Arts and Architecture

The College of Arts and Architecture recently relaunched its alumni interview series, “Movers, Shakers, Designers, Makers,” featuring conversations with Olympic athlete and Landscape Architecture alumnus Dan Barefoot and with ceramicist and Art Education alumnus Sharif Bey.

The series features B. Stephen Carpenter II, Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Dean, talking to Arts and Architecture alumni about their lives and careers. The series started in 2021 as a way to facilitate community during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to offer viewers insight into the diverse career pathways taken by the college’s alumni. All interviews are available on the College of Arts and Architecture’s YouTube channel.

A Team USA member, Barefoot competed in skeleton at the Winter 2026 Olympics. Skeleton is a winter sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled — called a skeleton bobsled — down a frozen track while lying face-down and head-first. He discovered skeleton about 10 years ago when looking for winter activities in the Philadelphia area, where he was living at the time. A Johnstown native, Barefoot now works remotely as a landscape architect for V3 Companies, which allows him to train in Lake Placid, New York.

Bey, who earned his doctoral degree in art education at Penn State, is a professor of art at Syracuse University. His ceramic and mixed-media work explores the visual traditions of African and Oceanic art and African American culture. Bey’s works are featured in numerous public collections, including a recent acquisition to the Palmer Museum of Art. A Pittsburgh native, he has a solo exhibition, “Sharif Bey: Homecoming,” on display at the Andy Warhol Museum through Oct. 12.