Visual Art

at the Wilson Center

Hidden River Art Festival
Jury Information

Debora Wood
Debora Wood is senior curator at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, where she takes the leading role in developing the Museum’s exhibitions and collections. She has been at the Block Museum since 1999 and her area of focus is 20th-century art and the history and study of prints. Prior to moving to Chicago, she worked for the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, the Baltimore Museum of Art in Maryland, and she was assistant professor of art at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. She holds a BFA from Cornell University and an MFA in printmaking from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Tonya Smith
Tonya Smith is Northwestern Mutual’s Corporate Art Collection Administrator, for the company’s corporate collection. She has been with Northwestern Mutual in her current role since 2001. Along with her role as Art Administrator she also works with in the Workplace Solutions Department as an Interior Designer. She holds a BFA from Mount Mary College and has extensive knowledge of Wisconsin and regional Midwest artists. Some of her recent activities include serving on the board for the Pfister Artist in Residence program and collaborating with other Wisconsin based companies to create and expand their private collections.

Reginald Baylor
Artist Reginald Baylor has exhibited extensively in Milwaukee and around the country. He was the first Pfister Hotel Artist in Residence, as well as a resident artist at Ragdale, in Lake Forest, IL. Following undergraduate work in sculpture at UW-Oshkosh, Baylor moved to southern California where he worked for both the Laguna Beach Art Museum and Newport Beach Art Museum, and began painting in acrylics. His straight edge technique was developed in California and refined following his relocation to Chicago, and eventually to Milwaukee. He currently works from his studio in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward, promoting an “open studio” concept which invites clients and the public into the space to interact and experience his work for themselves.