Tamara De Silva

Tamara DeSilva

Tamara DeSilva ASST PROFESSOR OF STUDIO ART Dept of Fine & Performing Arts

Phone 301-860-4078 tdesilva@bowiestate.edu

Main Campus Fine & Performing Arts, Room 2132

Education

  • Currently completing an MFA in Ceramics, at Hood College, Fredrick Maryland
  • MA in Art History from UMD College Park
  • BFA in Studio Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Areas of Expertise

Writing for artists, creative thinking, studio art, ceramics, presenting, and researching for art history

Biography

Professor Tamara De Silva is an educator, potter, a researcher, and a mom. Originally, from New York, she grew up in Long Island and Brooklyn and returns yearly. She made her home in Maryland during graduate school after art school in Chicago. During undergrad, she spent a semester abroad in Ghana, where she re-framed her thinking. This trip was the first of several to West Africa.

Her studio and art historical research explores the intersections of visual art and cultural anthropology, and performance. She is currently completing a MFA at Hood College and is a devoted professor training blooming ceramicists and 3D artists. Whether taking time to hike or swim in the mountains Tamara takes time to appreciate nature with her family.

She is inspired by major artistic work done by Emory Douglas, Joseph Biggers, Salvador Dali, and Post Modernists, James Dupree, Alison Saar, and Papa Ibra Tall. Especially important to her are the clay artists Magdalene Odondo, and Michael Sherrill. Her pottery forms are informed by water, and grain storage vessels created by Indigenous Artists from Central Africa specifically the Zulu vessels named Nala Pots. Tamara’s major heroes are Vaughn Benjamin, Nana Farika Berhane, Margaret Drewal, Ekpo Eyo, Eileen Julien, Malidoma P. Some, Nina Simone, Robert Farris Thompson, and Carl Jung.

Research Interests

  • The Women's society of the Gelede in Post-Colonial Yoruba communities
  • Preservation of Nigerian art and ceremony

Service Interests

  • BSU work study program
  • Peters Valley Artist Incubator and Social Impact Team '23-24 - petersvalley.org

Awards & Honors

  • Distinguished Fellow, Penland School of Crafts, Winter 2023 - penland.org

Memberships & Affiliations

  • African Studies Association

  • CAA

  • Maryland H.E.A.T. - Higher Education in the Arts Task Force

Publications

  • Symbols and Ritual: The Socio-Religious Role of the Ìgbìn Drum Family