Pioneer Information
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Scott earned a B.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1970 and an M.F.A. from the Instituto Allende, San Miguel Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico in 1971. She furthered her education in 1976, studying at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine. Through sculpture, printmaking and performance, Scott explores themes of racism, sexism, violence, and cultural stereotypes.
Scott’s sculpture ranges in scale, from modest works that incorporate glass bead weaving, blown glass, and found objects to monumental, site-specific installations. In 1994 Scott was engaged by Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, Missouri, where she produced the sculpture, From Whence We Came. The work responded to and was supported by the archway of a prominent porte-cochère. In 1999 she collaborated with landscape architects Heritage Landscapes to transform a former segregated swimming pool in Druid Hill Park (Pool No. 2) that accommodated Baltimore’s African American population, into a commemorative feature, entitled, Memorial Pool, Courts and Grove. Scott returned to the park in 2010, installing an oval mosaic, Bright Palms, in the ground plane on axis with the southwestern façade of the Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens. In 2017-18, more than 50 sculptures by Scott about Harriet Tubman were exhibited at the Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey. The monumental outdoor work, Graffiti Harriet, made from rammed earth, a construction technique using compacted natural raw materials, was designed to erode over the course of the exhibition.
Scott was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2016. She lives and works in Baltimore.
