The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, known informally as the Driskell Center, is an arts archive and academic research center dedicated to African-American and Afro-diasporic art located at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD). Named for the artist, African-American art historian, arts educator, and longtime UMD professor David C. Driskell, the Center houses a large collection of African-American art and art ephemera, as well as the personal archives of several African-American artists and academics. The Driskell Center was founded in 2001 and comprises several art and archival collections, a library, and an on-campus art gallery. Background and founding David C. Driskell was an artist, art historian, educator, and art collector who was among the earliest proponents of the study of African-American art as a distinct, formal academic discipline, and he was widely credited during his lifetime as one of the world's foremost experts on African-American art and art history. Raised in Wilmington, North Carolina, and trained as an artist at both Howard University and Catholic University in Washington, D.C., Driskell taught at several historically black colleges and universities early in his career, including Talladega College, Howard, and a decade at Fisk University. In 1976 Driskell joined the faculty at UMD, eventually serving as the chair of the art department and Distinguished University Professor of Art before his retirement in 1998. The Driskell Center was founded in 2001 by UMD, three years after Driskell's retirement from the university. Driskell continued to support the center's collections, exhibitions, and research until his death in April 2020 in Washington, D.C. Collections Art collections The Center houses an extensive collection of artwork by a wide range of African-American and Afro-diasporic artists. Driskell and his wife Thelma G. Driskell donated significant portions of their personal collections to the center, both before and upon David's death, including many works by Driskell himself. The art collection is organized into several sub-collections, including the Driskells' collections, several collections grouped by major donations and bequests, and acquisitions made by the Driskell Center. Artists in the art collection include Emma Amos, Benny Andrews, Radcliffe Bailey, Richmond Barthé, Romare Bearden, John T. Biggers, Camille Billops, Louis Delsarte, Aaron Douglas, Melvin Edwards, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, Sam Gilliam, Loïs Mailou Jones, Paul Keene, Jacob Lawrence, Samella Lewis, Faith Ringgold, Preston Sampson, Augusta Savage, John T. Scott, Lou