About Geoffrey Dunn
Geoffrey Dunn is an Emeritus member of the Department of Surgery of UPMC Hamot, and former Medical Director of the Palliative Care Consultation Service there. His surgical experience included trauma, burns, pediatrics, and cancer in this country and abroad, where he has been a visiting professor in India, Great Britain, Canada, China, and Norway. His work focused on the education of surgeons nationally and internationally about the principles and practice of palliative care in the setting of serious and life-limiting illness. His current pursuits include painting and environmental service.
Painting has been an important activity in Dunn’s life ever since it was recommended to him at age 13 by his mother when he was confined to quarters for misbehavior at school. In college, Dunn majored in religion and minored in fine arts, studying with the Dutch painter Charles Stegeman. During this time, he studied privately in Erie for several years with professional artist Andrew Sanders.
During the late 1990s Dunn recognized a more profound purpose to painting through the inspiration and counsel of Brother Thomas, a world-renowned potter, who spent most of his career in Erie.
Dunn’s exhibition history in Erie includes four solo exhibits at Glass Growers Gallery in Erie and two solo exhibits at the Erie Insurance Group’s gallery. Additionally, he exhibited annually at the Mercyhurst University’s faculty exhibit, and twice at the juried Erie Art Museum’s Spring Show. Dunn is a member of the Northwest Pennsylvania Artists Association and in 2012, he was accepted as a non-resident artist member of the Salmagundi Art Club in New York City where he received an Honorable Mention. In September 2022 and September 2024, the Pucker Gallery in Boston sponsored a solo exhibit of his work.
During the past four years, Dunn has aligned much of his painting activity with environmental preservation, including a solo exhibition at the Red Brick Gallery in Foxburg, PA. All of the twenty-five landscape paintings exhibited were painted on properties protected by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. It is a privilege for this artist to continue this reverence for natural beauty at the Lake Erie Arboretum at Frontier Park, one of Erie’s great civic treasures.
