Philbrook Museum of Art names Sara O’Keeffe Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa welcomed Sara O’Keeffe as the new Nancy E. Meinig Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. Most recently, she served as associate curator at the New Museum, New York, where she worked since 2013. Prior to that, she was in the Curatorial Department at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2011-2013).
“We are thrilled to welcome Sara to Philbrook,” said Philbrook Director Scott Stulen. “She brings extensive experience in a wide variety of contemporary practices, willingness to experiment and passion for art and artists. Sara’s collaborative spirit is an ideal fit for Philbrook as we build a more inclusive and relevant experience with an increased focus on Contemporary Art.”
During her time at the New Museum, Sara was part of the curatorial teams that organized Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon, a group exhibition that investigated gender’s place in contemporary art and culture (with Johanna Burton and Natalie Bell, 2017) and Triennial: Surround Audience, a survey of early career artists that explored the effects of an increasingly connected world marked by corporate and governmental surveillance (with Lauren Cornell and Ryan Trecartin, 2015).
She has curated and co-curated projects with many artists including Morgan Bassichis, A.K. Burns, Jeffrey Gibson, Wynne Greenwood, Martine Gutierrez, House of Ladosha, Ariel René Jackson, Carolyn Lazard, Shaun Leonardo, Tau Lewis, Troy Michie, Devin N. Morris, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Sable Elyse Smith, Christopher Udemezue, and Sarah Zapata among others.
While at the New Museum, she oversaw the museum’s residency program with Johanna Burton. Through this program, she organized a number of events with artists working across fashion, music, dance, and performance. In 2016, she organized the New Museum’s first ever youth summit Scamming the Patriarchy developed by an emerging generation of artists, writers, and activists. The summit included more than 20 workshops organized around five guiding principles: healing, self-love, skill building, political education, and empowerment.
“Sara brings great depth, experience, and forward-looking energy to the curatorial team at Philbrook and to the entire community,” said Philbrook Chief Curator Catherine Whitney. “Her programming and curatorial accomplishments, as well as her initiatives with living artists, are perfectly aligned with the directions in which we are moving.”
Sara’s first exhibition at Philbrook will be in the fall of 2020, exploring questions of identity and representation in the United States, drawing from the renowned collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody, which boasts work by today’s most groundbreaking emerging and established artists including Diedrick Brackens, Mark Bradford, Anthea Hamilton, David Hammons, Howardena Pindell, Tschabalala Self, Pope.L, Faith Ringgold, Kara Walker, and Kehinde Wiley.
