Jess Sweeney is a wife, a mother of four, an arts educator, and an artist exploring the in-between spaces of everyday life. In her paintings of people and objects, as well as her writing, she seeks that wonderful “shine on things” that philosopher William Desmond talks about; to uncover what is often unseen.

She is also the Director of the Collegium Institute’s Ars Vivendi Arts Initiative which cultivates a space to explore the intersection of beauty, making and the life of the mind through workshops, artist retreats, and lectures. Her writing has been featured in Plough Magazine, Humanum Review, Dappled Things, Genealogies of Modernity, Everyday Mamas, The Curator Magazine, and her paintings have been on display at The Delaplaine Arts Center and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In Fall of 2025, she was an adjunct professor at Villanova teaching a class titled: The Art of Living: Art, Spaces and Learning to See.

She completed her undergraduate studies in Art History and English at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Florida and earned a Masters in Catholic Studies from the University of St. Thomas, MN, where she explored memory and childhood in the work of Terence Malick and the thought of St. Augustine. She has taught art history, Spanish, and humane letters, as well as founding and running an art & art history program for elementary and middle school students.

“The surprise of motherhood thus far has been how it has forced me and inspired me to continually find and refind myself, to let it shape me artistically and spiritually, in the process of nurturing and loving new little people.” 

She lives in West Philadelphia with her two daughters and two sons and husband, Terence, a philosopher and writer.