Hidden River Art Festival: 2008 Jurors

Amy Ruffo

Artist and Special Projects Coordinator, John Michael Kohler Arts Center.

Amy Ruffo received a B.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art and Design and an M.F.A in sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her expertise with project management was gained through education and work experience starting an artist-run exhibition space, as a project manager at a marketing communications firm, and her time at the Arts Center working as Curatorial Assistant and Special Projects Coordinator. 

She managed all aspects of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s exhibition/book/conference project, Sublime Spaces & Visionary Worlds, acting as liaison among in-house staff, publisher, designer, editor, and conference planners. Amy is currently managing an effort to expand the Arts Center's collections storage through partnerships. Amy is an accomplished artist and is a recipient of a 2006 Wisconsin Arts Board Artist Fellowship Award with recent exhibitions at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, the James Watrous Gallery, INOVA, and the Fairfield Art Center.

Annemarie Sawkins

Associate Curator, Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University

Annemarie Sawkins has been a curator at the Haggerty Museum of Art since 1999. She holds a Masters and Ph.D. in art and architectural history from McGill University, Montreal. She has taught at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and is currently an Adjunct Professor in the History Department at Marquette.

David H. Wells

Executive Director, Edenfred

David Wells has pursued interdisciplinary interests as an exhibiting artist and curator for over 30 years in both the business and non-profit sectors. He has exhibited across the United States as well as internationally.  

Wells is currently Executive Director of Edenfred, the creative residency program of the Terry Family Foundation, in Madison. In this capacity he has developed a statewide forum for arts curators, Curators Conversations at Edenfred, and curates exhibits for Edenfred and for Sundance Cinemas Madison. He has served on numerous jury panels including Art Fair on the Square, Madison, WI Arts Board grant awards, and the James Watrous Gallery of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Madison.

Wells has served as director/curator for several galleries and arts centers across the country, and regularly lectures at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and UW-Madison.