By Madison Lewis

Each year, Collegiate School welcomes a select number of new students and faculty to our community. This year, we welcomed one of thirteen new Upper School faculty members, Barry O’Keefe, to become a part of the Fine Arts program. 

Photo courtesy of the Collegiate School.

Born and raised in Richmond, O’Keefe attended both public and private schools throughout his childhood. He began his education at J.B. Fisher Elementary on the Southside. He then went to St. Michael’s Episcopal for Middle school and graduated from Trinity Episcopal High School in 2006. O’Keefe went on to the College of William and Mary to earn his B.A., double majoring in English and Russian studies. After he received his undergraduate degree, he attended Ohio University, where he achieved a Master’s in Fine Arts with a concentration in printmaking. After graduating from Ohio University in 2016, O’Keefe returned to his roots in Richmond to pursue a career in art. 

While at William and Mary, O’Keefe spent two summers abroad in Russia. He spent one in St. Petersburg through a summer program at St. Petersburg State University, and another in Tver Province at an artist’s colony, funded by a research grant. There, he painted plein air and interviewed artists from the Soviet period. 

After he and his wife (and high school sweetheart) Diana graduated from William and Mary in 2010, they spent a year in the Republic of Georgia. There, they taught English and produced a short documentary on a group of painters. O’Keefe shares that in Georgia, “the only place to get food in the town we lived in was a farmers market.” He and his wife enjoyed a less mainstream lifestyle. 

When asked where he liked living the best, O’Keefe replied, “Well … Richmond, because I came back. That’s because I’m really interested in having roots, which I think a culture of ambition discourages. If you always have to move for the job, you miss out on the capacity to go really deep in a single place.” 

Growing up in a creative family, O’Keefe was encouraged to take risks. His parents were hands-off in the best way, leaving things up to him: “Learning how to figure things out for yourself is what art is all about,” O’Keefe says, “Art has been my world for so long, it’s hard to imagine finding anything else interesting. The arts encompass so much: all visual culture, all music, all drama, all of literature. To me, it feels like the only game in town.” 

Before working at Collegiate, O’Keefe worked at VCU Arts for four years. Prior to that, he worked at William and Mary for a semester, as well as a small middle school in Richmond, Seven Hills School for Boys. 

O’Keefe’s rolling shadow puppet theater that won the InLight festival People’s Choice Award. Photo credit: Barry O’Keefe.

His biography on the VCU arts website states that “thematically, his work engages with cultural amnesia, neglected public spaces, and the design of the contemporary landscape. In 2019 he created a giant, rolling shadow puppet theater for a collaborative project that won the InLight festival People’s Choice Award. His work has been exhibited in five countries and seven states and can be found in many private and public collections, including the Valentine Museum, the Black History Museum of Virginia, and the Library of Virginia.”

O’Keefe’s portrait of Lorna Pinckney. Photo credit: Barry O’Keefe.

O’Keefe’s personal work can be found on his website, featuring most of his recent, larger projects. Some of his commissioned work and murals are not included; however, they can be found on his Instagram page.

O’Keefe had heard excellent things about Collegiate and was friends with a friend of Upper School art teacher Pam Sutherland. Sutherland says that her friend had “gushed” about him for years. When she received his resumé, she thought, “Lucky us!” Sutherland describes O’Keefe as “organized, intentional, and inspiring.” She feels that they are very “like-minded” and predicts that he will enjoy the “tremendously supportive environment” at Collegiate.

This semester, O’Keefe is teaching Animation and Film, Graphic Design, and Sculpture, as well as helping out with Torch, our yearbook. “He’s very instructional and guides students in the right direction. He’s the male version of Ms. Sutherland,” says Harper Murphy (‘25), one of his students in Sculpture.

O’Keefe says that compared to other schools he has worked at, Collegiate is a tightly run ship: “Needs are provided for, in a way that is unusual in my experience. The school seems really committed to supporting professional development and faculty, and only from a week of teaching, the students seem unusually mature for their age.”

As a new faculty member, he hopes to “pull classes more into events and projects that are happening in the city of Richmond, and have conversations of broader issues that are happening in the community.” He also wants to “bring in more service opportunities, while working with the sustainability committee.” He believes that in our modern world, “there is no way to teach … without addressing … that the planet is rapidly warming.”

Something he thinks Collegiate struggles with is the privilege in the institution: “Private schools are amazing places to be a student, but the only real downside is about equity and inclusivity.” He knows Collegiate is working on these issues, and he wonders how he can be a part of making Collegiate more accessible.

Photo courtesy of Visual Arts Center of Virginia.

Today, he and Diana have two children, ages three and six. They are just a two-minute stroll to the James River. Additionally, they live adjacent to a community garden that he and his wife started, which is across the alley from a DIY skate park. Along with his travels throughout Eastern Europe, O’Keefe has done much road-tripping across the Midwest.

In his free time, O’Keefe can be found anywhere with a book in hand. He is currently reading theology by Sarah Coakley and fiction by Mary Gaitskill. He also enjoys puttering around the garden with Diana or wandering around the river with his children: “Oh, and making art, of course.” 

O’Keefe’s advice for students is to “do things that aren’t for school, do things for yourself and your own interests without worrying about it ever making it onto a resumé. Just aggressively pursue your own interests.”

Featured image credit: Mending Walls RVA.