David C. Driskell had studied stained glass design with James A. Porter and Loïs Mailou Jones at Howard University in Washington, D.C., in the 1950s. In the 1990s, Driskell designed two windows for the new sanctuary building of Peoples Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, D.C., dedicated in 1991, and 65 windows for the renovated DeForest Chapel at Talladega College in Alabama, dedicated in 1996.
In 1998, Professor Driskell retired from the University of Maryland, College Park, ending a more than two decades long career at Maryland and a 43-year career in higher education. He retained the title of Distinguished University Professor as emeritus. That same year, Narratives of African American Art and Identity opened at The Art Gallery of the University of Maryland, College Park and traveled to the Colby College Museum of Art, Waterbury, Maine; the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, Calif.; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Ga., and The Newark Museum in New Jersey. The exhibition included 100 works from Driskell's art collection and drew greater attention to collecting African American art as a way of ensuring that the art will be preserved and studied.
Printmaking had been a part of his artistic practice throughout Driskell's career, and he had studied drawing and printmaking with James Lesesne Wells at Howard University in the 1950s. In the new millennium, Driskell increasingly turned his energies toward printmaking, often in joint ventures with the artists and master printmakers, Curlee R. Holton and Lou Stovall. Driskell's printmaking was the subject of the 2007 exhibition, Evolution: Five Decades of Printmaking by David C. Driskell. Organized by the David C. Driskell Center, Evolution was the inaugural exhibition of the David C. Driskell Center at its new home in Cole Field House at the heart of College Park campus.
The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park was established in 2001. In 2011, Professor and Mrs. Driskell donated the David C. Driskell Papers to the Center. In addition to his regular involvement in programs at the David C. Driskell Center, Driskell continued to travel and lecture domestically and abroad in the decades following his retirement from the University of Maryland. In 2018, Driskell and Prof. Curlee R. Holton, the Driskell Center's Director, launched the "Living Legacy Speaking Tour." The conversations illuminated Driskell's long career and many accomplishments in eight locations between 2018 and 2019.
