Felicia Francine Dean earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in Interior Architecture from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art from Florida State University. During the time between her undergraduate and graduate education, she attained a Diploma in Upholstery from Guilford Technical Community College. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in the College of Architecture & Design’s School of Interior Architecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 

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Felicia Francine’s creative work explores uncovering parallel approaches to reconciling space and place through the lens of her bi-racial experiences to her craft and design processes. The background she draws upon is based on growing up in South Florida and living in the Southern United States. Her approach navigates the discovery of latent material identities. Her work references the medium of textiles, physically or abstractly, to uncover new material narratives through digital and hand-making methods. She uses various media, including fabric, natural fibers, wood, metal, fiberglass, and stone.

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Her recent project, Perceptions of Misconceptions: Intersecting Stone and Fabric Material Identities, is supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. In the summer of 2022, work from this series was exhibited in the exhibition Rock Opera, at the Fucina d’ Arte Gallery in Pietrasanta, Italy. Her work has been showcased on NPR: All Things Considered, in Dwell magazine, and on the 2018 cover of the High Point Furniture, Accessory Preview Guide.  She has works that reside in the permanent collection of the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia, PA, and prominent private art collections. The Windgate ITE residency, Marble Codes exhibit in Florence, Italy, and Interior Design Educators Council and Furniture Society conferences highlight many of her professional engagements.

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