On Thursday, June 30, 2016, Dr. Cubert Smith presented “African American Life: A Personal Perspective” in the Archives and History Library in the Culture Center in Charleston.
Dr. Cubert Smith grew up in St. Albans and is a graduate of Garnet High School. He received a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia State University, one master’s degree from Marshall University and another from the University of Guanajuato in Mexico, and a doctorate from Union Graduate College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Smith also received additional post-doctoral credit from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Smith taught in Kanawha County schools and at West Virginia State University. During Charleston Mayor Kemp Melton’s administration he served as director of Charleston-Korolev Sister City Program, a cultural exchange initiative with Korolev, Russia. Smith’s public sculptures are located around the Kanawha Valley, including at the South Charleston Mound, Charleston’s Haddad Riverfront Park, Yeager Airport, and West Virginia State University. Of special meaning to him are the bronze plaques he created for the doors at St. Paul Baptist Church in St. Albans.
A Cubert Smith sculpture was one of the works selected to represent the U.S. in the 2nd Black World Arts Festival held in Nigeria. In 1984, Governor John D. Rockefeller IV selected him as West Virginia’s nominee to attend the American Academy in Rome. He was again honored by Governor Rockefeller as an Outstanding West Virginian and was later recognized as an Ambassador for the Arts for the State of West Virginia by Secretary of State A. James Manchin. Smith currently lives in Charleston with his wife and daughter and is serving his third term on the Charleston city council.
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