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Design for Social and Environmental Impact: Kelly Salchow MacArthur speaks at CSF Seminar Series
Collective Social Futures was delighted to recently welcome Kelly Salchow MacArthur to speak at the CSF Seminar Series.
Kelly is Professor of Graphic Design at Michigan State University (MSU), a two-time Olympic rower, a two-time Olympian Artist, and a member of the IOC’s Culture and Olympic Heritage Commission. She is also a visiting researcher at UCC’S School of Education where she has worked for the past few months alongside colleagues from the school and across the university.
We recently spoke with Kelly to learn more about her work, inspirations and the topics she presented at her CSF Seminar Series talk on Creativity, Community, and Connection: Enacting Graphic Design for Social and Environmental Impact.
UCC and the School of Education
Kelly’s relationship with Ireland began with a visit to County Kerry 28 years ago, and more recently through her admiration for initiatives in Ireland like The Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, which she describes as thoughtful, community-engaged democratic practice. Her connection with UCC was cemented in 2023 at the Design Principles and Practices Conference in Lisbon, where she met Professor Fiona Chambers and Dr Briony Supple, both from UCC’s School of Education. A shared passion for sustainability, sport, and creative pedagogies laid the groundwork for a partnership that eventually brought her to Cork.
UCC’s strong environmental commitments also played a key role. As the first university in the world to receive a Green Flag from the Foundation for Environmental Education, UCC aligned closely with Kelly’s own sustainability-driven approach to design.
Settling into Cork’s creative ecosystem
Kelly represented the USA in rowing at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, an experience she credits with teaching her resilience, motivation, and the importance of teamwork. Her countless hours spent on the water also deepened her connection with the natural environment, and today she is a strong advocate for thoughtful, community-centred care of waterways. Her work is inspired by the natural environment as well as architecture, industrial design and paper engineering.
Kelly is a participant in the Olympian Artists Program, where she led a series of community based collage workshops with at risk youth in the lead up to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In 2021, she served as an Olympian Artist in Residence for the Olympic Agora in Tokyo, Japan.
2024 Olympian Artist Program
Although she arrived with a carefully planned schedule, Kelly quickly embraced the opportunities that emerged organically at UCC , saying yes to invitations, connecting with new groups, and immersing herself in life at UCC and Cork. She describes UCC, and especially the School of Education, as “supportive, warm, engaging, and creative”, a place where her work and relationships have been able to grow naturally.
During her stay, Kelly has become involved with many of UCC communities, including Collective Social Futures, the Eco-Humanities Research Group, the Sustainability Institute, IGNITE, and Quercus. Beyond campus, she has connected with the Cork Harbour Festival, WiseWater, Cork Lifelong Learning Festival, and of course the local rowing clubs. Kelly loves to take day trips and is drawn to the Irish shorelines. Along with her daughter, she has enjoyed trips to Inchadoney, Clonakilty, Kenmare, Caherdaniel, Kinsale and Garretstown where she has taken photographs and foraged for natural materials to inspire her design work.
CSF Seminar Series - Creativity, Community, and Connection recap
Among the many projects she engaged with during her time at UCC, Kelly also shared her expertise through a seminar exploring how design can meaningfully shape social and environmental futures.
Kelly’s well received seminar, Creativity, Community, and Connection, explored five case studies demonstrating how graphic design can enact social and environmental impact.
The social impact projects discussed included:
- Get Out the Vote: Empowering the Women’s Vote—a nationwide poster initiative marking the 19th Amendment centenary.
- Her work with at-risk youth in the Paris 2024 Olympian Artist Program, using photo safaris and collage to build confidence and creativity.
Empowering the Women’s Vote Catalogue
The environmental projects included:
- The Resilient Monroe Green Map Initiative, addressing food deserts and strengthening local connections.
- WasteNOT, a creative recycling project culminating in an installation made entirely from salvaged plastic.
- Her Tokyo 2020 Olympian Artist Project, featuring Noren curtains celebrating biophilia and global interconnectedness.
Care Not Convenience installation, with Jae Won Lee and Lissy Goralnik
Creative Practice Rooted in Environment
Kelly’s design practice is guided by material curiosity and a strong responsiveness to the environment. During her time in Ireland, she has been inspired by the people she has met, their respect for storytelling and tradition, and the deep connections to heritage and place.
Some of Kelly’s recent creative work in Ireland includes using foraged natural materials such as moss, lichen, wool, and seaweed, combining them with printed forms including three- dimensional constructions of Celtic knots and St Brigid’s crosses. She places sustainability at the centre of her practice, consistently using paper made from one hundred percent recycled materials and, whenever possible, sourcing paper produced locally.
Kelly plans to incorporate her Irish photographs into a forthcoming series of printed posters.
Taking the creative journey forward
Kelly is looking forward to some planned events around her work while she is still in Cork. She will exhibit her new body of work titled "Immersed," in the Civic Trust House, Musgrave Room May 11 – June 6 (in partnership with One Space Culture and the Cork Harbour Festival) - right on the River Lee, working with Ireland’s waterscapes as the theme. She will also give an Artist talk at The Glucksman, on 2 June.
When Kelly returns to Michigan, a project that has been 3 years in the making will culminate with a community celebration at Ann Arbor's Bicentennial Park. The celebration will bring local Olympians and Paralympians together with youth for a creative and active opening event of an accessible play structure. Permanent signage that Kelly researched and designed, commemorating all the local Olympians and Paralympians will frame the area.
Thank you, Kelly, for a fascinating insight into your creative work and its connection to both environment and society. We leave the final section of this article to Kelly herself, offering a personal reflection on her time at UCC in Cork.
“I would like to express my gratitude to the incredible UCC community. I know that my time here at UCC and in Ireland has changed me. I will return to the US a more balanced, inspired, informed, and connected design educator, practitioner, and researcher. I'm anxious to share what I’ve acquired and learned here with the broader community. And I look forward to continuing to work with UCC collaborators and capitalize on future opportunities.”
For those interested in discovering more about Kelly and her work, please see the link below.