Professor, Art Education
PhD Art Education, The Ohio State University
MA Arts Policy & Administration, The Ohio State University
BFA Art Studio, Painting, University of Kentucky
BA Arts Administration, University of Kentucky
Professor Kathleen Keys has taught in and coordinated the BFA Art Education program since 2005. She recently served as the guest curator of the Boise Art Museum (BAM) exhibition James Castle: Perspectives, on display through January 18, 2026. Keys has long explored the life and artwork of James Castle and the role of art in early Deaf education, drawing from the historic “American Annals of the Deaf,” and conducting archival research at Gallaudet University and schools for the Deaf in Idaho, Texas, New Mexico, and Kentucky.
Professor Keys’ research has also appeared in Ceramics: Art + Perception, the Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, Visual Arts Research, Journal of Social Theory in Art Education, Studies in Art Education, Art Education: The Journal of the National Art Education Association (NAEA) and in several NAEA anthologies.
Keys has recently studied printmaking at intensive residency programs in Guanajuato City, Guanajuato, Mexico and both Florence and Venice, Italy. Keys taught with the University Studies Abroad Consortium (USAC) Program at the Universidad Naçional Andres Bello in Santiago, Chile, in 2010. And she recently served as the Peace Corps Prep Faculty Fellow with Global Learning in the Center for Global Engagement from 2023-2025.
Completing 10 years of prior service with the Boise Art Museum’s Board of Trustees, Keys rejoined the Board in 2023 and is currently serving as its President. Professor Keys served as Interim Director for the School of the Arts and Interim Associate Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences, 2018-2022, and as Department Chair of Art, Design and Visual Studies, 2016-2018.