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Brenda Mveng-Whitted is an Associate Professor of Art at Virginia State University for the Art and Design unit of the Department of Music, Art and Design. Ms. Mveng-Whitted was born in North Carolina and raised in Newport News, Virginia and Concord, North Carolina. She moved to Washington, DC during her middle and high school years. At Howard University, she studied Graphic Design and developed her painting skills under Lois Mailou Jones and obtained a BFA degree in Graphic Design. In 1966, she moved to Cameroon, Central Africa. After living in Africa for eighteen and a half years, she returned to pursue her studies in Graphic Design under Professor Starmanda Bullock at Howard University. Having a participatory experience in African art and culture, Ms. Mveng-Whitted also decided to minor in African Art under Dr. Kwaku Ofori Ansa. In 1990, she received her MFA degree from Howard in Graphic Design and created package designs inspired by African Art iconography. After graduating from Howard University, Ms. Mveng-Whitted received a scholarship to attend Yale University and received her Master of Art degree in African Studies in May 1993. There, she studied art history under Dr. Robert Farrris Thompson.
As an instructor, Brenda Mveng-Whitted has taught students on all levels, including elementary school in Washington, DC. In the DC Mayor's Summer Youth program, she taught middle and high school students for three years. At Howard University, Ms. Mveng-Whitted taught African Art History and Typography. Since 1997, Ms. Mveng-Whitted has taught Graphic Design courses in the Art and Design Unit at Virginia State University. She also teaches African Art History at Fort Lee.
During her tenure at Virgina State University, Ms. Mveng-Whitted, together with Mr. Lawrence Hawthorne, obtained a grant for a Multicultural Art Summer Camp. The outreach program engaged professors, instructors, consultants and artists from various cultures around the world who shared their expertise, talent and knowledge with students from the sixth to the twelfth grades from the surrounding areas. The program provided reading and vocabulary building strategies for SAT testing, etiquette and fine dining based on French "haute cuisine", hands on experiences with art traditions from China, France, Ghana and the United States, a theater experience and a trip to the museum. At the end of the program, there was a Student Art Exhibit and a reception honoring the students and their families.
As an illustrator and graphic designer, Ms Mveng-Whitted illustrated and designed with CPE, a company in Cameroon, Central Africa. She illustrated and designed the page layouts and a cover for the Hawa Barchue novel by William Allen, designed for Star Bullock and Associates, and presently designs for other clients. She worked as art consultant and illustrator for the "Kids to College" program at the Consortiums for the Universities in Washington, DC.
As a painter, Ms. Mveng-Whitted supervised and painted murals in the Washington, DC area under the DC Mayor's Summer Youth program. She exhibited in the Corcoran Art Gallery, the Area Stage Theater and the Adams Morgan Festival in Washington, DC; the Frederick Douglass Museum in Annapolis, Maryland; Howard University's Blackburn Center Gallery and Hospital in Washington, DC; The African American Museum in Roanoke, Virginia; Virginia State University, the Petersburg Library and the Petersburg Art League in Petersburg, VA and in Ghana, West Africa among other venues.
Since 2002, Ms. Mveng-Whitted has been nominated three times for the "Whose Who Among American Teachers". She is a member of the Phi Delta Kappa Fraternity and the Organization of Black Designers. Travel is her passion and French is her second language.
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