Photo by Nye' Lyn Tho

Biography

Cheryl Derricotte is a visual artist. Her favorite medium is glass, and she also makes work on paper and textiles. Originally from Washington, DC, she lives and makes art in San Francisco, CA. Her art has been featured in the New York Times, The Guardian, The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Examiner, KQED, MerciSF and the San Francisco Business Times.

In 2025, Cheryl is at work on public artworks in the Midwest and the West. She was recently named a 2024 Emerging Public Artist at the international CODAworx Summit. In 2021, She was awarded the commission to develop a monument to Harriet Tubman at the transit-oriented development Gateway at Millbrae Station, the first sculptural tribute to the abolitionist in glass. Entitled “Freedom’s Threshold,” the monument was unveiled on March 16, 2023.

Cheryl was named a 2025 George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellow in the category of Objects and Installation Art. In April 2025 and July 2024, Cheryl was a Visiting Artist at the Museum of Glass (MoG) in Tacoma, WA, commensurate with her work in the ground-breaking MoG exhibition, “A Two Way Mirror: Double Consciousness in Contemporary Glass by Black Artists.” Prior to MoG, Cheryl served as the Spring 2024 Marva and John Warnock Artist-in-Residence/Visiting Professor at the University of Utah, Department of Art and Art History. She is 2023/2024 Kala Art Institute, Municipal Artist-in-Residence for the City of Berkeley’s Climate Equity Pilot Program. In 2022, Cheryl was named Inaugural BIPOC Artist-in-Residence at the Corning Museum of Glass: The Studio.

Additional honors include the Black(Space) Artist Residency at Minnesota Street Projects; 2020 YBCA100; Villa Albertine Micro-Residency; Windgate Craft Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center; the Antenna/Paper Machine Residency (New Orleans); and the Hemera Foundation Tending Space Fellowship for Artists. Glass awards include the Rick and Val Beck Scholarship for Glass Art and the Alliance for Contemporary Glass’ Visionary Scholarship. Cheryl was an inaugural Emerging Artist at the Museum of the African Diaspora in 2015/2016, on the occasion of the Museum’s 10th Anniversary.

Her work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Glass, the deYoung Museum, the Historic New Orleans Collection, the Oakland Museum of California, the San Francisco Public Library, the Public Art Collection of the City of Berkeley and the National Association of Homebuilders among others. Cheryl holds a B.A. in Urban Affairs (Minor: History), Barnard College, Columbia University; the Master of Regional Planning, Cornell University and the Master of Fine Arts, California Institute of Integral Studies. A licensed city planner and member of the American Institute of Certified Planners since 1995, she served as the inaugural Professional Development Officer of the new Arts and Planning Division of the American Planning Association for three years from 2021 – 2024.

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