Kelly Yarbrough (b. Plano, TX) is an artist based in Manhattan, Kansas. Her practice is rooted in an ecosystem that includes mixed media drawing, arts administration and creating meaningful opportunities for humans to engage with their environment. She enjoys unexpected collaborations, transdisciplinary conversations, and continual learning. Kelly holds a BA with emphases in Art and English from Austin College, and an MFA from Kansas State University. She founded the Tallgrass Artist Residency in 2016 which hosts artists from a range of prairie places in the rural community of Matfield Green. She is also a Regional Field Representative and Art & Environment specialist for the Kansas Arts Commission, an Artist INC peer facilitator, a Konza Prairie docent, a TEDx Austin College presenter, and a 2023 PLAYA Wildfire + Water resident. 

Growing up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas formed my understanding of meaningful places as being somewhere else: a national park destination; out-of-state family; cultural hubs on the coasts. Kansas has become my chosen home because it exemplifies, to me, the opposite of this: the value of deep roots in one’s own place. This shows up for me in the tallgrass prairie which is the most altered ecosystem on the planet and whose remains are primarily in Kansas. Much of my studio practice celebrates the vitality, beauty and wildness of this often overlooked landscape through intimate and richly-layered large scale drawings. I am also fascinated by the resilience of rural communities, and how my contemporaries are showing up in these spaces in innovative or unexpected ways. This interest drives my work with the leading the Tallgrass Artist Residency program based in Matfield Green, KS (pop. 50), and other socially-engaged projects such as Burn Ball and the Kansas Field Arts Forum. My work inspires others to become more land literate of their own places and be moved to cherish them.