Jeffrey Beekman

Jeff Beekman took over as director of the University of Arizona School of Art on July 1, 2026, bringing nationally recognized leadership as the school nears its centennial in 2027. He came to the U of A from Florida State University, where he chaired the Department of Art since 2023 and held other roles since 2013, including associate chair and director of Foundations and BA programs. As a community steward, Beekman received an Emerging Arts Administrators Fellowship by the National Council of Arts Administrators in 2023, in addition to being named a Leadership Award finalist at FSU for “those who have made a significant impact on the Tallahassee community.”

Previously, Beekman taught at the University of Oklahoma, Georgia Southern University and the University of New Mexico-Gallup. He received his BFA from the University of Florida in 2000 and his MFA from the University of New Mexico in 2005.

As an artist, he has focused his work “on our relationship with the landscapes we occupy,” including lens-based projects in recent years. He has exhibited broadly across the U.S. and internationally at venues in New Zealand, Australia, China, South Korea, Hungary, England, Ecuador, Italy and Vietnam.

In his work, Beekman has explored human and environmental trauma, including the “Florida Coastline Project” and the “Battlefield Project,” which photographically explores conflict sites in the U.S. Civil War with archival photos of soldiers projected upon the battlefields where they fought and fell. Also, Beekman has a curatorial practice, which he began while coordinating the University of New Mexico-Gallup Ingham Chapman Gallery. He counts his most notable exhibition as 2017’s “Broken Ground: New Directions in Land Art” at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts.