Rita Keegan

Rita Keegan is an internationally recognized artist, lecturer, and archivist affiliated with Goldsmiths, University of London. She was honored with an honorary fellowship from Goldsmiths in 2022. Her academic roles include serving as a lecturer in multimedia arts and directing the African and Asian Visual Arts Archive (AAVAA) until 1994. Born in the Bronx in 1949, she studied Fine Art at the San Francisco Art Institute and relocated to London in 1980.

Her research and artistic practice focuses on memory, history, and cultural heritage, often leveraging her family’s extensive photographic archive documenting a Black Canadian middle-class family from the 1890s onward. Key contributions include co-founding the Brixton Art Gallery (1982) and establishing the Women of Colour Index (WOCI) in 1987.

Keegan’s work has been exhibited globally at institutions such as the British Museum, Studio Museum in Harlem, and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. Her honorary fellowship reflects her enduring impact on art, education, and cultural preservation.