An Inquiry into Theorizing Community-based Art: A Curatorial Perspective

Bill Kelley, Jr. will be speaking as the keynote in conjunction with the Art and Education for Social Justice Symposium and Visiting Artist Series at UGA.

Bill Kelley, Jr. is an educator, curator and writer based in Los Angeles. He holds a Ph.D. in Art History, Theory and Criticism from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and a Masters in Art History from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (UNM).  His current research focuses on collaborative and collective art practices in the Americas. Bill has written for such journals as Afterall, P.E.A.R., and Log Journal. He served as co-curator of the 2011 Encuentro Internacional de Medellín (MDE11) and was the former Director and Co-Editor of the online bilingual journal LatinArt.com. He currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latino art history at California State University Bakersfield (CSUB). Bill has co-edited an anthology with Grant Kester of collaborative art practices in the Americas entitled: Collective Situations: Readings in Contemporary Latin American Art 1995-2010 (Duke University Press, 2017). He is currently Curator and Lead Researcher of Talking to Action: Art, Pedagogy and Activism in the Americas, a research, exhibition and publication platform, currently on tour, examining community-based art practices for Otis College of Art as part of The Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative. A bilingual, edited volume Talking to Action: Art, Pedagogy and Activism in the Americas was published by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and distributed by the University of Chicago Press (2017).