The Gladys Kinoian Lujan ’56 Oral History and Written Record

Gladys Mary Ann Kinoian was born on May 21, 1934, in Pawtucket, RI. On May 24, 2023, she passed away in Tucson, AZ. She was 89 years old.

Gladys attended Bryant College when Bryant was a two-year business college located in Providence, R.I. Gladys graduated from Bryant College in 1956. At Bryant, Gladys was a member of Sigma Iota Chi (SIC) and the women’s championship softball team. She also participated in the Masquers Club, was a member of the 1954 Sno' Queen Court, and wrote articles, mainly music focused, for The Archway. Gladys did her practice teacher assignment at local high school Hope High during her senior year. She also won a Shorthand Award in May 1956, a sterling silver charm bracelet with a gold shorthand emblem charm. This award was part of the Bryant College Job Clinic for Secretarial Seniors series. The clinics were arranged to prepare graduating students for office work.

After graduating from Bryant College, Gladys worked in New York for two years before returning to Pawtucket to teach business. In 1961, she started working as a secretary for the State Department. For 33 years she worked as a Foreign Service Officer in several countries. Her first assignments were in Algeria, Greece, and Haiti.

It was during her time in Haiti, 1966-1969, where she met her husband Jerry and started collecting Haitian art. When she left Haiti, she had over 80 paintings and several pieces of sculpture and carvings. Gladys chose art that she responded to emotionally and spiritually. She also met with musicians, artists, tradesmen, craftsmen, and their families. Meeting this mix of people made the art she bought especially meaningful to Gladys. Additionally, she enjoyed learning about the Haitian culture, attending a Voodoo ceremony, and eating griot.

Gladys wrote, in a letter to Merritt A. Crowley, “My affinity for Haitian art, music and culture afforded me a wonderful opportunity to learn about the history of the art movement and how the Haitians’ African origins and their religious and cultural mix of voodoo and Christianity influenced not only their art but all aspects of their daily lives.”

She married Jerry in 1970 and they became part of a new State Department program called Tandem Couples. This allowed Gladys and Jerry to be assigned together in their next assignments. These assignments included Chile, Venezuela, Nigeria, Vietnam, and the Dominican Republic.

From the late 1990’s through the early 2000’s, Gladys donated several Haitian paintings to Bryant College. The total number of paintings eventually donated by Gladys was 20. She donated the artwork to Bryant College because she and her husband felt it would be the ideal place to allow more people to appreciate the paintings. These paintings showcase the work of artists who were part of the Haitian Art Movement and used bold colors and designs in their creations. The paintings are housed around Bryant University’s campus, with most of them displayed in the Douglas and Judith Krupp Library.

In March 2026, after Glady's passed, Jerry Lujan donated four more Haitian paintings to Bryant University in her honor. During 2026, the Library Director, Laura Kohl, interviewed Jerry Lujan virtually, and they discussed Gladys Kinoian Lujan's life and art collecting. This section contains the Jerry Lujan interview, photographs of Gladys Kinoian at Bryant, and Archway articles written by Gladys Kinoian.

All of the Haitian paintings donated by Gladys and Jerry Lujan, can be viewed at the following The Gladys Kinoian Lujan '56 Haitian Art Collection.