Gemey Kelly

Gemey Kelly

My research considers the art of Atlantic Canada in the twentieth century within the discourses of regionalism and the nationalization of culture. Before beginning my PhD in Cultural Mediations at Carleton in 2018, I was an art museum curator at the Owens Art Gallery and Adjunct Professor of Canadian art history at Mount Allison University. I have undergraduate degrees in English Literature from the University of Toronto, and in Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

The interdisciplinary approach of the ICSLAC doctorate enables me to bring together my practice in the fields of curation and critical museology with my background in visual art, and to work across disciplines including Art History, English Language and Literature, and Canadian and Indigenous Studies.

My research has been supported by a National Gallery of Canada Research Fellowship in Canadian Art, and the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation Advanced Studies Scholarship.

Recent and Upcoming Conference Presentations

“Regionalism and the Nationalization of Canadian Culture in a Modern World, 1930-1960.” Paper to be presented at Regions and Regionalism in Canada: Constructing and Managing Political, Social and Cultural Territory, Annual International Conference of the French Association of Canadian Studies, Université de Caen, Normandie, France, 2021.

“The Ties That Bind: The Found Object in Eric Walker’s Trains.” Heritage Intersections: People and Placemaking, 14th Annual Graduate Student Heritage Conservation Symposium, Canadian and Indigenous Studies, Carleton University, 2019.

“The Poetry of My Delight: Lillian June Kelly (1921-1978).” Resurfacing: Women Writing across Canada in the 1970s. Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, 2018.