The Rockford Art Museum Greenwich Village Art Fair offers recognition and awards each year. One juror is selected to judge the artists’ work during the fair. Awards will be presented in the categories of Best of Show, Judge’s Choice, and honorable mention.

Meet 2012 GVAF Juror Julie Ganser!

Julie Ganser is the director of advising, programs and outreach in the art department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she also earned BFA and MFA degrees. A working artist, her background mixes solid academic knowledge with practical artistic knowledge.

In 1995 Ganser was inspired by clients’ enthusiastic responses to her decorative painting business to finish her undergraduate degree. She then studied painting and installation in graduate school, and received her MFA in 2003 – the same month her oldest child graduated from high school. “It’s never too late to get started,” she says. Growing up in “small town Iowa” she found art and beauty in everyday objects. As an artist she uses a variety of recycled and other common household materials to build multi-layered paintings and installations. Due to a long-held interest in the quiet beauty of clear objects most of her work features elements of translucency or transparency.

Ganser’s work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions throughout Illinois and Wisconsin, and dozens of group exhibitions across the United States. She has been the recipient of several awards, including Audience Choice Award, Eco Byway regional juried show in 2011 at Benedicta Arts Center in St. Joseph, Minnesota; second place, the Freeport Art Museum Regional Juried Exhibition in 2010; and Best of 2-D in the 2002 Rockford Midwestern biennial exhibition at RAM.

Ganser particularly enjoys jurying regional art exhibits. Recent activities include judging the 2010 Manito Art League Annual Exhibit, Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin; curating Saving the Sanctuary in 2010 at Freeport Art Museum; and co-jurying the 2009 Beloit and Vicinity Exhibition at Wright Museum of Art, Beloit, Wisconsin.

To learn more about Julie Ganser visit her website at http://www.julieganser.com.