Jim Barry

Jim Barry is the Director of Visual Arts He specializes in silk-paintings, watercolors, and etchings that are influenced by his love of science and anthropology. 

After earning his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara, Jim spent five years in Senegal, West Africa. Immersion in African culture inspired and continues to inform his art. Currently, his works are exhibited in African museums, Mali, and in various embassies and French cultural centers throughout West Africa and Tanzania. He also provides volunteer assistance and translation for African development projects, such as building web sites for African science conferences.

Jim has also has been instrumental in creating new Virtual Reality tools and Interactive Spaces working with Santiago Lombeyda and George Djorgovski at the Center for Data-Driven Discovery. He enjoys sitting in to draw on the fringes of fluid dynamics, geology, robotics, and planetary science. 

In the words of his friend and fellow artist, Walter Askin, "Art can provide a sense of expansiveness and give us a sense of infinite possibilities even when we are mindful of our limitations."