Author: admin

Posted on

Community Outreach Placement: Healing Photo Art

While abroad, I had the extraordinary opportunity to Intern for Elaine Poggi’s Non-Profit foundation and utilize my photography for the benefit of hospitals and care-giving spaces, such as the Ronald McDonald house in Florence.

The Foundation for Healing Photo Art in Hospitals was established in the USA in 2002 by photographer Elaine Poggi, who turned her personal tragedy into a worldwide campaign to bring beautiful photos and art to hospitals. The Foundations page can be found here at Healing Photo Art. The organization has placed more than 11,000 photos in over 600 hospitals worldwide.


Through my internship, I provided Social media management, research and photography for healing purposes of patients and their families. I was able to use my travel experiences to brighten the world for others. I was also introduced to some incredible people and places during my experience as an intern.

Ronald McDonald Room in Florence Hospital
Florence Hospital
Foundation’s Contributing Photography going out to Hospitals in Need.

This photo of mine hangs in the Hospital Intercommunal Bourg-St-Andeol in France:

Kelsey Keith, Contributing Photographer
Posted on

Senscape Gallery

Visual of Sensecape Gallery

The following project was a collaborative final exhibit designed to engage the senses and foster a sense of community amongst fellow travelers abroad. It contains a virtual show-room done in Sketch Up as well as a mock press release, Artist interview, and Marketing strategy.

Copy of Senscape GalleryDownload
Posted on

Ridderhof Martin and Dupont Galleries Intern

The interns alongside Tracy Stonestreet, photographed by me:)

Internship Overview: What I did as a Gallery Intern

Internship OverviewDownload

Elevator Pitches

Each elevator pitch was written by me to introduce visitors to the gallery space and to the exhibition on display.

All Elevator PitchesDownload

The Melcher’s Gray Online Exhibition in Totality

This slideshow was included in the student-exhibition as an ode to the previous winners of the Melcher’s Gray purchase award. Each year, this award is given to students who’s artworks are purchased s by the UMW Galleries and become part of its permanent collection.

My Contribution

Below are each of my object labels as they appear in the official video above

Kelsey’s Object LabelsDownload

Participation and Engagement elements

Here is the College post from Mary Wash Day!
Me, hanging work for the Senior show!
Bracelet making post!
Posted on

Second Stage Art Camps !

Over the summer of 2023, I had the opportunity to schedule and plan two weeks of my own art camps. I planned and scheduled themed daily camp activities and ran Fairytale Camp (ages 5-10) for Second Stage. Below is a brief outline of my overall schedule.

Untitled documentDownload

I made a point to budget materials while maintaining quality projects and encouraging artistic exploration amongst the kids. They learned various art fundamentals, and I saw a lot of improved self-confidence as they engaged with each project!

I worked to create a positive learning environment by building on group dynamics and remaining encouraging in their creative endeavors!

Posted on

Blending Magazine: The Many Loves of Giacomo Puccini

Blending Magazine cover of Giacomo Puccini

Written for my Gallery and Design class, I was honored to have this article: The Many Loves of Giacomo Puccini (pg.22) selected to be part of the student- run magazine: Blending, during my time at FUA.

During my research on Giacomo Puccini, I stumbled upon a documentary Andreas Morell, entitled Dark Side of the Moon : The Other Life of Giacomo Puccini, this documentary sparked my research into just how impactful Puccini’s love life was on his operatic works. History has its rumors, and Puccini was arguably the womanizer of the century.

Article_ The Many Loves of Giocomo Puccini (1)Download


Posted on

Expression of Beauty

Older gentleman, sitting in caffè window. Black and White.

Gallery and Exhibition Design Course: Florence University of the Arts

Final Student Exhibit , Fall 2024: “Expressions of Beauty”

Curated by a classroom of Gallery Design students, the exhibition titled “Expressions of Beauty” was a semester-long project that focused on how to use a space effectively to design an exhibition that was both aesthetically cohesive within its environment and academically accessible to a broad audience. The exhibition was featured in the student run magazine: Blending (Pgs. 7-9).

The gallery space was a public, street-facing area that also served as a restaurant and café. Art students submitted their photography for the show, and it was the responsibility of students like myself to curate the submitted artworks, ensuring they were displayed in a cohesive and engaging manner within the space.

The gallery space is pictured above.

Posted on

Levitt by the Sea Exhibition

This exhibition showcased the work of the Modernist artist Alfred Levitt (1894-2000) during his summers in the artist colony of Gloucester, Massachusetts. As a class, we curated a mixture of en-plein-air and studio pieces that displayed his experimentation in the 1940s with newer European styles of Cubism and Surrealism, while also capturing the working waterfront and landscape of Gloucester as inspiration.

Through his art, Levitt transformed familiar seaside images into visually challenging and thought-provoking compositions, asking the viewer to closely inspect the intricacies of each scene. Displayed in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery at my university, this collection of almost thirty works is a love letter from Levitt to the creative spirit of Gloucester and his memories of his summers spent there.

My In-Show Object Label

Object LabelDownload

Audience Engagement Activity

To promote the exhibition, we were grouped into teams of three classmates to organize an audience engagement activity outside the gallery. In line with the beach theme, my team and I conducted a “Sand-bottling” activity. Participants signed up and created their own colorful, whimsical sand bottles, adding sea shells and small notes inside. Additionally, we collaborated with another group that offered a watercolor activity, attracting visitors to the gallery for inspiration from Levitt’s art. After the activity, we prompted guests to fill out a survey which gauged their satisfaction with the event.

Event Details

Event Images

Event Feedback

Posted on

Proto-Feminism in Fluxus Performance Art: Yoko Ono and Cut Piece

Yoko Ono on stage, performing Cut Piece

Summary of Essay

This essay delves into the background of Yoko Ono and her involvement in the Fluxus movement of the 1960s. It explores her artistic methodology during this period, and evaluates her performance Cut Piece as a proto-feminist work. Ono’s intersectional identity as a Japanese-American woman is intricately connected to this analysis, considering the historical fetishization of Asian women. While neither Ono nor her critics initially recognized Cut Piece as a feminist work, it has become culturally understood as such. By offering a concise exploration of its situational context and interpretive evolution, and exploring audience receptions of the work, this essay contends that Cut Piece actively fosters a feminist interpretation with regard to intersectionality and evaluates it as such.

Global-Modernisms-Fina-Paper-Draft-1Download
Yoko Ono, Cut Piece, 1965 performance at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York. Uploaded by J Maurício T Loures
Posted on

Hokusai’s The Mansion of the Plates

image of Hokusai's Mansion of the plates. Woman coming out of well, tailed by 8 plates.

Summary of Essay

This essay discusses the artist Katsushika Hokusai, and his renowned skill as a Ukiyo-e style woodblock-print artist. This essay focuses particularly on his work The Mansion of the Plates from the series One Hundred Ghost Tales. The print portrays the tragic tale of Okiku, a maid-servant killed by her employer, a samurai named Aoyama Tessan. The analysis delves into the visual elements of the print, emphasizing the composition, use of color, and stylistic features that characterize Hokusai’s artistic approach. It also provides context on the popularity of ghost stories, known as Kaidan, during the Edo period and highlights the cultural significance of Hokusai’s work in this context. The narrative of Okiku and her fate is explored, comparing Hokusai’s representation with other works in the same theme.

Asian-Art-Museum-paper-finished-needs-citations-1Download

image of Hokusai's Mansion of the plates. Woman coming out of well, tailed by 8 plates.
Katsushika Hokusai, Mansion of the Plates, 1831-1832, Woodblock Print. Image from Minneapolis Institute of Art.
css.php