Caroline Trippe is a native of Canton, Pennsylvania. She studied piano for 12 years and during high school was active in student drama productions.

She earned a BFA in Art History at Douglass College, New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1967.

From 1968 until 1980 she was Assistant Visual Resources Curator in the Department of Art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill;  from  1980 until her retirement in 2000, she held the position of Visual Resources Curator in the same department.

Between 1986 and 1987 she organized and participated in life drawing sessions at the Department of Art, continuing her independent studies of the figure from life from 1982 through 1986.

In 2003 she was a presenter for Encore, the Continuing Education Program for Senior at the McKimmon Center, NC State University, Raleigh NC. She taught a 6-week mini course, Time after Time: Fairy Tales Then and Now, focusing  on fairy tale motifs and re-visions in contemporary short fiction and poetry.

From 2009 t0 the 2018 she  maintained a studio at Golden Belt, 807 E. Main St., Durham, NC.

She has participated in group exhibitions at Golden Belt, Craven Allen Gallery in Durham, NC, Durham Art Guild Members’ Exhibition,  Visual Art Exchange in Raleigh, NC, and Orange County Women’s Exhibition in Chapel Hill, NC.