Like art itself, becoming an artist is a process. I believe that art making is an exchange of creativity and material, of thought and process, of artist and meaning.  

Lovely Shanti Kelly is an artist, researcher and teacher.  She presents her work both regionally and at international art education conferences.  She enjoys blending the boundaries of making, learning, and engagement. As an artist, her work is project based, collaborative and conceptual exploring concepts of identity, socially engaged art practice and valuing the self.  She is also a professional photographer and graphic designer. She has an M.Ed. in Art Education from Lesley University and an MA in Artist Teachers and Contemporary Practice from Goldsmiths College at the University of London.  Her contemporary art curriculum design has enabled her to work both within museums such as Dia:Beacon in New York's Hudson Valley, and as a teaching artist and museum education consultant with the Jewish Museum of London, Ben Uri Gallery.  Selected for the pilot art21 Educators program, she has been actively teaching contemporary art for over two decades.  She lives and plays with her 8 year old daughter in Oakland, CA.

Teaching Philosophy

In order to reach my goals as a teacher I have studied various approaches and styles of teaching and have found that project-based learning offers students the most access to learning and their development.  My aim as an arts educator is to co-create the learning space along with the students I teach, whereby I act as their guide and create opportunities for student choice and student driven curriculum.  This approach requires that students be participatory in their learning and make choices along the way that informs their work and brings themselves into their art making.