BIO

Personal Profile

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Linda Darty learned enameling and metalwork in the mountains of North Carolina, where from 1975-1981 she lived and worked as an administrative assistant to the director of Penland School. She later moved to Greenville, NC where she earned an MFA degree in Metal Design, then in 1990, became professor and eventually coordinator, of the metal design program at East Carolina University. In 2011, recalling her own life changing study abroad experience in Italy, Linda began a study abroad program for her students called ITALY INTENSIVES (now renamed ECU TUSCANY) in the medieval town of Certaldo Alto, eventually developing it so that all students, from all majors can earn a full semester of general college credits while abroad. Surrounded by vineyards and olive groves in the rolling hills of the Val d'Elsa, our classrooms and studios are located in a medieval palace near Florence, where Linda began her own art studies in 1973.

BIO:

Linda is a jewelry and enameling professor at East Carolina University and founder/ director of their ECU Tuscany study abroad program, where she currently lives and teaches university students. She has an extensive international exhibition record and is the author of The Art of Enameling, published by Lark Books.

Linda is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for research from East Carolina University, the Board of Governors Award for teaching excellence and the Life Time Achievement Award from The Enamelist Society.

Her work is in public and private collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Art and Design in NYC, Yale University Art Gallery, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts and the Crocker Art Museum.

"I am an educator, an administrator and a maker, living an artistic life that takes me to places I never dreamed of going. As a young girl I knew I wanted to be an artist, but never believed I could. I didn't know enamel existed, never imagined I would one day write a book about it, and I certainly didn’t have an inkling I would one day begin a study abroad program that has allowed me to offer over 1000 students an experience I hope is as life changing as it was for me, 44 years ago."