“Aziza” Claudia Gibson-Hunter was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She attended Tyler College of Art, and graduated from Temple University with a BS in art education. After teaching in the Philadelphia school system for three years, “Aziza” received an Arts-In-Education fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation to learn aspects of art education policy-making on the state level.  She attended graduate school at Howard University, completing her MFA in printmaking.  

“Aziza” subsequently moved to Harlem New York, where she further pursued her art career, taking a class at Bob Blackburn’s Printmaking Studio. She later received a fellowship from the Bronx Museum of Art; took a position at Parsons School of Design as an academic counselor for foundation students; and diversified her artistic journey joining "Where We At", a Black women’s artists group.

In 1987, “Aziza” and her family returned to Washington DC.  In 1999 she was invited to take an adjunct position at Howard University to teach printmaking. She taught undergraduate and graduate courses in printmaking, and introduced an array of non-toxic printmaking techniques to the college. She also wrote several grants to purchase equipment to further develop the department. Two of those grants were fully funded.  In 1999 she, PLANTA Reeder and Viola Leak co-founded the Black Artists of DC (BADC), an organization designed to aid a community of Black Artists in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. Presently, there are over 300 artists in that organization.

“Aziza” decided in 2002, (with her children older) to resign from Howard University to pursue her art full time. Since then, she has exhibited in Washington DC, Maryland, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, and Great Britain. Among her other accomplishments, she was one of the ten artists chosen to create a digital print portfolio with David Adamson for the DC Commission on the Arts.  “Aziza” completed a public art piece for the Washington DC Art Walk, erected on the grounds of the former Washington DC Convention Center. She represented BADC during Art Basel Miami ‘06, in the Design District. The exhibition, entitled “LO GLO”, included over twenty BADC members. In the same year, “Aziza” Claudia Gibson-Hunter was awarded the Artist Fellowship Program Grant, from the DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities.

Today, she continues to produce fine artwork and provide leadership as an arts advocate in the metropolitan Washington, DC area.

For more info: http://gibsonhunterstudio.com/