Eleanor Merritt Darlington

Born in Harlem, NYC, she was the youngest of five children born to Jamaican immigrants. She attended the High School of Music and Art and graduated in 1951. She continued her studies at Brooklyn College where she learned from such luminaries as Ad Rinehart, Mark Rothko and James Ernst. She received her B.A. in Art in 1955, and her M.A. in Fine Arts and Education in 1958. She continued doctoral studies in Art History at Hofstra University. Merritt was the first African-American art teacher and department chair in the Nassau County district. She was an early member of the Long Island Black Artists Association along with artists Barbara Powell, Frank Frazier and co-founders James Counts, Ernest Snell, Raymond Miles and Charles Winslow.

Eleanor was deeply involved in the greater Sarasota arts community and its administration. She was an early member and represented by Art Uptown Gallery for 3 decades. She served as chairman of the Public Art Committee and on the board of the Arts & Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County. She also served on Women’s Caucus for Art; was a charter member of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, was Board Emeritus Member of John & Mabel Ringling Museum of Art; Docent for 25 years at the Ringling Museum, board member and former President of the Venice Art Center; Sarasota Arts Council board member; chair of the Art in Public Places Program; board member of Art Center, Sarasota. She was a long standing member of Florida Artists Group, Women’s Caucus for Art and Petticoat Painters. Ms. Merritt founded and was a member of Women Contemporary Artists. She was also an early supporter of the Sarasota Black Achievers, State College of Florida Family Heritage House Museum and board member of the West Coast Black Theatre Troupe.

Among her many awards, Eleanor was honored by The Ringling Foundation in 2017. The Sarasota-Manatee chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women recognized her as one of their 2015 Women In Power honorees. She received the National President’s Award in 1996 and Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus For Art in 2005. She also was recognized with a Women of Impact Award from Sarasota County Commission and Education Foundation Sarasota /Edge of Excellence Award in 1997 and received the Sarasota Arts Council Arts Leadership Award in 2006.

Merritt has exhibited in group and solo shows throughout her career. In February 2017, the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County hosted a retrospective exhibition of Merritt’s work, entitled Sixty Years of Painting, 1957–2017. . She was featured in a 2016 documentary, “60 and Strong” about the Petticoat Painters, the oldest continually active all female arts group in the country. A one woman show Revelations of Goddesses was displayed from 2014 – 2015 at Houston Museum of African American Culture, in Houston, TX and Le Musee de F.P.C. in New Orleans, La.

She was married to Lorenzo Merritt from 1954 – 1974, and to Chris Darlington from 1980 to his passing in 2017. She is survived by her sister, Mrs. Pauline Butler, of Tucson AZ, two daughters, Ms. Lori Merritt and Dr. Lisa Merritt, granddaughter and emerging artist Amara Merritt, as well as a host of nieces, nephews and friends. Ms. Merritt believed that “…Art can open a window in time – it speaks to the heritage of the past, but carries these traditions into the future”, as we will carry Eleanor’s memory.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs39RPkBN7A/

https://www.srqmagazine.com/srq-daily/2019-01-18/9930_The-Passing-of-a-Painter-Eleanor-Merritt

http://www.floridaartistsgroup.org/html/florida-artist-group-member-eleanor-Merritt.html