ABOUT ME

Photo credit: Photographer, Joseph Labolito / Art Direction, Olivia Menta
When Lisa Kay was a little girl, she took great delight in playing in her grandmother's button box creating art with found objects. Throughout her childhood she frequently constructed aesthetic responses to class assignments. Her passion for art continued in high school when she served as “art” historian, visually documenting events and accomplishments of Rose Belz Kriger BBG winning an International Award for the project. Her art teacher encouraged her aesthetic sensibilities and inspired her to study art in college.
​
Dr. Lisa Kay, Professor, is Chairperson, Department of Art Education and Community Arts Practices, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University and earned an Ed.D. from Northern Illinois University. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate art education and art therapy courses at Tyler, Lisa has taught art therapy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Moholy Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, Hungary.
​
Prior to completing her doctorate, Lisa earned two degrees from the University of Memphis - a B.F.A. in Graphic Design and an M.A. in Individual Studies, a degree that combined coursework in sociological, psychological and special education theories with Art Therapy. After completing her master’s, she finished a 2-year post-graduate certificate at the St. Louis Institute of Art Psychotherapy and became a Registered Art Therapist.
​
She considers art, teaching, and therapy as an integral part of her art practice. A board-certified art therapist, Lisa’s research interests combine her curiosity about artistic development, the psychology of child art, artists with disabilities and the healing potentials of the creative arts with children, adolescents and adults. Her publications concern the intersections and collaborations of contemporary art education and school art therapy, art making with adolescents who have experienced trauma and adversity, and the use of creative arts and visual imagery as both pedagogical and research methods. Lisa’s recent book Therapeutic Approaches in Art Education brings together ideas and resources from her art education research and art therapy practice.
​
​
​

Lisa Kay is an artist/researcher, art educator, and art therapist whose creative voice is manifested in and enhanced by the integration of these three identities. The approach is similar to that of how an artist paints a triptych; each panel stands alone yet is part of the larger canvas. Her academic life has provided rich opportunities and pursuits; however, those things that nurture and provide Lisa the greatest joy are creative endeavors with art education and creative arts therapy students and colleagues.
​
She enjoys gardening, flea markets, long road trips on blue highways and hikes in the woods with Scott, her husband and Moose, their dog and creating in her studio and the kitchen.
