Judy Gelles received her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and holds a Masters in Counseling from the University of Miami.
Her work is held in 25 permanent public collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She exhibits widely including Los Angeles’ Skirball Cultural Center and the National Portrait Gallery London.
Judy Gelles began her photographic career by documenting her life as a mother with two young children. Early on she began to add text to her photographs, a practice that has endured throughout her career. Gelles continued to work with feminist themes exploring her family history and her own life. When her sons went off to college, she expanded her focus but continued to use the personal lens to explore socio-political themes.
Gelles has received many awards including a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts SOS Grant, a Rhode Island State Council on The Arts Grant, a William Penn Foundation Grant, an Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts, and a MacDowell Colony Fellow Artist Residency.
Gelles has taught at Boston College, Tufts University and the University of the Arts, Philadelphia.
The mission of the Fourth Grade Project is to achieve greater empathy and understanding by documenting and sharing the hopes and fears of fourth graders around the world.
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