I think under appreciated artists are
always there. We just have to find them.
My name is Kelly Jones. I'm an art
historian and a curator. The goal of my
work is to expand what we understand
modern and contemporary art to be. I grew
up around artists. I realized there was a
role for people who are not artists to
work with artists, to work with art, and
help bring the arts and especially the
diversity of the arts into view. I can't
say that I knew what I was doing, but
what I did know was that I grew up
around a lot of diverse artists:
African-American artists, Latino artists
Latin american artists that were very
underappreciated in the histories that I
read. I want to bring these objects into
view for students, for myself, for others, 
for critics to actually see that's what
I tried to do in my exhibition "Now Dig
This"
There are some artists, well particularly
one who is very well known, who had a
start in California which is David
Hammons. David Hammons is a global art
star. I knew he wasn't a lone wolf, right.
He was somebody who had a community so
that led me for many years to look at
who are the rest of the artists in that
community. Of course Noah Purifoy is one,
William Pajaud is another, Maren Hassinger
 
and Senga Nengudi.
My work as an art historian and my work
as a curator go hand-in-hand. Without the
exhibition component, there is no art
history. The objects that I work with
the artist that I work with are under
known, undiscovered so you really have to
bring the work out in to view in a
gallery setting, in a museum setting. When
F first got the call from the MacArthur
Foundation, I was floating. I was in
disbelief that the field that I've
worked in for many many years was
validated in such a major way. I think
it's really important to the field of
art history to finally be able to
acknowledge that there are art histories
that are global and that art history
isn't just written in Europe.
