Jody Clowes is the director of the Wisconsin Academy's James Watrous Gallery. With years of experience developing and curating exhibitions, running gallery programs, and writing about art, her background includes senior positions at Milwaukee Art Museum, Detroit's Pewabic Pottery, and the UW-Madison's Design Gallery. As a curator, her goal is to support each artist's vision and offer accessible, jargon-free context that helps visitors engage with the art on view, while leaving space for individual discovery and reflection. Her exhibition projects emphasize connections between contemporary art and other disciplines and issues, from environmental concerns to social and economic history, technological change, and the history of craft. Their themes range from the health of Upper Midwest forests (Logjam, 2015) and Wisconsin’s water resources (Waterways, 2015) to the preservation of heritage crafts (Vital Skills, 2013) and the art of camouflage (Deceptively Simple, 2008). Jody spent her formative years in the southeast, the mid-Atlantic, and New England, but she has learned to love the Midwestern landscape; she and her family have called Madison home since 1994. An eclectic reader, mad gardener, and stubbornly improvisational cook, Jody is happiest with her hands in the dirt.
Phone: (608) 265-2500
E-mail: jclowes(at)wisconsinacademy.org
