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Grace Hampton’s Artful Life

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Thoughtful and humble, Grace Hampton has lived a life surrounded by the art and artists she loves. The first African-American in central administration at Penn State, she has a life story that spans the divide between plantation slaves and a nationally recognized and celebrated art educator.

Her life began in Courtland, Ala., a rural place that gave rise to many in her family, including her mother and father.

“We can count six generations back,” Hampton said. “It appears that the early people came as slaves to that area. My great-grandfather was still alive when I was a little girl.”

Many of the stories her grandmother told her focused on plantation life. “The ‘big house,’ where the plantation owner lived, was left in town for many years,” she said.

Her grandmother also shared the story of first hearing that she was free.

Racism in Alabama became unbearable, and Hampton’s father refused to live under those conditions. He decided to to move his family to Chicago. There, the family encountered segregation and all the emotional pain its hateful rules engendered.

Her father, a man who worked as a tenant farmer, growing and picking cotton, eventually found himself in the steel mills of Gary, Ind.

A young Grace attended school in Chicago and spent summers in Alabama, getting — and staying — in touch with her history.

The Hampton family lived in Chicago’s Maxwell Street neighborhood, where the University of Chicago is now located. It was a cultural melting pot for artists, musicians and intellectuals of all kinds. Hampton had the opportunity to see Muddy Waters, Memphis Slim and Five Blind Boys perform live.

Her talent for art surfaced early in her life. She was selected for a special art program for elementary school students at the Art Institute of Chicago.

“In second grade, I could draw well,” said Hampton. “I remember drawing a clown on a notebook. My teacher saw it, and as a result I got a scholarship from the Raymond Fund Lecture Class. I went to the Art Institute every Saturday morning.

“I was the only black person in the class. Nobody talked to me. But I knew I had the skills and the confidence my grandmother and parents gave me.”

When she was ready for high school, she chose to attend an all-girls magnet school — Lucy Flower College Prep — with young women from all over the city.

She majored in art, though she took many academic courses. She was subsequently enrolled in the School of the Art Institute and the University of Chicago.

While studying, Hampton became pregnant and dropped out of school to have the baby. “I thought my life was over,” she said. “But I have been reborn so many times. It’s the good fortune of life.”

She was able to get her scholarship back and graduated.

Her career as an art educator began in Gary, where she taught classes at the Bethune School. “Michael Jackson and his family where there,” Hampton said. “I knew him, his family and his father. My school was all-black, but the teachers were integrated.”

She decided she wanted more experiences than teaching in an elementary school and applied for graduate school. She attended Illinois State University, and as she worked to earn her master’s degree, she took several part-time jobs. She worked at an all-white sorority as a house mother. “J.C. Penney offered me a job until they found out I wasn’t white.”

With her master’s in art education, Hampton began her path to her eventual home at Penn State.

Her master’s thesis drew the attention of California State University, Sacramento. She was offered a contract and accepted it. Eventually, she applied for an assistantship at Arizona State University, where she earned a doctorate in art education.

A job offer from the University of Oregon, Eugene, put her in touch with several of the most prominent people in art education.

While she was teaching at Oregon she worked on The Second World Festival, which brought together people of color from throughout the world. “That conference changed my life,” she said.

Her career eventually landed at the National Endowment for the Arts and at Jackson State University in Mississippi. “I wanted to help my people,” Hampton said. “I spent two years as the assistant director in the Expansion Arts Program at the NEA. That’s when Penn State found me.”

While at Penn State, Hampton was an influential figure in both the arts and administration, serving on the committee for university promotion and tenure and as assistant to the provost for the arts, head of African-American studies and senior faculty mentor, among other roles.

Despite a variety of setbacks — which included a fire that destroyed most of her belongings, and persistent racism at various stops along her career path — Hampton arose from the ashes like the mythical Phoenix she certainly identifies with.