Lydia C. Thompson
Biography
2010
Lydia Thompson is a native of Columbus, Ohio, she received her BFA degree from The Ohio State University and her MFA from the New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Thompson received the prestigious Fulbright Hayes grant to research traditional architecture in Nigeria and a VCUarts Institutional Grant for a residency at the International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark.
Thompson recently joined Mississippi State University as the Department Head and Associate Professor in the Department of Art in the College of Architecture, Art and Design. Prior to her arrival to MSU, she was associate professor of ceramics at VCU Department of Craft and Material Studies. Her administrative career spans over 20 years and she has held positions as the assistant dean of student affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, assistant dean of multi-cultural affairs at the School of Art Institute of Chicago and the Director of the Educational Opportunity Program at NYSCC at Alfred University.
Thompson’s work has been included in galleries, art centers and museums such as, The Society for Contemporary Crafts, PA, Baltimore Clayworks, MD, the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, KY, Te Temauta Gallery in New Zealand, and Guldegaard in Denmark. She has completed public commissions for businesses and her work is in private and public collections in North Carolina, Virginia, New Mexico, New Zealand, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. She has conducted workshops and given lectures throughout the United States. She has served as juror and curator for exhibitions and worked with community youth groups in her region. She serves on the board as director-at-large (2008-2011) for the NCECA (National Council of Education for the Ceramics) organization.
Thompson continues her studio practice and resides in Starkville, MS with her family.
2010
LCT