Victoria Cooke, M.A.

Victoria Cooke is a professional curator. She joined the Department of Visual Arts in 2016 as the Director of Art Galleries bringing contemporary artists to students on the Dahlonega, Gainesville, and Oconee campuses. She has created upper-level art history and exhibition practices classes to provide students with practical knowledge to inform their careers.

Her research expertise is wide ranging. She has curated major exhibitions on early 19th century American and European art and culture, Impressionism, American Modernism and contemporary African-American Art. She has focused more recently on contemporary art and craft in the Southeastern United States.

Cooke received B.A. degrees in Behavioral Psychology, French Literature and Interior Design with a minor in Art history from the University of Mississippi in Oxford. She went on to receive a M.A. in Art History at Tulane University in New Orleans. She completed all requirements, save the dissertation, in the PhD program at the University of Delaware before taking the position of Curator of Painting at New Orleans Museum of Art. She has also served in curatorial positions at the Louisiana State University Museum of Art in Baton Rouge and Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, S.C.

• ABD, Art History, University of Deleware, 1997
• M.A., Art History, Tulane University, 1994  
• B.A., Interior Design, University of Mississippi, 1990   
• B.A., Behavioral Science, University of Mississippi, 1986