William T. Williams was born in Cross Creek, North Carolina. He received a BFA degree from Pratt institute in 1966 and studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. In 1968 he received an MFA degree from Yale University/School of Art and Architecture. He is presently Professor of Art at Brooklyn College, the City University of New York, whose faculty he joined in 1971. Williams is a recipient of numerous awards including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Awards, and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Award. He is also a recipient of The Studio Museum in Harlem’s Artist Award in 1992 and received The James Van Der Zee Award from Brandywine Workshop for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. He has exhibited in over 100 museums and galleries around the world, and his work is represented in numerous museum and corporate collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art and The Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture.