Rita Keegan facts for kids

Rita Keegan (born in 1949) is an amazing artist, teacher, and archivist. She was born in America but has lived in England since the late 1970s. Rita creates art using many different types of media, including video and digital technology. She is especially known for her important role in the UK's Black Arts Movement during the 1980s. She also worked hard to document and preserve the history of artists of color in Britain.

Rita Keegan's Life Story

Rita Morrison was born in 1949 in the Bronx, New York City. Her mother was from Dominica and her father was from Canada. She felt her childhood in the Bronx was similar to growing up in England or other Commonwealth countries.

Early Education and Art Training

Rita went to the High School of Art and Design. There, she focused on illustration and costume design. Later, she earned a degree in fine arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. Some of her teachers there were the famous photographer Imogen Cunningham and the African-American artist Mary O'Neill. In the late 1970s, Rita Keegan moved to London, England.

How Rita Keegan Creates Art

Rita first trained as a painter. But in the 1980s, she started using new ways to make art. She began to use photocopiers and computers in her 2D artworks and art installations. In 1984, she worked at "Community Copyart" in London. This place was funded by the GLC. It was a helpful center where community groups could affordably print their own materials. Artists could also use the photocopier to create unique prints.

Art Groups and Archives

Rita Keegan helped start several important artist groups. She was a founding member of the Brixton Art Gallery in 1982. She also helped create groups called Women's Work and Black Women in View. Later, she helped organize Mirror Reflecting Darkly. This was the Brixton Art Gallery's first exhibition by the Black Women Artists collective.

From 1985, Rita worked at the Women Artists Slide Library (WASL). There, she created and managed the Women Artists of Colour Index. This was a special collection of information about women artists of color. She also directed the African and Asian Visual Arts Archive from 1992 to 1994. In 2021, she had a solo art show called Somewhere Between There and Here at the South London Gallery.

Teaching and Digital Media

Rita Keegan also taught at Goldsmiths, University of London. She taught about New Media and Digital Diversity. She also helped set up a special course for college students about digital media.

Exhibitions of Rita Keegan's Art

Rita Keegan's artwork has been shown in many exhibitions. Here are some of them:

• 1983: Women's Work, Brixton Art Gallery, London
• 1985: Mirror Reflecting Darkly: Black Women's Art, Brixton Art Gallery, London
• 1990: Let the Canvas Come to Life with Dark Faces, Bluecoat
• 1991: Family Album: An exhibition by Brixton Black Women Artists, Copyart Resource Centre, London
• 1991: Four X 4 curated by Eddie Chambers, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton
• 1992: Trophies of Empire, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol and Bluecoat, Liverpool curated by Keith Piper
• 1992: White Noise: Artists Working with Sound, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
• 1993: Rites of Passage, ICA, London (solo show)
• 1995: Time Machine: Ancient Egypt and Contemporary Art, InIVA and British Museum, London
• 1997: Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966–1996, Studio Museum in Harlem, Bronx Museum of the Arts, and Caribbean Cultural Center (Manhattan), New York
• 1998: Family Histories: Eating with Our Memories, Sleeping with the Ancestors, 198 Gallery, London (solo show)
• 2006: Transformations, Lewisham Arthouse and Horniman Museum, London (solo show)
• 2021: Somewhere Between There and Here solo exhibition at the South London Gallery

See also

In Spanish: Rita Keegan para niños