wilford scott

About the Artist

Wilford W. Scott retired recently as the Head of Adult Programs at the National Gallery. With six staff lecturers and 125 volunteer docents, this department is responsible for the vast majority of gallery tours and auditorium lectures offered to the general public. The department is also responsible for orienting over 4 million visitors each year with the help of two paid staff and almost 200 art information volunteers. In his 30 years on the staff of the Gallery, Dr. Scott lectured extensively, wrote exhibition catalogue entries and brochures, wall texts and recorded tour scripts, and appeared in educational videos. From 1989 until 2003, he was the coordinator of the adult docents; recruiting, selecting, training, and evaluating all docents in collaboration with other staff members. Before beginning his career at the National Gallery, Dr. Scott received his doctorate in American Art at the University of Delaware and held a Pre-doctoral Fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution. In 2001 he was an Ailsa Mellon Bruce Curatorial Fellow at the National Gallery, researching a paper on the avant-garde theatre in America during the early twentieth century. While working at the Gallery, he served on the Planning Commission of the City of Annapolis (30 years), involved himself in local politics, including running for City Council, rode his bike, and took photographs of the Chesapeake Bay and beyond. His photographs are frequently exhibited in juried exhibitions in and around Annapolis, and as far afield as Los Angeles, California, and Budapest, Hungary. Before beginning his career at the National Gallery, Dr. Scott received his doctorate in American Art at the University of Delaware and held a Pre-doctoral Fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution. In 2001 he was an Ailsa Mellon Bruce Curatorial Fellow at the National Gallery, researching a paper on the avant-garde theatre in America during the early twentieth century. In retirement, Wil Scott takes more photographs, rides more miles on his bike, and spends time with his family and friends.

Artist's Statement

The visible world is full of complexity, contradictions, and fleeting beauty. A camera is a tool to both preserve and discover these things, sometimes in completely unexpected ways. Often my photographs are discoveries made suddenly as I turn to observe a new location, or a new vantage point within a familiar scene. Others are more deliberately planned as attempts to capture the essential aspect of a subject seen previously. Almost all are attempts to recognize distinctive patterns of light and shadow, arrangements of forms, and emphatic color. Unintentionally, or not, all my work is impacted by more than thirty years as an historian of American art and my career at the National Gallery in Washington, DC.