FITH ArtCollective
WILLIAM T. WILLIAMS and RAYMON ROSS
William T. Williams was born in Cross Creek, North Carolina, United States. He received a BFA degree from Pratt Institute in 1966 and studied at The Skowhegan School of Art. In 1968 he received an MFA degree from Yale University School of Art and Architecture. He is presently Professor of Art at Brooklyn College, the City University of New York, whose faculty he joined in 1971.
Williams is a recipient of numerous awards including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Awards, and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Award. He is also a recipient of The Studio Museum in Harlem's Artist Award in 1992 and received The James Van Dee Zee Award from the Brandywine Workshop for lifetime achievement in the arts in 2005. Most recently, he was the recipient of the 2006 North Carolina Governors Award for Fine Arts. The highest civilian honor the state can bestow. William's is represented in numerous museum and corporate collections including The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, North Carolina Museum of Art, The Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Menil Collection, Fogg Art Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Library of Congress, Yale University Art Gallery, Chase Manhattan Bank, AT&T, General Mills Corporation, UnitedHealth Group, Southwestern Bell Corporation and Prudential Financial Insurance Company of America.
He has exhibited in over 100 museums and art centers in the United States, France, Germany, Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, People's Republic of China and Japan.
Raymond Ross. On the evening of August 24, the photographer Raymond Ross, age 81, died in his home on Houston Street in Manhattan. The cause of death was complications from diabetes and asthma. For nearly 60 years, Ray Ross was a wellknown and widely admired figure in the New York downtown music scene. His intimate photographs document the flowering of Jazz, as he was one of the few to chronicle the transition from the big band sound of Duke Ellington to the Bebop era ushered in by John Coltrane and Miles Davis. His lifelong involvement with the downtown community kept him engaged with the avantgarde music and dance world he loved so dearly. He leaves behind over 20,000 photographs and a large community of artists, musicians and friends who know that Ray's adventurous spirit lives on in their own work. Born in New York City on February 10, 1924, Ray is survived by his friend and companion for many years Ellen Christi. His nephews David A. Ross of New York City, Mark R. Ross of Los Angeles, and Robert B. Ross of San Francisco will remember Ray as a man committed to his passion for music and photography. A memorial celebration for Ray will be held at St. Peter's at Lexington and 54th Street at 7 PM on Sunday, November 21.
