Kelly Walters
Associate Professor of Communication Design
Email
kelly.walters@newschool.edu
Office Location
L - 2 West 13th Street
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Profile
Kelly Walters is a tenured Associate Professor of Communication Design, and former Director of the BFA Communication Design program (2023–2026). As an interdisciplinary designer and research scholar, her work engages with histories of Black American print publishing, material culture and archival practice. She explores these themes in her studio practice Bright Polka Dot, and looks closely at the impact of colonization on the formation of the Black image in design. In 2021, Kelly was selected as a Graham Foundation award recipient for her curated exhibition With a Cast of Colored Stars, which highlighted the evolution of racialized iconography in early 20th century Black American popular entertainment, and informs her doctoral research in the Media, Culture and Communication program at New York University. Her publications include Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators: Conversations on Design and Race and the award-winning The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression & Reflection. Kelly has taught at RISD, University of Bridgeport, University of Connecticut, and University Arts London: Central Saint Martins. From 2015–2016, she was an inaugural AICAD Postgraduate Teaching Fellow at California College of the Arts. Kelly holds an MFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a dual BFA Communication Design and BA Communication Sciences from the University of Connecticut.
Degrees Held
MFA Graphic Design, Rhode Island School of Design
BFA Communication Design, University of Connecticut
BA Communication Sciences, University of Connecticut
Recent Publications
“Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. & the Legacy of Black Printing in America,” Kelly Walters in Citizen Printer, ed. Amos Kennedy, Jr. & Letterform Archive Books (2024)
The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Reflection & Expression, Creative Director + Co-editor with Anne H. Berry, Kareem Collie, Penina Laker, Lesley-Ann Noel, Jennifer Rittner (2022)
Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators: Conversations on Design and Race (2021)
Awards And Honors
Jay and Deborah Last Fellowship, American Antiquarian Society, 2026-2027
Mellon Scholars Program in African American History Dissertation Fellowship, Library Company of Philadelphia, 2026-2027
Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography, Harvard University Houghton Library, 2026-2027
Graham Foundation Exhibition Award, "With a Cast of Colored Stars," 2021-2022
Portfolio
Bright Polka Dot