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SOAR Profile - Kelsey King

Name: Kelsey King 
Major/minor: Art Education/French and English
 Expected date of graduation: Spring 2014 
Hometown: Medford, N.J. 
Activities: Chair of the Events Council of USG, a Writing Center tutor, and member of Gamma Sigma Sigma, NAEA, the Art Club, 26 Points and ECO Club. 
Project title: Using A Children’s Art Exhibit As A Curriculum Strategy 
Project advisor: Kristin Baxter

While Kelsey King’s SOAR project, “Using A Children’s Art Exhibit As A Curriculum Strategy,” might have taken the summer to prepare, it’s actual conclusion came a few months later.

As part of her SOAR project, King curated a children’s art exhibit for the annual Pennsylvania Art Education Association (PAEA) conference in October 2013. Her responsibilities for the show included corresponding with Pennsylvania teachers, storing, cataloging and hanging the work, and overseeing attendance at the conference. If that were not enough, she also created a gallery guide for educators to use when taking students to galleries.

“This guide is an instructional tool to help inspire and strengthen curriculum that incorporates gallery experiences into everyday teaching,” Kelsey explains.

When Baxter brought forward the opportunity to curate the exhibit for the PAEA conference, Kelsey jumped at the chance. “This assignment has provided me the chance to combine my organizational skills, my writing skills, as well as my creative and pedagogical intuitions and knowledge,” she says.

It’s a fitting apprenticeship for someone who plans to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and eventually teach art. Moving forward, King plans to continue to study ways teachers can incorporate various experiences into the classroom. “My research has inspired me to find more everyday, out-of-the-classroom experiences that can be used to benefit classroom learning,” she concludes.