John O'Connor
 | |  |
John A. O'Connor
oconnorjart@bellsouth.net
Professor of Art, Emeritus, University of Florida
Founder, Executive Director, Emeritus, Center for
the Arts and Public Policy
Founder, Executive Director, Emeritus, Florida
Higher Education Arts Network
Career Summary
John A. O’Connor received his A.B. with Honors
(minors in foreign language [Spanish] and
mathematics) in 1961 and his M.A.A. in 1963 in
painting and drawing from the University of
California-Davis.
He taught art at the University of California-Davis
from 1961-63, the University of California-Santa
Barbara from 1963-64, Blake College, Valle de
Bravo, Mexico from 1964-65, and Ohio University,
Athens from 1965-69. From 1969, he taught art at
the University of Florida (UF), Gainesville. He was
named Professor of Art in 1985, a position he held
until his retirement in 2005. During his time at the
University of Florida, he taught courses in painting,
drawing, art history, art law, and arts policy. He
also originated, implemented, and taught in the M.B.
A. Degree with Specialization in Arts Administration
Program. In 1987-88, he was the Acting Chairman
of the Department of Art.
While on Sabbatical and a leave of absence from
the University of Florida in 1980-82, John A.
O'Connor was Director of the Appalachian Center
for Crafts, the nations largest and most
comprehensive crafts facility, and a Division
Director of the Tennessee Arts Commission. In
1983-84 and 1988-89, he served as the Faculty
Program Consultant to the Florida Board of Regents.
During these years, he conducted the first and
second program reviews of the Visual and
Performing Arts in Florida’s nine state universities.
This process included arranging for and supervising
nationally prominent arts administrators who
participated in on-site reviews at all nine
universities to examine sixty-four arts programs. He
coordinated the consultant’s reports, wrote the
executive summaries, and interpreted the
consultants’ recommendations and findings for
presentation to the State Board of Regents. He also
served as Consultant on the Arts to the State
University System of Florida from 1984-95.
He has directed two university art galleries: the
Memorial Union Gallery at the University of
California-Davis in 1962-63 and the University Art
Gallery, Ohio University, Athens, in 1967-68. He
also served on the committee that established the
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at the University of
Florida. His art gallery publications include Young
Artists, John A. O’Connor, ed., University of
California, Davis, 1962; Graphics 1968—Ultimate
Concerns, John A. O’Connor, ed., Ohio University,
Athens, 1968; David Hostetler, Yousuf Karsh, Dana
Loomis, John A. O’Connor, ed., Ohio University,
Athens, 1968; and Roland Petersen and Ralph
Johnson, John A. O’Connor, ed., Ohio University,
Athens, 1968.
John A. O’Connor is an artist who believes that it is
very important to re-establish the artist’s historical
contributions to the formation of public policy. He
founded, and was the Director of the nation’s first
arts policy center, the CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND
PUBLIC POLICY (CAPP) at the University of Florida
from 1987-2005. This center includes the UF
Colleges of Fine Arts, Arts and Sciences, Law,
Business Administration, Architecture, Engineering,
Health Sciences Center, Harn Museum of Art,
Florida Museum of Natural History, and the Phillips
Center for the Performing Arts. During this time,
CAPP received numerous grants from various
agencies including the Florida Humanities Council
(FHC) and the Division of Cultural Affairs (DCA),
Florida Department of State for programs that dealt
with humanities and arts policy issues. A sample of
programs sponsored or co-sponsored by CAPP
includes Art and Healing; Controversial Public Art,
the Legal and Ethical Dimensions; Censorship and
Obscenity in the Arts: Public Attitudes/Legal
Problems; Before and After Columbus: The Use and
Misuse of the Past; Women in the Nineties: Sex,
Power and Politics; and Culture and Art and the
Livability of Communities.
O’Connor also founded, and was the Executive
Director of the Florida Higher Education Arts
Network (FHEAN) from 1985-2005, the first
statewide network of education policy leaders in all
the arts in public and private higher education in the
United States. In 2000, he co-edited Health
Problems in the Arts: The Impact of Arts Practice,
Materials, and Environments on Students, General
Participants, and Professionals–the first book-length
manuscript ever to include health problems in all
the arts. This program was co-sponsored and
funded by CAPP, FHEAN, DCA, UF Colleges of
Medicine and Fine Arts and others. In May 2005, he
received FHEAN’s highest honor, the Lifetime
Achievement Award.
He has had thirty-four solo exhibitions of his
paintings—including a retrospective entitled Real
Illusions: John O’Connor’s Blackboards and Their
Origins (with works from 1968-98) that was
organized in 1998 by the Cornell Fine Arts Museum
at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and
subsequently shown at the Schmidt Center Gallery
at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton in 1999,
the Thomas Center Main Gallery in Gainesville,
Florida in 1999, and at the Kendall Campus Art
Gallery at Miami-Dade Community College, Florida
in 2000. A selection of the “blackboards” from that
exhibition executed between 1985-98,
supplemented with works from 1999-2001, was
exhibited in 2002 at the Alexander Brest Museum at
Jacksonville University, Florida in an exhibition
entitled Palimpsests. Other recent retrospective
exhibitions include John A. O’Connor: Conceptual
Realism 1968-2003, held at the Pensacola Museum
of Art, and the University of West Florida in 2003
and John A. O’Connor: Conceptual Realism 1968-
2005, at the University Gallery, University of
Florida, Gainesville, in 2005. These retrospective
exhibitions were accompanied by a twenty-four
page catalog with an introduction by August
Freundlich, President of the Richard Florsheim Art
Fund, essays by Richard Vine, Managing Editor, Art
in America and by Peter Frank, Editor of Visions art
quarterly and art critic for L.A. Weekly. In 2005, he
also had a retrospective of earlier works from 1960-
80 entitled My Art, My Life: Twenty Years of
Paintings by John O’Connor, held at the Thomas
Center Main Gallery, Gainesville, Florida.
John A. O'Connor's art has also been exhibited in
more than two hundred group shows—including the
33rd International Festival of Painting at the
Château Musée (Mediterranean Museum of
Contemporary Art), Cagnes-sur-Mer, France (one of
sixteen American artists invited), and the 50th
Annual All Florida Invitational at the Boca Raton
Museum of Art (one of fourteen Florida artists
invited in 2001). His paintings and drawings are
included in major public and private collections
nationwide. He has received numerous awards
including a Southern Arts Federation/National
Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1992-93, a
State of Florida Individual Artist’s Fellowship in 1991-
92, and in 2002-03, a University of Florida
Professorial Excellence Program Award in 1998-99,
and University of Florida College of Fine Arts grants
for artistic exploration from the Fine Art and
Humanities Scholarship Enhancement Fund in 2001-
02, and in 2003-04.
He has published other articles including “Unbottle
Your Creative Ideas—A Cooperative Venture of
Engineering and Art,” by John A. O’Connor and G.
E. Nevill, Journal of the American Society for
Engineering Education, 1972; “Learning to Design
with Other Disciplines: Some Experiments in
Teaching Mixed Discipline Classes,” by John A. O’
Connor, Sixth Annual Design Conference, Detroit,
Michigan, 1973; and “The Public Art Process in
Gainesville: A Case History or How a Model Process
Went Sour,” by John A. O’Connor, Journal of Arts
Law, Management and Society, 1992.
Art South/Art 4 Business in Philadelphia currently
represents John A. O’Connor. He is listed in Who’s
Who in American Art and in numerous additional
biographical directories.
oconnorjart@bellsouth.net
Professor of Art, Emeritus, University of Florida
Founder, Executive Director, Emeritus, Center for
the Arts and Public Policy
Founder, Executive Director, Emeritus, Florida
Higher Education Arts Network
Career Summary
John A. O’Connor received his A.B. with Honors
(minors in foreign language [Spanish] and
mathematics) in 1961 and his M.A.A. in 1963 in
painting and drawing from the University of
California-Davis.
He taught art at the University of California-Davis
from 1961-63, the University of California-Santa
Barbara from 1963-64, Blake College, Valle de
Bravo, Mexico from 1964-65, and Ohio University,
Athens from 1965-69. From 1969, he taught art at
the University of Florida (UF), Gainesville. He was
named Professor of Art in 1985, a position he held
until his retirement in 2005. During his time at the
University of Florida, he taught courses in painting,
drawing, art history, art law, and arts policy. He
also originated, implemented, and taught in the M.B.
A. Degree with Specialization in Arts Administration
Program. In 1987-88, he was the Acting Chairman
of the Department of Art.
While on Sabbatical and a leave of absence from
the University of Florida in 1980-82, John A.
O'Connor was Director of the Appalachian Center
for Crafts, the nations largest and most
comprehensive crafts facility, and a Division
Director of the Tennessee Arts Commission. In
1983-84 and 1988-89, he served as the Faculty
Program Consultant to the Florida Board of Regents.
During these years, he conducted the first and
second program reviews of the Visual and
Performing Arts in Florida’s nine state universities.
This process included arranging for and supervising
nationally prominent arts administrators who
participated in on-site reviews at all nine
universities to examine sixty-four arts programs. He
coordinated the consultant’s reports, wrote the
executive summaries, and interpreted the
consultants’ recommendations and findings for
presentation to the State Board of Regents. He also
served as Consultant on the Arts to the State
University System of Florida from 1984-95.
He has directed two university art galleries: the
Memorial Union Gallery at the University of
California-Davis in 1962-63 and the University Art
Gallery, Ohio University, Athens, in 1967-68. He
also served on the committee that established the
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at the University of
Florida. His art gallery publications include Young
Artists, John A. O’Connor, ed., University of
California, Davis, 1962; Graphics 1968—Ultimate
Concerns, John A. O’Connor, ed., Ohio University,
Athens, 1968; David Hostetler, Yousuf Karsh, Dana
Loomis, John A. O’Connor, ed., Ohio University,
Athens, 1968; and Roland Petersen and Ralph
Johnson, John A. O’Connor, ed., Ohio University,
Athens, 1968.
John A. O’Connor is an artist who believes that it is
very important to re-establish the artist’s historical
contributions to the formation of public policy. He
founded, and was the Director of the nation’s first
arts policy center, the CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND
PUBLIC POLICY (CAPP) at the University of Florida
from 1987-2005. This center includes the UF
Colleges of Fine Arts, Arts and Sciences, Law,
Business Administration, Architecture, Engineering,
Health Sciences Center, Harn Museum of Art,
Florida Museum of Natural History, and the Phillips
Center for the Performing Arts. During this time,
CAPP received numerous grants from various
agencies including the Florida Humanities Council
(FHC) and the Division of Cultural Affairs (DCA),
Florida Department of State for programs that dealt
with humanities and arts policy issues. A sample of
programs sponsored or co-sponsored by CAPP
includes Art and Healing; Controversial Public Art,
the Legal and Ethical Dimensions; Censorship and
Obscenity in the Arts: Public Attitudes/Legal
Problems; Before and After Columbus: The Use and
Misuse of the Past; Women in the Nineties: Sex,
Power and Politics; and Culture and Art and the
Livability of Communities.
O’Connor also founded, and was the Executive
Director of the Florida Higher Education Arts
Network (FHEAN) from 1985-2005, the first
statewide network of education policy leaders in all
the arts in public and private higher education in the
United States. In 2000, he co-edited Health
Problems in the Arts: The Impact of Arts Practice,
Materials, and Environments on Students, General
Participants, and Professionals–the first book-length
manuscript ever to include health problems in all
the arts. This program was co-sponsored and
funded by CAPP, FHEAN, DCA, UF Colleges of
Medicine and Fine Arts and others. In May 2005, he
received FHEAN’s highest honor, the Lifetime
Achievement Award.
He has had thirty-four solo exhibitions of his
paintings—including a retrospective entitled Real
Illusions: John O’Connor’s Blackboards and Their
Origins (with works from 1968-98) that was
organized in 1998 by the Cornell Fine Arts Museum
at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and
subsequently shown at the Schmidt Center Gallery
at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton in 1999,
the Thomas Center Main Gallery in Gainesville,
Florida in 1999, and at the Kendall Campus Art
Gallery at Miami-Dade Community College, Florida
in 2000. A selection of the “blackboards” from that
exhibition executed between 1985-98,
supplemented with works from 1999-2001, was
exhibited in 2002 at the Alexander Brest Museum at
Jacksonville University, Florida in an exhibition
entitled Palimpsests. Other recent retrospective
exhibitions include John A. O’Connor: Conceptual
Realism 1968-2003, held at the Pensacola Museum
of Art, and the University of West Florida in 2003
and John A. O’Connor: Conceptual Realism 1968-
2005, at the University Gallery, University of
Florida, Gainesville, in 2005. These retrospective
exhibitions were accompanied by a twenty-four
page catalog with an introduction by August
Freundlich, President of the Richard Florsheim Art
Fund, essays by Richard Vine, Managing Editor, Art
in America and by Peter Frank, Editor of Visions art
quarterly and art critic for L.A. Weekly. In 2005, he
also had a retrospective of earlier works from 1960-
80 entitled My Art, My Life: Twenty Years of
Paintings by John O’Connor, held at the Thomas
Center Main Gallery, Gainesville, Florida.
John A. O'Connor's art has also been exhibited in
more than two hundred group shows—including the
33rd International Festival of Painting at the
Château Musée (Mediterranean Museum of
Contemporary Art), Cagnes-sur-Mer, France (one of
sixteen American artists invited), and the 50th
Annual All Florida Invitational at the Boca Raton
Museum of Art (one of fourteen Florida artists
invited in 2001). His paintings and drawings are
included in major public and private collections
nationwide. He has received numerous awards
including a Southern Arts Federation/National
Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1992-93, a
State of Florida Individual Artist’s Fellowship in 1991-
92, and in 2002-03, a University of Florida
Professorial Excellence Program Award in 1998-99,
and University of Florida College of Fine Arts grants
for artistic exploration from the Fine Art and
Humanities Scholarship Enhancement Fund in 2001-
02, and in 2003-04.
He has published other articles including “Unbottle
Your Creative Ideas—A Cooperative Venture of
Engineering and Art,” by John A. O’Connor and G.
E. Nevill, Journal of the American Society for
Engineering Education, 1972; “Learning to Design
with Other Disciplines: Some Experiments in
Teaching Mixed Discipline Classes,” by John A. O’
Connor, Sixth Annual Design Conference, Detroit,
Michigan, 1973; and “The Public Art Process in
Gainesville: A Case History or How a Model Process
Went Sour,” by John A. O’Connor, Journal of Arts
Law, Management and Society, 1992.
Art South/Art 4 Business in Philadelphia currently
represents John A. O’Connor. He is listed in Who’s
Who in American Art and in numerous additional
biographical directories.