Those of us with offices in Godwin Hall routinely pass The Barclay Sheaks Gallery adjacent to the Welcome Center in the main lobby. Visitors to Virginia Wesleyan browse the Gallery while waiting for appointments. Few may realize the prominence of the collection in the Hampton Roads Community and its historical significance to Virginia Wesleyan.
Established in 1999, The Barclay Sheaks Gallery is named after nationally renowned painter and founder of the Virginia Wesleyan College Art Department, Professor Barclay Sheaks. As an artist, Sheaks is best known for his acrylic paintings of waterfront scenes, wetlands, farmlands and people of the Chesapeake Bay.
His "work is eloquent testimony to how perseverance and diligence combine with creativity and inspiration to create lasting objects," notes Joyce Howell, Professor of Art History, who is the collection's curator. This talented artist and professor had a profound and lasting effect not only on the arts community but on the many students he inspired and mentored.
Professor Sheaks was a member of the Virginia Wesleyan faculty for 36 years, retiring as Associate Professor and Distinguished Artist-in-Residence in 2006. He passed away in 2010 at the age of 81 after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease.
Professor Sheaks donated approximately 50 of his paintings to establish The Barclay Sheaks Gallery, which opened in the summer of 2000. View the Barclay Sheaks Collection.
Barclay Sheaks was born in West Bend, Indiana, in 1928 and grew up in the Shenandoah Valley. He completed his undergraduate work at Richmond Professional Institute, earned a Master of Fine Arts from the College of William and Mary, and was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Christopher Newport University. Professor Sheaks began his teaching career in 1948 at Warwick High School in Newport News, Virginia. In 1967 he left Warwick High School to found the art program at Virginia Wesleyan College.
Over the course of his career, he also served as artist-in-residence for both the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Richmond Humanities Center. He became a familiar face across the nation as he managed and hosted an acrylic-painting television show on public television. He was a pioneer in acrylics and wrote extensively on the medium and his techniques.
Professor Sheaks lived most of his life in the Hilton Village section of Newport News, Virginia, or at his summer home on the river in Poquoson, Virginia. An outdoors enthusiast as well as an artist, he was inspired by the distinctive natural environment of the Chesapeake Bay.
His work has appeared in distinguished museum, university, corporate and private art collections worldwide including the Butler Institute of American Art, Columbia Museum, and the Chrysler Museum of Art. Professor Sheaks’ works were also prominently featured in exhibitions sponsored by the American Watercolor Society, the National Academy of Design, the Corcoran Gallery, the Smithsonian Institution, and others.
The gallery named for this memorable and influential artist and scholar is available for all of us to enjoy. If you haven't had the opportunity to enjoy the collection, please take a few moments to do so. It's one of the unique and inspiring features of our beautiful campus.
