Dr. Brenda Thompson

Dr. Brenda A. Thompson received a Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology from Saint Louis University in 1980.  She was an Assistant Professor at Morehouse College in the Department of Psychology for several years, before focusing on child and adolescent mental health, first as a licensed Clinical Psychologist then as a School Psychologist. Dr. Thompson retired in 2005 after thirty years with the Educational System.

Dr. Thompson and her husband, Larry D. Thompson, have been collecting works by African American artists since 1980. A 2008 exhibition, Tradition Redefined: The Larry and Brenda Thompson Collection of African American Art, containing selections from their collection was hosted by the David C. Driskell Center in Maryland. It traveled to six venues. They have donated works to several museums, most notably the Georgia Museum of Art, where they also endowed a curatorial appointment in their name. That museum organized the exhibition “Expanding Tradition: Selections from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection” in 2017.

The Driskell Center at the University of Maryland has been an important influence on their collecting history. Their most recent gifts to the Driskell Center in 2018 and 2020 were intended to continue to raise awareness of the depth and breadth of the African American art cannon. Their gifts supported funding the Living Legacy Tour with the late Professor David Driskell and Driskell Director Curlee Holton, which toured 9 cities. The gift also funded the Thompson Collection Fellowship which supports graduate positions that work with the Driskell Center.

Dr. Thompson is a former chair of the Board of Advisors for the Georgia Museum. She also serves on the Barnes Foundation Board, Costal Georgia Historical Society, the Chautauqua Institute African American Heritage House, MSU Broad Museum Collections Committee and Telfair Collections Committee.

Brenda and Larry have two sons who live in Houston and Atlanta. The Thompsons reside in Sea Island, Georgia.