Staff
Jocelyn Leighton is a queer human who uses she/they pronouns. As an INFJ, she uses her intuitive and feeling powers as a way to intrinsically navigate the world. Originally from Downeast Maine, land belonging to the Passamaquoddy Tribe, Jocelyn loves to travel and has been to many different places that have stirred her soul. They are an artist, performer, writer and is currently working on their Master’s degree in Gender and Cultural Studies at Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts. Jocelyn wrote and performed a piece titled The Unkindest Cut which was in PortFringe 2019 and they author/manage the website Getting to Know Jane Doe. Along with being a fastidious office manager at SPACE, Jocelyn’s work also includes normalizing gender pronouns in professional spaces, as was part of her previous role as Visitor and Member Experience Supervisor at the Portland Museum of Art. Jocelyn lives in South Portland with her two kitties, Mere and Pippen.
Kelsey Halliday Johnson (she/they) is a cultural organizational strategist, interdisciplinary curator, artist, and writer from Philadelphia, living in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Prior to SPACE, Johnson worked as a museum curator, performance and live art coordinator, archaeological ceramic collection specialist, community radio DJ, art collective member, art publishing intern, and instructor at the University of Pennsylvania and Interlochen Center for the Arts. A graduate of Princeton University, The University of Pennsylvania, and Wesleyan University, Johnson’s research has included the aesthetics and rhetoric of fascism, the intersection of art and technology, and the body as a political instrument in performance. Her 2016-2017 multi-site independent curatorial project Making/Breaking the Binary: Women, Art & Technology (1968-85) garnered support from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and activated organizations throughout the Philadelphia region to explore women-identifying artists ahead of the personal computing age. Her writing was most recently commissioned for the Common Field “Field Perspectives 2019” with Title Magazine.
When not reading books or getting outside, Kelsey is passionate about volunteering for queer and reproductive justice, in addition to serving on the Executive Committee of Sierra Club Maine, the Collections Committee of the Portland Museum of Art, and the Cultural Steering Committee for the City of Portland. She actively identifies as an ambivert and has been known to be quite taken with novelty office supplies.
Julia Whyel is an Independent Media Producer, archivist and visual artist. She came to Portland, Maine for a three month visit and nine years later, here she still is. Most of her production works centers on documentary approaches to addiction and recovery, fashion, and concepts of community. Julia holds a BA in Media Studies from University of Southern Maine and is rounding the bend on her MA in Museum Studies at Johns Hopkins University. When she isn’t feasting on the SPACE archives you can find her cartwheeling around the city, state, country, and globe.