MSJ Professor Dr. Michaelann Kelley’s Photograph Selected for The Golden Ticket Exhibition

Dr. Michaelann Kelley, Associate Professor of Art & Design and Chair of theDepartment of Creative Arts at Mount St. Joseph University, has been selected to exhibit her photograph, Fog over the Ohio, in the 2026 Golden Ticket juried exhibition at Clifton Cultural Arts Center. Presented by Summerfair Cincinnati, the exhibition features 67 works by 51 regional artists selected from more than 350 submissions. Now in its 17th year, The Golden Ticket celebrates artists who live or work within 50 miles of the center, showcasing a range of artistic media and perspectives.

Adding to the fun of the experience was the opportunity to share the occasion with familiar faces from Cincinnati's arts community and the Mount: Jayne Utter, Summerfair Director; Kay Hurley, professional artist and MSJ alumna; Kathy Salchow, one of Kelley's undergraduate professors at the Mount; and Beth Brann and Doug Klocke, who also taught at MSJ, although Kelley did not take their classes. These connections made the celebration especially meaningful, bringing together people who represent different chapters of Kelley's life in the arts.

For Kelley, the photograph represents a deeply personal chapter of transition and rediscovery. After spending thirty years in Houston, Texas, building a career, friendships, and a life centered on education and the arts, she returned to the Midwest in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Quiet morning walks through local parks became opportunities to reflect, observe, and reconnect with her surroundings. With her camera, Kelley explored the emotional contrast between leaving an established life and returning home to family.

"The fog drifting over the Ohio River seemed to mirror my own uncertainty-a familiar landscape obscured by an unfamiliar future," Kelley explains in her artist statement. That uncertainty existed alongside the joy of reconnecting with family and rediscovering the places that had shaped her identity. In Fog over the Ohio, the landscape becomes an expression of both loss and belonging, loneliness and love. The drifting fog conceals and reveals, suggesting the possibilities that can emerge during periods of change.

The photograph builds on Kelley's interest in memory, place, identity, and the quiet beauty of everyday experiences. Her 2024 solo exhibition, Moments, at the Delhi Cultural Arts Center Gallery also reflected her renewed commitment to personal artmaking following her return to the Midwest. Kelley brings this connection between creative practice and lived experience into her work at the Mount. Before joining the University, she served as Director of Visual Arts for Aldine Independent School District in Houston and taught high school art for 23 years. As an artist, educator, and scholar, her work connects personal narrative, reflection, and collaborative learning.

"As an artist, educator, and Associate Professor of Art & Design at Mount St. Joseph University, I believe art provides a powerful means of understanding our lived experiences," Kelley writes. Her selection offers students an example of the continuing relationship between teaching and artistic exploration, demonstrating how observation and personal experience can become meaningful creative work.

The Golden Ticket opened November 6 and remains on view through December 4, 2026, at Clifton Cultural Arts Center, 3412 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati. Admission is free, and the Mount community is invited to experience Kelley's photograph alongside work by fellow regional artists.