Clarissa T. Sligh is an African-American book artist and photographer based in Asheville, North Carolina. At age 15, she was the lead plaintiff in a school desegregation case in Virginia. In 1988, she became a co-founder of Coast-to-Coast: A Women of Color National Artists' Project, which focused on promoting works completed by women of color.
Early life and education
Sligh was born in Washington, D.C. She grew up in a large working-class family and "went to segregated schools in a predominantly white Virginia county." In 1955, at the age of 15, she was the lead plaintiff in a school desegregation case in Virginia. Sligh attended the traditionally African-American Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, where she earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1961. In 1972, she received a bachelor's degree in Visual Arts from Howard University in Washington DC, and in 1973, an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1999, she received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Visual Arts from Howard University.
Sligh's photographs and artist books center on politics, family life, questions of identity and personal experience. According to Carla Williams, Sligh's work reflects on our perceptions of normality and our roles in different frameworks such as family, society, gender and ethnic groups. As Williams says, "In school readers from her childhood, Sligh discovered the model from which to confront the realities of her own life."
Coast-to-Coast National Women Artists of Color Projects
In 1988, Sligh co-founded the Coast-to-Coast National Women Artists of Color Project with Faith Ringgold and Margaret Gallegos. From 1988 to 1996, this organization exhibited the works of African American women across the United States. According to this source, Sligh also worked with other organizations that display art made by African American females. The organizations included the National Women's Caucus for Art, The Artist Federal Credit Union, New York, Printed Matter, and the artists advisory board of the Womens Studio Workshop. In 1990, Sligh was one of three organizers of the exhibit "Coast to Coast: A Women of Color National Artists' Book Project" held January 14 – February 2, 1990, at the Flossie Martin Gallery, and later at the Eubie Blake Center and the Artemesia Gallery. Faith Ringgold wrote the catalog introduction titled "History of Coast to Coast." More than 100 Women of Color artists were included. The catalog included brief artist statements and photos of the artists' books, including works by: Emma Amos, Beverly Buchanan, Elizabeth Catlett, Dolores Cruz, Dorothy Holden, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Young-Im Kim, Viola Leak, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Adrian Piper, Joyce J. Scott, Freida High Tesfagiorgis, Denise Ward-Brown, Bisa Washington, and Deborah Willis.
