Budd Bishop

(1936-2016) lived in Livingston
Tranquil Pond–Overton County Along Windle Road, 2004
acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36 inches, 2015.65.28 gift of artist (TN Arts commissioner 2004-2011) in honor of the distinguished tenure of Rich Boyd

Bishop graduated from Shorter College in Rome, Georgia and received his M.F.A. from the University of Georgia. After graduating, he taught art for K-8 at Ensworth School in Nashville and lectured in art history for one year at Vanderbilt University. He moved to New York where he was the assistant to the president at Transit Advertising. In 1965 he was named director of the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga. Then in 1971 he received a commendation from Tennessee Governor Winfield Dunn for his service to the Tennessee Arts Commission and his work on the Tennessee State Museum. Bishop then moved on to become the director of the Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art. Bishop moved to Florida in 1987 to establish the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida. Upon retiring in 1998 as founding director and director emeritus, he was honored with three lifetime achievement awards from the Florida Museums Association, the Florida Museum Directors Association, and the Southeastern Museum Association. In the same year, the educational facility at the Harn Museum was renamed the Julia and Budd Bishop Study Center; in 2009, a major gallery in the museum was renamed the Julia C. and Budd H. Bishop Gallery. He was a trustee and secretary of the Association of Art Museum Directors and participated as a reviewer in the American Association of Museum’s Museums. In 2007 Governor Phil Bredesen appointed Bishop to serve a five-year term as a commissioner to the Tennessee Arts Commission. His landscape paintings have been exhibited in Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. His work is in the collections of the Tennessee State Museum, Tennessee Arts Commission and Belmont University.