Growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, Professor Kelly Salchow MacArthur was always surrounded by design. Her father, Gordon Salchow, was a professor at the University of Cincinnati and had built a new curriculum and department for graphic design.
DAAP, Cincinnati’s College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning, had already produced influential artists, like Michael Beirut, a graphic designer at the firm Pentagram. Beirut and Salchow would end up crossing paths years after he’d graduated from DAAP. Beirut would be one of many designers who Salchow MacArthur would end up working with during her education.
These mentors, like Beirut and her own parents, shaped Salchow MacArthur’s path to becoming a professor of graphic design.
Salchow MacArthur describes Cincinnati: tall art deco buildings that loom over the Ohio River and city parks balancing the concrete with greenery. Although the influence of the city’s physical design almost led to a career in architecture, she found herself in the ebb and flow of visual communication. Eventually, Salchow MacArthur pursued a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design, adding to her parents’ legacy.
“I’ve always been surrounded by all sorts of design,” Salchow MacArthur said. “It’s touched every part of my life.”
As a part of her time at DAAP, Salchow MacArthur worked in six co-op positions. This let her obtain more professional experience and work in New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco. She worked at Pentagram with Beirut two times. Later, while studying for her graduate degree at the Rhode Island School of Design, she also learned from Nancy Skolos. Skolos is a designer who focuses on combining photography and design and has taught at RISD for a long time.
“[Nancy Skolos] put me on a path to collage and art,” Salchow MacArthur said. “My time with her has informed how I design on my own today. She is one of my biggest inspirations and influences.”
All the while, Salchow MacArthur had been rowing competitively. She started rowing in high school. In 1991 she competed as stroke seat in the junior national eight and four. Following this, she rowed at the University of Cincinnati, winning a national championship in the women’s varsity four.
Salchow MacArthur joined the New York Athletic Club during her time at Pentagram. In her first year at NYAC, she was named athlete of the year after she finished in 4th place at the C.R.A.S.H. B. Sprints*. When she graduated from the University of Cincinnati, she went to Philadelphia. It was here that her path to the Olympics began to ramp up.
While in Pennsylvania, Salchow MacArthur began to row with the Penn Athletic Club. At first, she focused on sweeping*. Having mainly competed in sweep boats, it made sense to continue in the category. In 1997, the eight that she spent her time in at Penn AC eventually went on to challenge and race the U.S. women’s national team’s coxed eight.
The following year, Salchow MacArthur permanently switched to sculling*.
“I have never truly gone back to sweeping,” Salchow MacArthur said. “As a smaller rower, I had more opportunities if I sculled, so I made the switch.”
1998 was the year that she moved from Philly to Augusta, Georgia, to train and compete with the national team. Her first time as an adult on the team, Salchow MacArthur won her spot in the women’s quad. She spent the next four years sculling with the quad as well as in a few other small boats.
Her first Olympic Games shortly followed. In 2000, Salchow MacArthur competed in the Sydney Summer Games, coming in fifth place. Salchow MacArthur spoke of the bond she grew to have with her quad. Training hours upon hours facilitates a unique thing, and it requires so much trust.
“I knew that they were there for me,” Salchow MacArthur said. “We relied on each other.”
Salchow MacArthur became a considerable giant in the world of sculling. Continuing her collaboration with Laurel Korlhorz, a member of her quad, she began to compete in the doubles categories. This openweight double placed second in the “B” final of the World Championships, cementing themselves as more than just elite athletes but as a duo capable of being in the top ten of two exceptional racing categories.
The 2004 Summer Olympics were the second and final games that Salchow MacArthur competed in. The focus of the quad, of all they had worked for, was more intense than it had ever been. They came in sixth, following Russia. Later, Ukraine’s quad tested positive for doping, moving the American women into fifth.
Not even two years later, Salchow MacArthur had moved to Michigan and had begun her career as a professor of graphic design at Michigan State University.
“[MSU] has been fantastic,” Salchow MacArthur said. “We create such beautiful things.”
After moving to Michigan, she began to row at the Ann Arbor Rowing Club and has continued to ever since. Mostly, she takes out her single shell and has also intermittently competed with her former doubles partner, Hilary Gehman, in the Head of the Charles regatta, coming in first in the women’s master doubles in 2015.
Since beginning her tenure at Michigan State, Salchow MacArthur has done a lot of important art and design.
Notably, she designed the Noren curtains for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, combining nature with important elements of sports. They are entitled In Sport, In Joy, In Peace, In Honour and In Hope.
“It meant a lot to me to be able to design for such a unique games. My work is always focused on flowing things together,” Salchow MacArthur said. “These curtains are a phenomenal example of that.”
Salchow MacArthur is also a member of the Culture and Olympic Heritage committee, which aims to link sports and culture.
Currently, she is spending time on spreading the knowledge of graphic design. In the same way her blades flow through the water, Salchow MacArthur focuses on the flow of the art, continuing to build and grow as she carries on her legacy of design.
