Kelly Ann Downes

She received her Bachelor of Arts in Humanities (Fine Art/History) from Michigan State University, and holds a second Bachelor of Science degree in Art Education from Southeast Missouri State University. She is currently serving on the boards of the Missouri Association of Community Arts Agencies (MACAA) and the Jack Finney Foundation, and was awarded the 2022 “Heart for Art” award by the Missouri Art Educators Association. She is also the Chair of the Cape Girardeau Public Art Committee. Kelly is a RYT 500-hour trauma-informed yoga instructor, with additional training through Yoga East Healing Arts and Mindful Schools in Non-Violent Communication, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Meditation, and Centering Prayer. She is passionate about the cross-section of art and activism, and creativity and consciousness, and is particularly interested in the ways that the Humanities can be utilized to create self-sufficient economies, and sustainable prosperity for all living beings. She is very excited to be a part of the arts in the Cape Girardeau community, and hopes that her enthusiasm for all of the arts translates into community engagement with the visual, literary, performing, culinary, and healing arts. Her life’s greatest joy is her son, Bob.