1940s
Mary Kelly is born in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
1960s
Mary Kelly studies fine art at the College of Saint Teresa in Winona, Minnesota.
1970s
1990s
Mary Kelly begins teaching in the School of Art and Architecture at UCLA, where Rodney McMillian and Catherine Opie are also teaching.
2000s
Judy Chicago, Mary Kelly, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Senga Nengudi, Miriam Schapiro, and June Wayne are included in the traveling exhibition WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
2010s
Mary Kelly joins the faculty of University of Southern California’s Roski School of Art and Design in Los Angeles, where Kori Newkirk is a visiting assistant professor.