Each recipient of these Verner Awards is an outstanding ambassador for our state
and contributes greatly not only to the arts community, but the overall quality of
life. Stanley retired in 2017 as the chair of the Department of Fine Arts after 27 years
of service to Winthrop. Stanley was named the first director of Winthrop University Galleries in 1990 and
became the department chair in 2007. 
ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA — The South Carolina Arts Commission announced Feb. 27 the selections for the 2018 Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Governor's Awards for the Arts, including Winthrop University Professor Emeritus Tom Stanley.
"Each recipient of these Verner Awards is an outstanding ambassador for our state
and contributes greatly not only to the arts community, but the overall quality of
life," said S.C. Arts Commission Chairman Henry Horowitz.
Stanley retired in 2017 as the chair of the Department of Fine Arts after 27 years of service to Winthrop. Stanley was named the first director of Winthrop University Galleries in 1990 and became the department chair in 2007. He was one of five honorees given
the College of Visual and Performing Arts' Medal of Honor in the Arts in April 2017.
Stanley was surprised and honored by the Verner award, and attributes the recognition
to the opportunities he has had throughout his career, including his tenure at Winthrop.
"I was very fortunate to be at Winthrop when I was," Stanley said. "It gave me an
opportunity to explore a lot of different ideas when I was the gallery director, ideas
that had great significance in our community. Once I became chair, I was able to work
closely with our great faculty and contributors on projects on the campus community
and beyond."
The awards will be presented in a ceremony in Columbia, South Carolina, on May 2.
More information about the awards can be found at www.southcarolinaarts.com.
Stanley received an M.A. in applied art history and an M.F.A. in painting from the
University of South Carolina in 1980. He served on the faculties of Arkansas College
(now Lyon College) in Batesville, Arkansas; Barry University in Miami, Florida; and
as the director of the Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, North Carolina.
As a curator, Stanley's projects have included "Worth Keeping: Found Artists of the
Carolinas" for the Columbia Museum of Art; "New South Old South Somewhere In Between"
for Winthrop and the Levine Museum of the New South; "Still Worth Keeping: Communities,
Preservation and Self-Taught Artists" in collaboration with the South Carolina State
Museum; and the production of "Remembering Ed (Lewandowski): The Last Precisionist"
in collaboration with SCETV.
In recent years, his work has been exhibited at Hampton III Gallery, Greenville; George
Gallery, Charleston; if ART, Columbia; Fine Arts Center, Greenville; Artspace, Raleigh;
and 701 Center for Contemporary Art, Columbia. A series titled "Drawing Across the
Sea" was exhibited this past year at the University of Porto's Casa-Museu Abel Salazar
in Porto, Portugal, and "Works in Black and White" at Rutledge Gallery at Winthrop.
Other recent exhibitions include "Tom Stanley: Drawing in Paint, 1992-2017" at if
ART and "Tom Stanley: Scratching the Surface" at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary
Art during Spoleto 2017 in Charleston.
Stanley has collaborated with colleague and artist Shaun Cassidy on a number of public
art commissions including "Balancing Act" in Simpsonville for Provident Community
Bank; "Journey" in Raleigh for the North Carolina Local Government Federal Credit
Union; and five installations for the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
In 2010, Cassidy and Stanley completed the 33-foot tall stainless steel "Winthrop
Monolith" and the concrete "River's Journey" for the Hardin Family Garden at Winthrop.
Stanley recently completed a public art project for Charlotte Area Transit's Blue
Line Tom Hunter Station on North Tryon Street in Charlotte, and is currently a visiting
artist at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston.
For more information, contact Whitney Hough, director of communications and community engagement for the College of Visual and Performing Arts, at 803/323-2399 or houghw@winthrop.edu. Visit the website at www.winthrop.edu/arts.
