Evangeline Juliet Montgomery was born on May 2, 1933 in New York City. Her mother was a homemaker and her father, a Baptist minister. She discovered her artistic talents when she received her first oil painting set at the age of fourteen. In 1951, Montgomery earned her high school diploma from Seward Park High School where she was a cheerleader, a member of the swim and basketball teams and a member of student government.
From 1951 until 1954, she worked painting faces on dolls and religious statues. In 1955, Montgomery moved to Los Angeles with her husband and worked for Thomas Usher, an African American jewelry designer, while attending Los Angeles City College. From 1967 until 1979, she worked as an independent curator to museums, university galleries and art centers where she organized exhibits. From 1971 until 1976, she served as the curator for the Rainbow Sign Gallery in Berkeley, California before becoming an exhibition specialist for the American Association for State and Local History in Nashville, Tennessee and coordinating eight national workshops on “Interpreting the Humanities Through Museum Exhibits”. She also organized national exhibit workshops for the Association of African American Museums. From 1976 until 1979, Montgomery also served as a San Francisco art commissioner.
In 1980, Montgomery moved to Washington, D.C. where she worked as community affairs director for WHMM-TV. In 1983, Montgomery began her career with the United States Department of State as a program development officer for the Arts America Program at the United States Information Agency (USIA), specializing in American exhibitions touring abroad. In this capacity, she developed and implemented successful American fine art programs in the United States and throughout the world.
Since 1993, Montgomery has coordinated tours for fifty exhibitions featuring the works of many of America’s most noted painters, sculptors, printmakers, photographers and craftspersons.
In 1997, she was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease and has limited her work to mainly lithographs. Montgomery is noted for her uniquely designed metal ancestral boxes and colorful lithographs.
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