Art historian and critic, Kathy O'Dell, PhD, is Associate Professor of Visual Arts Emerita at UMBC, where she also served as Associate Dean of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and Special Assistant to the Dean for Education & Arts Partnerships. She is a former MSAC Councilor and Board member of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance (GBCA), where she continues to serve on the Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion Committee. She co-chairs similar committees as a Trustee of Maryland Art Place (MAP) and Board member of the Baltimore County Arts Guild. In the latter role, she serves as liaison to the Advisory Board of the Catonsville Arts District, which is currently implementing a Public Art Master Plan, forged with guidance from Art Builds Community, a California-based consultancy group. She was the Chair of the the Higher Education in the Arts Task Force (HEAT Force) of Arts Education in Maryland Schools (AEMS) for over a decade and has been on the Exhibits Committee of the Howard County Center for the Arts for over two decades. Her writing, curating, and teaching have focused on performance art, women’s art, issues of violence, and the importance of the esoteric. Author of the book Contract with the Skin: Masochism, Performance Art, and the 1970s, exhibition catalog Kate Millet, Sculptor: The First 38 Years, and exhibition brochure Gun Show on the work of Baltimore sculptor David Hess. She is currently working on a book titled Dot: A Small History of a Big Point.
