The UCCS Visiting Artists & Critics Series features a lineup of presentations by artists and critics of national and international significance. The program’s goal is to foster understanding and appreciation of contemporary art through dialogue and critical conversations. Each VACS lecture takes place in the Chapman Foundation Recital Hall, next door to the Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery in the Ent Center for the Arts. High-quality video recordings of each lecture are made public and archived on GOCA’s digital content platform within two weeks of each event (GOCAdigital.org).

Over the past decade, the series co-produced by the UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art and UCCS Visual Art & Art History programs has invited artists and scholars to the UCCS campus to present public lectures and meet with undergraduate students in classes and workshop settings.

The series is generously supported by the CU President’s Fund for the Humanities, Colorado Creative Industries, UCCS Student Government Association, and the Bee Vradenburg Foundation.

2024-2025 EVENTS

Thursday, April 10th, 2025, 6 - 7 p.m.

Chapman Auditorium, Ent Center for the Arts

Creativity and Uncertainty with Kealey Boyd

Ask an artist about their materials. Whether it is lumber, linen, resin or steel, volatile commodity prices are shaping American art today.  When a material becomes scarce or too expensive, artists innovate and find solutions to achieve an idea, which is why creative work drives economic growth. Yet visual artists enjoy few protections as a labor group, operate in an inefficient information market and face the consequences of every decision alone as independent, freelance, contractual workers.  Artists adapt—a very true and common response, but how they navigate the politico-economic system reveals a precarious balancing act of personal expression, financial security and career aspirations. Through published research and ongoing investigations, Kealey Boyd will examine the hopes and anxieties of visual artists from the entry point of material to illuminate how artists today are navigating an unprecedented moment and how it is changing art.

About Kealey Boyd: Boyd is an art critic and regular contributor to The Art Newspaper and Hyperallergic. She has written for The Los Angeles Times, Frieze, Art Papers, College Art Association and other publications. This year, she published an essay in the book, Artists as Writers, by Intellect Books as part of the Living and Sustaining a Creative life series. Boyd is a member of the Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art (AICA-USA). She also serves on the Executive Board of Directors for Redline Contemporary Art Center and the Board of Directors for the Women’s Studio Workshop. She has a Master of Arts in Art History and Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Chicago.