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Alma Woodsey Thomas (September 22, 1891 – February 24, 1978) was an African-American Expressionist painter and art educator. She lived and worked primarily in Washington, D.C. and the ''Washington Post'' described her as a force in the Washington Color School. ==Personal life and education== Alma Thomas was born the eldest of four children to John Harris Thomas, a businessman, and Amelia Cantey Thomas, a dress designer,〔 in Columbus, Georgia, 1891. In 1906 the family moved to the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., relocating due to racial violence in Georgia and the public school system of Washington. As a child she showed artistic interest, making puppets and sculptures at home.〔 Thomas attended Armstrong Technical High School, where she took her first art classes. After graduating from high school in 1911, she studied kindergarten education at Miner Normal School until 1913. She served as a substitute teacher in Washington until 1914 when she obtained a permanent teaching position on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Two years later in 1916, she started teaching kindergarten at the Thomas Garrett Settlement House in Wilmington, Delaware, staying there until 1923. Thomas entered Howard University in 1921 as a home economics student, only to switch to fine art after studying under art department founder James V. Herring. She earned her BS in Fine Arts in 1924〔 from Howard, becoming the first graduate from the university fine art program.〔 That year Thomas began teaching at Shaw Junior High School, where she taught until her retirement in 1960. While at Shaw Junior High, she started a community arts program that encouraged student appreciation of fine art. The program supported marionette performances and the distribution of student designed holiday cards which were given to soldiers at the Tuskegee Veterans Administration Medical Center. In 1934 she earned her Masters in Art Education from Columbia University and studied painting at American University under Jacob Kainen from 1950 to 1960. In 1958 she visited art centers in Western Europe on behalf of the Tyler School of Art. She retired in 1960 from teaching and dedicated herself to painting. In 1963, she walked in the March on Washington, with her friend Lillian Evans.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Alma Thomas’s March on Washington …with 250,000 Others )〕 Alma Thomas died, living in the same house that her family moved into upon their arrival in Washington in 1906,〔 on February 28, 1978.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alma Thomas」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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