Genesee Community College announced today that it has selected Shirley Verrico as the new full-time Roz Steiner Art Gallery director. She comes to the job with a wealth of gallery management experience. In addition to her gallery management duties, she will also instruct classes in art history, gallery management and other fine arts courses.
Verrico will focus on organizing calls for art submissions and managing the exhibition calendar, communicating with artists to plan professional exhibits and with faculty and staff to schedule student exhibitions. In addition, she will work with students and artists to hang and take down gallery shows, prepare for art receptions, and integrate gallery experiences into college coursework.
Previously, Verrico was the director of the Carnegie Art Center in North Tonawanda for two years and left that position to work for Young Audiences of WNY, Inc., an arts-in-education organization that serves the eight counties of Western New York.
During that time, she also began teaching Art History for Medaille College's Accelerated Learning Program. Shirley has also worked for Niagara County Community College where she taught Art History and eventually became director of the campus art gallery. Most recently, she taught for Medaille College and served as an instructional design consultant as the college converted traditional courses for the online format.
"I saw an advertisement for a gallery director in the Buffalo News and immediately recognized the description for my 'dream job.' I researched the gallery and campus and was very impressed with the college's vision and growth," Verrico said.
"I am looking forward to sharing this amazing space with the regional arts community who will in-turn share their work and talent with our GCC community. I am certain we will have many wonderful exhibition proposals when artists see the potential of this space."
The new director grew up in Grand Island and stayed local for her college education. She holds a bachelor's of Fine Arts from the University of Buffalo (UB), a master's of Arts and Humanities in Art History and English from UB and a post-baccalaureate certification in K-12 Art Education from Buffalo State College.
Outside of work, she enjoys gardening and cooking as well as spending time with her husband of 15 years, Jamie, and their three children Maggie, 12, Michaela, 10, and James, 5. They currently reside in Clarence.
