Occupation painter Alma mater Belhaven University | Died 1994 | |
Born 1916 Tchula, Holmes County, Mississippi, U.S. | ||
Early life
Bess Phipps Dawson was born in 1916 in Tchula, Mississippi. She graduated from Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi. By 1951, she studied at the Southwest Texas Junior College in Summit, Mississippi alongside Halcyone Barnes and Ruth Atkinson.
Career
Dawson co-founded The Summit Group alongside Barnes and Atkinson in Summit, Mississippi. The three painters exhibited their work at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, Tennessee, the Delgado Museum of Art in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson, Mississippi.
By 1971, Dawson moved to McComb, Mississippi, where she was the co-owner of the Gulf/South Gallery alongside Norman Gillis, Jr. She was also the director of the Mainstream Mall in Greenville, Mississippi, where she opened another art gallery in 1972. The dedication of the Greenville gallery included an exhibit of paintings by Marie Hull of Jackson, Mississippi and Marshall Bouldin III of the Lauramar Plantation in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Dawson served as the president of the Mississippi Art Colony from 1976 to 1989. She was a proponent of art education for schoolchildren.
Death
Dawson died in 1994.