Barry SvigalS

Artist, architect, musician, keynote speaker and thought leader, Barry Svigals is helping communities and organizations become more creative and collaborative, making places that express who they are. Trained as both an artist and an architect, he wove those two worlds together in the founding of an architecture+art firm which he led for over 30 years.  Work, play, surprise, and fun are all part of the collective effort to infuse “making with meaning.” At the heart of it all is his passion to challenge his own creativity as well as the creativity of others in service of what is needed in the world. 

A graduate of Yale College and the Yale School of Architecture, Barry also studied sculpture at the École Nationale Supèrieure des Beaux Arts in Paris. Along the way he enjoyed another kind of education playing rock and roll in with a band that still plays today. All of that contributed to a long list of projects for diverse clients, among them major universities such as Yale, Boston College and the University of Connecticut as well as major corporations and institutions such PepsiCo and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Residential clients included Keith Richards and Patti Hansen as well as Garry Trudeau and Jane Pauley. The firm’s best known project is the Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Connecticut completed in 2016.

In addition to speaking engagements, Barry is currently preparing for an exhibition of his paintings in Italy in spring 2020 and is working on a book, How We Are Matters, which will be published in late 2019.