted Asheville sculptor and former professor Dan Millspaugh from January 30 to February 25 in UNC Asheville's S. Tucker Cooke Gallery. An opening reception will be held 6-8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30, in the gallery. Millspaugh will give a gallery talk at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, in the gallery. Events are free and open to the public.

The exhibition features more than 30 sculptures and 40 photographs of permanent installations, spanning more than three decades. Millspaugh works predominately in large metal sculptures crafted from new and reclaimed materials. His love and innovation for this art form transferred to the classroom. For example, in 2001 he removed 300 pounds of brass from a dorm demolition project to be used for casting in his sculpture classes.

A Florida native, Millspaugh holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in ceramics and a master of fine arts degree in sculpture from the University of Miami. He taught art at UNC Asheville for 26 years where he amassed accolades for his work in the classroom, including the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching, UNC Asheville Distinguished Teaching Award, the Ruth and Leon Feldman Professorship for scholarship and service, and the University's Outstanding Scholarship and Creative Achievement Award.

Millspaugh has completed sculpture commissions for the City of Asheville, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the UNC Botanical Gardens in Chapel Hill, and the Tennessee Valley Authority in Alabama. He has works on display in numerous corporate, public and private collections throughout the United States. He has exhibited widely throughout the nation and was recently included in a transnational exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Literary Society of Yucatan in Merida, Mexico.

For more information about the retrospective exhibition, call UNC Asheville's Art Department at 828.251.6559.