About me
Sara O'Keeffe is a curator and writer interested in how art allows us to pursue urgent questions about our time.
With more than a decade of experience in the field, her focus is on commissioning new work from artists, producing public programming, and rethinking traditional institutional models for engaging with artists and communities.
O'Keeffe is currently Senior Curator at Art Omi, an arts organization with a 120-acre Sculpture & Archictecture Park and gallery. Prior to joining Art Omi, O’Keeffe worked at the New Museum in New York from 2013-2019, most recently as Associate Curator, where she 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, 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).
With Johanna Burton, she oversaw the New Museum's residency program, working directly with artists—including A.K. Burns, Jeffrey Gibson, Carolyn Lazard, Tau Lewis, Sable Elyse Smith, and Christopher Udemezue, among others—to commission new work, develop exhibitions, and organize public programs.
She organized many public programs at the New Museum including “Gogo Graham: Eternal Peep Show,” a one-night event that premiered fashion designer Gogo Graham’s FW19 collection; and a concert celebrating the launch of DonChristian’s album Where There’s Smoke (2018). As part of a residency with RAGGA, a platform dedicated to Caribbean artists founded by Christopher Udemezue, she organized a special evening and dinner with DeVonn Francis, founder of Yardy, an organization that supports community building, justice work and healing through food.
In 2016, she organized the New Museum’s first youth summit “Scamming the Patriarchy” developed by an emerging generation of artists, writers, and activists, including BUFU, Brujas, Discwoman, and members of House of Ladosha. The summit included more than 20 workshops organized around five guiding principles: healing, self-love, skill building, political education, and empowerment.
Before joining the New Museum, she worked in the Curatorial Department at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York from 2011-2013. She has contributed to CURA, Mousse, Art Review, Topical Cream, among other publications.