Ketsia Leroy has been working as a facilitator at Gateway Arts since March of 2023.  

A graduate of the College of the Holy Cross, Ketsia is a Certified Boston Artist and runs her own brand, Afros & Crowns. Through this enterprise, she sells a variety of merchandise emblazoned with her original designs, which celebrate Black beauty and Black bodies. Alongside managing her brand, Ketsia creates digital artworks and paintings. She regularly works on clothing, as well as on canvas and paper. Through both figurative and purely abstract works, Ketsia explores a variety of ways in which color and texture can be employed to emphasize features and ideas. 

Ketsia Leroy. Untitled. 2022. digital art. 2048 x 2048 px.

Ketsia knew she wanted to work in a creative field and, upon visiting Gateway Arts, she was moved by the amount and variety of art and the way that she felt immediately comfortable in the environment. As a “float” facilitator, Ketsia works across all seven studios, as needed, requiring high levels of organization and flexibility. She maintains a spreadsheet where she tracks all the projects that artists are working on with her, from start to finish. 

Ketsia Leroy. Emerald Forest. 2023. acrylic on canvas. 18 x 24 in.

Always up for experimenting with new media and processes herself, Ketsia encourages artists to do the same. She can often be seen wearing her own creations, which sparks conversations with artists about new techniques they can learn and new ways they can promote themselves. She loves being surprised by the ways in which artists put their own spin on various techniques. While she may introduce artists to new mediums and ways of working, what they produce is always uniquely their own. Likewise, Ketsia has taken new techniques she’s learned at Gateway Arts and incorporated them into her own practice. She serves as a guide and an example as artists work to achieve their own goals.