Greetings,
Every year Gallaudet Alumni Office hosts a Charter Day program to celebrate the signing of the University's charter by Abraham Lincoln. For this year, the 145th year celebration of the charter was especially significant as it marked the Bicentennial Celebration (1809-2009) of Lincoln's signature. Even U.S. Congress took note of this special celebration.
As part of the day's event, the 40th year of the Gallaudet University Charter Day's luncheon was held to honor individuals for their dedication and commitment toward advocacy and service. Dr. Betty G. Miller, a prominent artist and a mover and shaker in the original De'VIA arts movement was one of the very few people chosen internationally to be recognized at the luncheon. Dr. Miller was awarded the LCCF Alice Cogswell Award for her valuable service on behalf of deaf people. Bettigee, as she calls herself is a warm and generous soul, a renaissance woman, a true visionary and artist. A woman of courage and conviction.
In the 70's Betty was a professor at the art department at Gallaudet. She left her secure position to join colleagues in pioneering a new venture, the forming of the legendary Spectrum: Focus on Deaf Artists arts group based in Austin, Texas. Clarence Russell, Dorothy Miles, Charlie McKinney, Chuck Baird, Sandi Inches, Sarah E. Val, Liz Baird and many other artists formed a group to support fellow deaf artists in all forms of art which included painting, theatre, dance, music and poetry. I spent a week one summer with the group and they confirmed my deepest conviction that while deaf identity, ASL and arts was being suppressed in the education system for deaf and hard of hearing people, it would not be possible to silence deaf artists.
I see her now in my mind, during the late 60's standing, laughing and signing in a theatre with fellow production actors and crew members, directing a production of the Hughes Memorial Theatre, a Washington, D.C. local deaf theatre group. Patrick Graybill, Freda Norman (my sister), Barbara Kannapell, Frank DelRosso, Jan DeLap and many others were involved among them was Gil Eastman, former chair of the Gallaudet University Theatre Arts department and co-host of Deaf Mosaic. This was a special time that lies buried and forgotten in the Gallaudet University Archives.
Betty has throughout her life expressed her thoughts and views "ahead of time." With her early art exhibitions, some of her work depicted deaf people as puppets with strings manipulated by the education system of the deaf. The general reaction to her work then was shock and in some cases, shame. Some deaf people agreed that these things should be kept quiet and not aired as dirty laundry for the world to see. She dared to paint her vision of oppression of deaf people, and in doing so, she named the illness and tore off the mask of complacency and acceptance.
Betty and her partner Nancy Creighton can be viewed at Facebook and on their website. Every year Betty and Nancy put out a calendar featuring Betty's work. For the coming year, Nancy tells me, it's going to be a new edition. Make sure you reserve your 2010 copy. They also make great gifts.
If you have a quiet and reflective moment on some rainy afternoon, do a search on her father, Ralph Miller. He was an also an artist. This is a case of how both artists influenced each other.
All these people are connected through generations and it is deeply moving to see Betty honored among the greats. In 2007 she received an honorary degree from Gallaudet. She is, without, question, a living legend.
Take care and stay tuned,
Jane
To cite: Norman, Jane. (2009, April 13). Betty G. Miller, A Living Legend, Reflections from a Deaf Lens. Retrieved (date retrieved), from http://www.deaflens.com/blog/?p=88
Posted by Jane